the-ultimate-hotel-room-coffee-making-guide

The ultimate hotel room coffee-making guide

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Here is my philosophy on great coffee: drink it if you can get it, and don’t be a snob if you can only get something basic. But I have my limits on what I’ll accept, and those limits are well above what’s usually available in the little basket in your typical American hotel room. I am currently sitting in my first hotel room in over a year and figure a few of you might be doing the same soon, so here’s my guide for how to make the best coffee.

The obvious option is to locate the nearest coffee shop where you’re traveling, but that would necessitate leaving your hotel room, and the whole point of coffee is to build up the wherewithal to face the world in the first place. Instead, I prefer to make the coffee myself in the most convenient way given the limitations and options usually available in a hotel room.

The AeroPress Go makes it very simple to make good coffee in all conditions.

The best portable coffee brewer: AeroPress Go

Of all the coffee makers in all the travel bags in all the world, the AeroPress Go is the best for travel. It comes with a bunch of pieces of equipment that you’ll want on hand. There’s the basic system itself, which consists of a tube and plunger, of course. But it also packs itself into its own plastic cup and comes with a little container for filters, a scoop, and a stir stick.

There are a few reasons the AeroPress Go is so great for travel. First, it’s indestructible. Everything is plastic and can be knocked around. It’s also light, self-contained, and easy to clean. Most importantly for me, it’s an incredibly forgiving coffee maker. Conditions in a hotel room are going to vary from your home setup: unless you’re willing to devote space to a proper kettle and scale, you will be using smaller and simpler methods for getting hot water and measuring your ratios. Given that you can’t do everything exactly as you might like, the AeroPress has the best Good Coffee To No Fuss Ratio I’ve found.

It comes with a coffee scoop and stir stick, if you like using those when you brew your coffee. (I don’t bother with either.)

| Aeropress

AeroPress Go

  • $32

Prices taken at time of publishing.

The AeroPress is the simplest way to make great coffee on the go. It comes with extra accessories that make life a little easier, too, including a filter holder, scoop, stir stick, and cup. It all packs up into a compact, clean package.


  • $32


    at Amazon


  • $32


    at REI

A simple immersion boiler is super portable — but never use it unattended.

The simplest way to boil water in a hotel room: immersion heater

This little coil is the thing that unlocked my entire travel coffee setup. The thing about making coffee is you need very hot water, and the thing about hotel rooms is your options for making very hot water range from bad to none. An immersion heater neatly solves that problem without taking up too much space.

You may be tempted, as I have, to buy a portable water kettle — the kind that collapses down. I have tried two or three, and they’re all bad: too fussy, hard to clean, and too big. This little coil is really all you need to boil water, provided you have a vessel you can drop it in.

A couple words of warning. 1. I don’t think it’s a great idea to use this in the cup that comes with your AeroPress. I’ve done it in a pinch, but I think you should use something else. I use my own thermos, but you can also get by with whatever mugs are provided to you in the hotel room. 2. This coil is a blunt instrument: it’s a coil of metal literally hooked directly into the outlet. Never leave it unattended when plugged in, and never plug it in without first ensuring it’s submerged in water.

One thing you’ll miss out on is directly controlling the exact temperature of your water with this boiler. That’s fine because you’re already using the AeroPress, which is very forgiving about things like water temperature.

When packing, I stuff this coil and its cord inside my travel mug.

Norpro Instant Immersion Heater

  • $11

Prices taken at time of publishing.

This dead-simple immersion water heater boils water just by plugging it in, but you will need to provide your own vessel. It’s easy to use, but never use it unattended, and never plug it in unless it’s already immersed in water.


  • $11


    at Amazon

I always try to buy local beans at my destination.

Get good coffee beans or grounds

You’re going to need good coffee to make good coffee, so get some good coffee. How you handle this is entirely up to you. My setup includes a hand coffee grinder (see below), but pre-ground beans are perfectly fine for hotel room coffee if you ask me.

My preferred way of handling the Bean Question is to not bring my own from home. Instead, I do a tiny bit of research before I leave and then buy them from a local shop when I arrive in town. I aim to try coffee that’s local and / or new to me. If you choose not to bring a grinder, the move is to go to the shop and ask them to grind the beans for you — that way, they’ll be just a little fresher than if you buy a pre-ground bag.

The last couple items below are totally optional. An AeroPress Go, a water boiler, and coffee are really all you need.

This Zojirushi travel mug keeps your coffee hot.

My favorite travel mug: Zojirushi stainless steel travel mug

I won’t deign to tell you what kind of travel mug you should use, but this one is my favorite. It’s compact, utterly spillproof, and doesn’t slosh coffee into my face when I’m walking and sipping. It’s a lovely coffee mug.

There are two downsides. You have to take some pieces apart to properly clean it; the lid is made up of plastic and gaskets. It’s not difficult to do and easy to put back together, but it is a little bit of work.

The second is a weird one, but here we go: for some people, it’s too good at keeping coffee hot. It sounds strange to complain about a coffee thermos being too good at its job, but sometimes you will use it at a coffee shop where you don’t have complete control over the temperature. For me, I’d rather have something that I know will keep my drink hot for hours.

I also use this as my travel water bottle when the coffee runs out. I recognize the irony of putting all this work into making great coffee only to use the same mug to drink water that will taste vaguely coffee-esque if I can’t clean it properly.

| Zojirushi

Zojirushi Stainless Steel Travel Mug, 12-ounce

  • $24

Prices taken at time of publishing.

The Zojirushi Stainless Steel Travel Mug keeps coffee hot for a very long time — so make sure it’s the temperature you want before you put the lid on. A flip-top cap makes it easy to take a quick sip and the spout is designed to prevent splashing.


  • $24


    at Amazon


  • $22


    at Best Buy

Hand-grinding your beans in a hotel room is next-level coffee nerd, but you feel like you earn your cup.

My favorite portable coffee grinder: Timemore Chestnut C2

Okay, this is where I’ve gone off the deep end, I admit it. Hand-grinding your beans, one cup at a time, is obviously and inherently ridiculous when you’re sitting in a hotel room. But I bought this Timemore grinder on a lark a couple years ago, and it’s such a good little machine that I pack it anyway.

There are lots of different hand grinders, but I love this one because it’s relatively small and has a satisfying heft. It has a ton of different grind size options. I’ve used it enough that I can eyeball how much to fill it with beans to get the right amount of coffee ground to use in the AeroPress Go.

It’s over the top, I know. But fresh, burr-ground coffee really does taste better — which is to say you have to work for it with manual labor, and therefore you will convince yourself you can taste the difference.

My coffee gear takes up a little more than the space of a folded pair of bluejeans. Worth it.

Bonus: A simple AeroPress Go recipe

There are a kajillion AeroPress recipes on the internet. I am here to tell you that the best one is the one you land on yourself after some trial and error. In a hotel room, I do not bother with a scale. (I’m not a maniac, I swear.) Here’s my recipe:

  1. Put a (dry) filter in the AeroPress, and set it on top of the included cup.
  2. Grind the coffee as fine as I feel like. (The finer it’s set, the more work it is to hand-grind.)
  3. Eyeball the amount of coffee I put into the AeroPress. I fill just over the base of the filter cap.
  4. Fill it up with just-off-the-boil water just over the number 3 on the side.
  5. Set the plunger on and pull up slightly to make a vacuum.
  6. After two minutes, swirl the whole thing to agitate, then press for 30 seconds.
  7. Taste. Add a little water if necessary.

Here’s a slightly more detailed recipe from James Hoffman:

Photography by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

a-lord-of-the-rings-anime-movie-is-headed-to-theaters

A Lord of the Rings anime movie is headed to theaters

New Line Cinema and Warner Brothers Animation are working on a new Lord of the Rings movie that’s bound for theaters, with an anime twist (via Variety). The movie will be called The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, and it will cover the history behind the fortress at Helm’s Deep — whose battle is one of the most exciting parts of the entire original trilogy with its exploding walls, shield surfing, and incredible horse stunts.

In case you need your memory jogged:

Kenji Kamiyama will be directing the movie, and it’ll be interesting to see how well his style maps to a medieval fantasy setting — he’s mostly tackled futuristic sci-fi projects before, including Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 009 Re: Cyborg, and Netflix’s Ultraman. The movie is being written by the creators of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and while Peter Jackson isn’t directly involved, one of the writers for the original trilogy (and the Hobbit movies) is acting as a consultant.

While the names behind the film are interesting, it doesn’t seem like Warner Brothers or New Line are going deep into the Tolkien well for story ideas — the events Rohirrim will be depicting are only a few hundred years before the battle depicted in The Two Towers. Compare that with, say, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show, which is set in the Second Age, way before the War of the Ring — the characters in the anime movie may be unfamiliar to most viewers, but the world will likely be pretty similar to what we’ve already seen. Of course, there’s still room for this project to be interesting, but perhaps it would’ve been more exciting if we were getting a story about something like the Silmarils or the fall of the Númenor.

So far, we don’t know details like when the movie will be released or who will be staring in it.

here’s-a-list-of-all-the-rtx-3070-ti-cards-you-can-dream-about-buying

Here’s a List of All the RTX 3070 Ti Cards You Can Dream About Buying

(Image credit: Inno3D)

With the launch of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, we’re collecting information about all of the partner cards that have launched or will launch soon. We have listings from seven companies, ranging from top-end liquid cooling models to budget-friendly cards.

The RTX 3070 Ti, is Nvidia’s latest mid-range to high-end SKU for the RTX 3000 series lineup. The GPU is based on a fully enabled GA104 die consisting of 6144 CUDA cores, operating at up to a 1770MHz boost frequency for the reference spec. The GPU will come with 8GB of GDDR6X memory operating at 19Gbps and a TDP of 290W.

EVGA

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: EVGA)

Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: EVGA)

To keep things simple during this GPU shortage crisis, EVGA has only released two SKUs for the RTX 3070 Ti, the XC3 Gaming and the FTW3 Ultra Gaming. You can grab both of these cards right now on EVGA’s store if you have the companies Elite membership. If not, you’ll need to wait until tomorrow to grab the cards if they happen to be  availably.

Nothing has really changed with the RTX 3070 Ti’s FTW3 and XC3 designs, both cards feature a triple-fan cooler design, along with a fully blacked-out shroud. The XC3 is a much more stealthy dual-slot cooler, with barely any RGB insight.

The FTW3 model is much larger at 2.75 slots in thickness, and features much more RGB than its cheaper counterpart.

The FTW3 model runs at a boost frequency of 1860MHz while the XC3 runs at a lower 1770MHz.

Gigabyte

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

Image 2 of 4

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

Image 3 of 4

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

Gigabyte has done the exact opposite of EVGA and released five different SKUs for the RTX 3070 Ti, ranging from the flagship Aorus Master model down to the RTX 3070 Ti Eagle, a more budget-friendly card.

Because Gigabyte does not have its own store, expect to buy (or wait to buy) these cards from popular retailers such as MicroCenter, Newegg, Amazon, Best Buy and others.

Aesthetically, each RTX 3070 Ti SKU has subtle differences between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 versions. For each SKU, Gigabyte has adjusted the design of the cards, giving them the same colors as the 3080 and 3070 cards, but offering slightly different design elements.

The only exception to this is the RTX 3070 Ti Vision, which shares the exact same design as the RTX 3080 and 3070 models.

All RTX 3070 Ti models are triple-fan cooler designs, presumably due to the 3070 Ti’s really high TDP of 290W. The Aorus Master is the top trim with a beefy triple slot heatsink, and lots of RGB. The Gaming variant is Gigabyte’s mid-range SKU, and the Eagle represents Gigabyte’s lowest-end offering. The Vision model is aimed more towards the prosumer market, with less “gamery” aesthetics.

MSI

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: MSI)

Image 2 of 3

(Image credit: MSI)

Image 3 of 3

(Image credit: MSI)

MSI will be offering three custom-designed versions of the RTX 3070 Ti, the Suprim, Gaming Trio and Ventus. Each model also comes with a OC model, doubling the amount of options to six.

The Suprim is the flagship card with a silver and grey finish, and a shroud that measures beyond two slots in thickness. RGB can be seen by the fans and on the side.

The Gaming Trio is the mid-range offering, featuring a blacked out shroud along with red and silver accents. The card is similar in height to the Suprim and is over two slots thick.

The Ventus is MSI’s budget entry level card featuring a fully blacked out shroud, with grey accents and again, is more than two slots thick. If you want a stealthy appearance this is the card to go for.

Compared to the RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 equivalent models, there’s very little difference between them and the RTX 3070 Ti SKUs. They all are incredibly similar in size, and aesthetically are largely identical besides a few backplate design changes and a couple of accent changes on the main shroud.

Zotac

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Zotac)

Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Zotac)

Zotac is coming out with just two models for the RTX 3070 Ti, the Trinity and AMP Holo.

Both the Trinity and Holo feature triple-fan cooler designs, with largely identical design elements to them. Both feature grey and back color combinations, along with 

The main difference between the cards is a slightly different boost speed of 1800MHz on the Trinity vs 1830MHz on the Holo, and the Holo features a much larger RGB light bar on the side, making the Trinity the more “stealthy” of the two.

Inno3D

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Inno3D)

Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Inno3D)

Inno3D is releasing four different SKUs for the 3070 Ti, the iChillX4, iChill X3, X3 and X3 OC.

The Chill X4 and X3 are almost identical in everything; The only major add for the X4 is a quad fan setup, with an extra fan to give the card some active airflow from the side. We are not sure how much this will affect temps, but it’s a cool looking feature.

Both the Chill X3 and X4 feature very aggressive styling for a graphics card, with a black and metal finish, with several screws drilled into the metal, similar to race cars. To the side is a very bright and large strip of RGB that looks like something from Cyberpunk 2077. The RGB itself has a neon glow to it, with the ‘iChill’ logo installed in the middle.

The Chill X3 and X4 feature 1830Mhz boost frequencies and thicknesses beyond 2 slots.

INnno3D’s RTX 3070 Ti X3 and X3 OC on the other hand, are the complete opposite of the Chill cards. The shroud is a very basic black shroud with no RGB or lighting anywhere on the card. This is Inno’s budget-friendly option which explains the simplistic design.

The card comes with a 1770MHz boost clock, with the OC model featuring a 1785MHz boost frequency. The X3 comes with a flat 2 slot thickness, allowing the card to fit in slimmer chassis.

Galax

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Galax)

Image 2 of 4

(Image credit: Galax)

Image 3 of 4

(Image credit: Galax)

Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Galax)

Galax is coming in with four different versions of the RTX 3070 Ti, including dual fan options.

The flagship model for Galaxy is the 3070 Ti EXG, available in Black or White colors. These cards feature large triple-fan cooler designs and thicknesses beyond two slots.  The shrouds are very basic, with just a pure black or pure white shroud, depending on the color you purchase. Making up the lighting are the fans with RGB illumination.

The RTX 3070 Ti SG is probably the most interesting of all of the 3070 Ti cards as a whole, with a unique add-on cooling solution. The card comes with the same shroud and fan design as the EXG, but features a significantly cut-down PCB, to make way for a large cut-out at the end to allow the installation of an additional fan to the rear of the card. If space allows, this additional fan gives the rear of the card a push-pull design, for maximum airflow.

Next, we have the 3070 Ti EX, a dual-fan option available in black or white flavors. This is the first SKU we’ve seen with a dual-fan solution for the 3070 Ti, so this will be a great option for users looking for a compact solution for smaller chassis. However, like the other Galax cards, the thickness is higher than two slots, so keep that in mind for smaller builds.

Besides the dual fan cooler, everything else is very similar to the EXG models with a pure black or white finish (depending on the flavor you choose) and RGB fans.

Lastly, there’s the Galax RTX 3070 Ti, a card with no fancy name, representing the budget endo Galax’s lineup.

The card is super basic with a carbon fiber-looking black shroud, and black fans. Unlike the EX model, this card is boxier with fewer angles to the design.

Palit

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Palit)

Image 2 of 2

(Image credit: Palit)

Palit is introducing three versions of the RTX 3070 Ti: the GameRock, GameRock OC, and Gaming Pro.

The GameRock appears to be the company’s flagship model for the 3070 Ti. The card comes in a wild-looking grey shroud paired with a layer of see-through diamond-like material all along the fan area. This part is all RGB illuminated.

The cards are triple fan cards with sizes larger than two slots in thickness.

The GamingPro, on the other hand, is a more normal card, with a black and grey shroud and some fancy silver accents which act as fan protectors on the middle and rear fans. This card is similar in size to the GameRock cards.

The GameRock OC comes with a 1845MHz boost clock, the vanilla model features a 1770MHz boost clock, and the same clock goes for the GamingPro.