Finding the Perfect Cup: Our Coffee Journey in the EarthRoamer

There are some things about full-time travel that are obvious luxuries. The views, the freedom, the ability to wake up somewhere new whenever you want.

And then there are the things nobody talks about, like how hard it is to make a decent cup of coffee when you're living out of a truck.

We've been through a few different setups at this point, and think we’ve finally landed on a set up we’re happy with.

The Metal Pour Over

Our first setup seemed like the obvious choice for life on the road: a metal pour over with no paper filters needed, paired with a portable hot water boiler. Simple and minimal. 

The biggest issue was cleanup. Getting the grounds out of a metal pour over requires a lot of water, and rinsing it over a sink meant grounds were constantly going down the drain. In a home, that's annoying. In an EarthRoamer, it's both annoying and wasteful when you're thinking carefully about water. On top of that, it only made one cup at a time, which meant if we wanted more than one cup, we were standing around waiting for a second round before the day could really start.

Enter the Keurig

When we swapped to a tiny knock-off Keurig machine, things got faster. 

But fast doesn't always mean good. The Keurig ate up nearly an entire drawer on its own, and the pods, once you stock enough to actually feel prepared, take up a surprising amount of space for something so small. In a vehicle where every cubic inch has a job, that adds up.

The bigger issue was the coffee itself. No matter what pods we tried, the result was always thin and watery. There's something a little defeating about going through the whole routine of making coffee and then drinking something that tastes like it was brewed through wishful thinking.

Worth mentioning: EarthRoamer does offer the option to put a wall-mounted Keurig in older trucks. We didn't love the look of it, so we passed. The newer trucks have an option for a built-in drawer Keurig or a Nespresso, which are cleaner looking and more integrated than the wall-mounted setup. 

The Chemex

After the Keurig, we went a different direction entirely.

We switched to a Chemex glass coffee maker with paper filters, and it's been our setup ever since. It doesn't require electricity. Cleanup is as simple as pulling out the paper filter, folding it up, and tossing it. No grounds down the drain!

The brewing takes a few minutes, but it makes a couple of cups at once. You pour slowly, the grounds bloom, and by the time you're done, you have coffee that actually tastes like coffee.

The brew time and strength depend on how coarse or fine you grind your beans. Finer grinds slow down the pour and make a stronger, more intense cup. Coarser grinds move faster and come out lighter. Once you figure out what you like, it's easy to dial in and repeat.

The Gold Standard (That We Don't Have)

We've traveled alongside another EarthRoamer owner who has a full professional espresso and latte machine in their rig, with a grinder next to it. It is, without question, the best coffee we've had on the road, better than most coffee shops we've stopped at.

But it's also a machine that requires skills we don't have, and it would mean giving up cabinet space that we're already using for other gear. For where we are right now, that trade-off doesn't make sense for us.

So we stick with the Chemex. And most mornings that's more than enough.