WRITTEN BY: ZOE DUMAS
Imagine: it’s a bright, cozy morning in Yosemite. You’ve just woken up to the sounds of nature--the chittering wildlife, the gentle streams in the distance--and you emerge from your tent, ready to start the day with a piping-hot cup of coffee. Traveling makes brewing coffee a lot more complicated than prepping your pour-over station at home: trying to bring the necessary equipment is daunting enough, but you may also be in a situation where you don’t have the electricity to power those machines.
There are several options when it comes to travel-centric coffee equipment: the Aeropress and good ol’ fashioned percolators are popular choices, especially for campers. But these devices take up extra space in your luggage, and some drinkers may not enjoy the taste or body of coffees brewed with those methods. You can bring a travel pour over dripper, but these are typically made of metal, silicone, or plastic, all of which can negatively affect the final product’s taste. And, with all of them, you’re left at the end with a dish that needs to be cleaned.
But there is an answer: the Lanna Travel Pour Over. Filled with the precise amount of perfectly ground coffee necessary to brew a single cup, travel pour over bags make it easy to brew no matter where you are.
Brewing with these bags is incredibly simple: just open, anchor, pour, and serve. Start by heating up your water using whatever method is available to you. Some of the more coffee-obsessed among us may opt to bring along a gooseneck kettle, but it’s not essential to bring along. While the water gets going, tear off the perforated top of the bag and open it by gently tugging on the two cardboard wings on either side. Anchor the bag on your mug of choice, making sure the wings have a proper grip so that the bag won’t fall in while you pour.
Once you’ve let your coffee bloom for thirty seconds, pour water to the top of the bag and let the coffee drain until the water above the coffee bed is gone. Repeat this pour two more times (for a total of three), then let the coffee drain completely. The whole process should take about two to two-and-a-half minutes. When that’s done, very gently remove the bag and toss it in the trash. When I say gently, I mean it, too—the saturated coffee bag can tear if you pull too hard on the wings, and no one wants a clump of grounds plopping into their fresh brew. Now all that’s left is to enjoy!
“But I don’t go camping,” you may be saying to yourself. True, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of other places a travel pour-over could serve you. Have you ever been on vacation, ready to greet the morning with your usual coffee, only to remember that your hotel only provides a single-serve coffee machine? They may have provided K-Cup® pods, but who knows what that coffee quality is like, or how long it’s been there? Instead of simply gritting your teeth through drinking any old coffee, or—gasp!—skipping the coffee all together, you could bring along some travel pour over bags.
Of course, not every day is a vacation; what about the daily grind? Many workplaces have transitioned away from the stale, brewed-four-hours-ago coffee pot to single-serve machines. The point still stands, though: is that the coffee you want to drink, or is it just the coffee being provided? Would you rather be drinking something from your favorite roastery? If you want to bring your favorite coffee to work, travel pour over kits make it simple.
In addition to being a convenient alternative to single-cup brewers, pour over bags are significantly more environmentally friendly than their K-Cup® counterparts. As we’ve come to understand the environmental impact of single-use plastics, including those used for cups and pods, many of us like to avoid these products as much as possible. This can be difficult, though, when the only coffee available is from a single-serve brewer. When you want a single cup of coffee but don’t want to harm the planet to make it, travel pour overs are a delicious alternative option.
Brewing fresh coffee can get difficult whenever you’re away from your home coffee setup, and many of the options available for brewing on the go don’t stand up to the quality we’ve come to expect. Travel pour overs are a quick and convenient brewing method that make it easy to make yourself a fresh, single cup of coffee regardless of the circumstances. Whether you plan on using them for travel, work, or just to take some of the work out of your normal brewing routine, travel pour overs are fantastic. Check your favorite roasteries—including Lanna—for pour over kits and give one a try for yourself!