Since there's a lot of talk of premium vs non premium coffee these days, here's my camping coffee setup
Once a year my friends and I would get together to camp in the middle of nowhere in one friend's private land.
No power, water, bathrooms, etc. Almost everyone in tents, myself included.
As a joke, I brought my espresso machine, an inverter generator, and a thick gauge 100ft extension cord.
It ended up being a hit, I've brought it 3 or 4 years in a row now. I become the on site barista in the morning, and I'm not mad about it.
These days I have a little folding table I set up, with a tarp tied to the car and some sticks, in case of rain.
The generator is so quiet while idling, you forget it's running. Until you start extracting and it kicks up to full tilt. But still, 100 ft away, down a slight hill, it's like your neighbor 3 doors down is mowing his lawn.
I should switch to a solar setup, but, eh. I keep this for emergencies at home.
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most ecars in Australia support V2L, just get an ecar, I assume they do in the US ? although you don't have much car choice in the US, I have a BYD but maybe a Subaru ?
The batteries are so massive you barely see the SOC% move and you can often pull 3600W or so. Can also be used at home for power outages (done this when we lost power during a storm for a couple days; ran the refrigerator, router, espresso machine, USB charger and a couple plug in lamps from an extension cable for 4 days
I charge my eMTBs this way when camping, as well as run a small portable refrigerator, induction cook top and small kettle (my partner uses an Aeropress for travel coffee) and a little Nestle frother for the milk.
We charge the car off our solar panels on the roof at home 90% of the time.
Just packed the essentials… kitchen sink, espresso machine.
I’m very jealous.
Have you considered a manual espresso maker too? I just bought a Cafelat Robot (hasn’t arrived yet) and I’ve been thinking of getting a carrying case for it and my hand grinder for a travel setup in the future. I’ve seen some posts like that online, looks fun.
I'm in a weird position. I really like coffee, but, medically I can't have caffeine, so I don't NEED coffee. I drink decaf.
Not that I think y'all are only drinking for the caffeine, obviously not. But caffeine addiction is as good a reason as any to find new ways to make coffee wherever you are.
And while I'm sure you can get some really good tasty results with other types of (more portable) machines, I just don't have the enthusiasm to go out and do it. If that makes sense?
I like a latte, or an iced coffee, a few days a week maybe. If that. Some weeks I go without because I'm too busy or just forget.
The wife is more of a one cup a day kinda gal. She might be more interested in something like that, but also, in a pinch she just grabs a can of iced coffee to bring with 🤷♂️
So for now we have the one machine, and while we do buy nice local roasted beans, we also use the double wall cheater filter 😅
What can I say? I haven't gotten suuuper deep into coffee, yet. But I do appreciate good coffee, and dislike bad.
Fair enough. If you ever do want to get more into it, a manual espresso maker might be something to consider though, especially if you travel with it a lot. The Robot might not be worth the effort to try and find one (they’re quite challenging to source, they sell out within minutes of a batch being released) but Flair sells manual makers that are very well reviewed too, at several price points. Just something to think about.
My set up, of which alas I've made no photographs, is a Flair GO, a water boiler, and an induction hob. The Cafelat Robot looks cool. Would you consider doing a post once you have it unboxed and operational?
I’ll absolutely be doing a post (or several) on the Robot when I get it. I’m very excited to receive it.
Me and my wife forgot the food bag when we went camping with friends. But when we hooked up the expresso coffee machine, nobody remembers our fuck up since. Only the fact that something really hit the spot every (hungover) morning.
I have packets of Castello instant coffee that I mix with Carnation breakfast essentials and water.
Aeropress ftw