chx1975

Since I burned my poor Austin House kettle (poor thing) I was hunting for something ... better. This seems to be it, thanks!

littlesheep

Have you seen the Q&A on Amazon?

Tizzette

My Severin travel kettle is on Amazon and it is well made and a quality product. I wanted the smallest I could find because I pack for a week or more in one 22 inch roller bag and a tote. Mine has a euro plug because I don't need a travel kettle in the US where every hotel room supplies something. I bring china cups back to the room from the hotel breakfast and use my own Starbucks Via and Bigelow tea bags.

tcl

I noticed that you're based in YVR, try looking at some of the Hong Kong electronic and appliance shops there. They should have a large selection of dual voltage travel kettles. The downside is that they would have the clunky British-style plug. Alternately, the Severin kettle mentioned by Tizzette and also the DesignGo are decent alternatives. The DesignGo comes in both the Euro-plug and the British plug as well as a 12v car version.

The Quick Cafe II is actually ok and not as bad as some of the reviews claim. The main complaints are usually when people who don't realize that there is a voltage switch burn it out and automatically think the product is broken. It is also easy to overfill with ground coffee which causes the basket to clog and overflow. Another common complaint for travel appliances in general is that most people who are not used to travel appliances don't realize that the appliance needs to cool down before being able to make the second cup due to the safety-thermostat. The later is usually when people claim the product broke immediately. It's no wonder that travel kettles are increasingly harder to find. The return rate must be astronomical even when there is actually nothing wrong with the product.

oldpenny16

Yes, letting the appliance cool down before making a second round is very necessary.

I've searched the house for all my various travel appliances relating to coffee and tea making. Really am astonished by how many different ones I own. I guess I've been on this quest for many years.

The lightest one is a tiny Mr. Coffee maker that will work for me for car trips in North America.

But the search continues.

Viperml

i second the Severin travel kettle. It is perfect for traveling, especially to Europe.

Cheers

billatq

I almost got the Severin kettle mentioned above, but I ran across one that's essentially the same design, but that costs less and comes with a US plug:
GForce GF-P1549-1042 Electric Kettle. It heats water fairly quickly, but it's still larger than I'd like for my carry-on bag.

To get down the size a little bit more, I picked up one of those small teapots that I've seen in restaurants to go with an immersion heater: 20oz Stainless Steel Teapot. That brought down the size, but I've found that the immersion heater doesn't heat water as fast as the above kettle.

Also, on the note of coffee, I had been carrying around an Aeropress, but it's more stuff to carry than I'd prefer. I tried the coffee bags that Folgers and Maxwell House sell, but it just wasn't that good.

I was looking into doing pour-over coffee, but you end up having to carry around about the same amount of stuff as an Aeropress. Then I ran across these single serving pour-over coffees in my local asian grocery store: Key Coffee Drip On. The cool thing about those is that they come with a filter so you just pour water over the coffee and toss it out after it's done brewing.

chx1975

Yeah, I replaced my old kettle with a similar one at the end, nonetheless billatq's GForce find is very nice. And yes, it's quite big but if I am already checking in a bag, then it's fine.

clockmilk

If you are coffee-conscious enough to use an Aeropress, then a Kalita Kantan might be an even better solution for you. It is basically a disposable, paper pour over cup that ships flat, but you add your own coffee, providing more control over bean quality than the Key Coffee Drip On.

http://kalita-usa.com/kantan_drip.html

freecia

My idea of a travel kettle includes a power element to actually boil things, but for those we are looking for a pack-able kettle without a power source -
Sea to Summit made a collapsible kettle
http://www.seatosummit.com/product/?...o2=0&o3=130-41
Collapsible pot
http://www.seatosummit.com/product/?...o2=0&o3=100-22

I'm not sure if they could be used with a Sanyo/Yazawa hot plate
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...el-cooker.html

littlesheep

Intriguing. I'm a huge fan of crossover camping/hiking/business stuff. But I wouldn't dare use stuff with heat elements for which they were not intended.

jawnbc

I use the Korjo dual voltage travel kettle. Compact, no exposed heating element and reasonable boiling time.

https://www.korjo.com/Product-Range/...28TJ50%29.aspx

SkyForce6

If you intend to travel just using a carry on sized bag then of course you need something as small as possible such as a travel immersion water heater/wand.

If you have a bigger piece of luggage with you then you can bring with you a small (but no need to be the smallest) water boiler kettle. The kettle is not just wasted space, you can use it as a sort of packing cube and put stuff in it so that space is not wasted on the return flight.

billatq

Well, if you think about it, the largest problem that you run into when traveling with coffee is oxidation. You can deal with that by traveling with beans roasted within the last 30 days or traveling with ground coffee in a sealed bag.

Beans work, but you have to make sure that you always have fresh beans and you're probably going to travel with a manual ceramic burr grinder if you do that. You could vacuum seal packs of beans to extend their lifetime, but that doesn't get you out of carrying and using a grinder.

So what about pre-ground coffee? You can usually pick up a bag in a drugstore at a destination, but regular sized coffee bags have too much coffee for a short to medium length trip. What about pre-ground sampler packs? Sampler packs work pretty well, but they're generally more expensive per cup, usually have weird flavors (else it wouldn't be a sampler), and are harder to find.

If you want good quality and to avoid being wasteful, it makes the most sense to grind and vacuum seal out small amounts of coffee. If you pack an oxygen absorber in there, the ground coffee has minimal oxidation. You can even pre-pack it in a kantan drip so that it's exactly the right amount. Alas, that requires a lot of upfront preparation to make work.

That line of reasoning is more or less why I buy the Key Coffee drip-ons. It's convenient and good enough, even if it's not exceptional. I'm trying out a few other brands, like the Starbucks Origamis, Cafe Borsa and Lee's Coffee ones, but I'm thinking that I'll probably stick with pre-packaged ones for a while.

Tizzette

Starbucks Via instant coffee actually makes good coffee. It is so much better than instant coffee used to be, it is a game changer. The convenience and space saving of packing a few individual serving twists vs all that drip coffee paraphernalia is worth it.