Tag Archives: coffee

Hotel Coffee Making

Fill Tea Bag

Fill Tea Bag

Just put two tablespoons of coffee in the a tea bag, 12ozs. of water in the coffee maker, and brew.

Story

Single Serve Coffee Maker

Single Serve Coffee Maker

I’m travel regularly for work and always try the coffee in provided in the hotel rooms even though it’s always really bad. I finally decided to do something about this and decided to find a convenient way to make quality coffee in my hotel room.

I started by figuring out that most hotels have a single serve coffee maker that takes special pre-packaged bags of coffee. These filter bags measure approximately 2.75 inches by 3.5 inches. A quick search on Amazon.com showed that No.1 Small Tea Bags measure 3.5 by 2.5 inches. In practice it turnes out that the interior width of the tea bag is only about one inch, and therefore too small to fit two tablespoons of coffee in. The Large Tea Bags appear to be the next size up. Their width is just a little over 3 inches and the height is adjustable based on how the bag is folded. These also have a 2.5 inch interior width, so it isn’t too hard to fill them with coffee.

I took two of these bags, each filled with two tablespoons of coffee on my latest trip only to find my room had a full size coffee maker. Since the coffee maker had a flat bottom, I gave it a try anyway, setting the brew strength to the strongest and putting 12ozs. of water through. It turned out to produce a pretty good cup of coffee.

Original Coffee Filter

Original Coffee Filter

Filled Tea Bag

Filled Tea Bag

Coffee Filter Comparison

Coffee Filter Comparison

New Bag in Tray

New Bag in Tray

Making “Steve Gibson” Coffee with an AeroPress

Steve Gibson described how he uses an espresso machine to make a “perfect” cup of coffee in Episode 422 of Security Now!. For those of us without espresso machines, I’ve modified the recipe to use an Aerobie AeroPress. This method minimizes oxidation of the coffee.

What you need:

Instructions:

  1. Put 2 AeroPress scoops of coffee (approximately 4 tbsp.) into the AeroPress.
  2. Heat 16 oz water to 195° F. If you don’t have a precise heater, bring the water to a boil and let it sit for 30 seconds (ref Peet’s).
  3. Pour approximately 4oz water into your cup.
  4. Place the AeroPress on your cup, and fill to #4.
  5. Use the AeroPress stirrer to stir the coffee 30 times.
  6. Re-fill the water back to the #4
  7. Use the AeroPress plunger to press the water through the AeroPress.
  8. Pour any remaining water into your cup.
  9. Enjoy your coffee.