Best Portable Coffee Makers [Top 5 For Caffeine Hungry On The Go]

The joy of watching the world go by over a well made cup of coffee is something I relish. I travel a lot and I won’t sacrifice quality coffee for convenience. With the wide range of portable coffee makers available on the market today I don’t have to.

Best Portable Coffee Makers: My 10-Seconds Buyers Guide

Product: Handpresso Hybrid Auto Set

Available from: Amazon

Best for: Espresso lovers with a car

Worst for: Long cups of coffee in the mountains

Weight: 880gm

Product: Bripe – Coffee Brew Pipe Kit

Available from: Amazon

Best for: Hipster wizards and backcountry solitude

Worst for: Public spaces or enjoying long cup of coffee

Weight: 335gm

Product: Makita DCM501Z

Available from: Amazon

Best for: Tradespeople and power tool lovers

Worst for: Carrying in a backpack

Weight: 2200gm

Product: Wolecok Silicone Collapsible Dripper

Available from: Amazon

Best for: Light weight hikers, cyclists and climbers

Worst for: Espresso drinkers who like a refined experience

Weight: 82gm

Product: AeroPress

Available from: Amazon

Best for: Clean, long well made coffees almost anywhere

Worst for: when you don’t have a stable surface to work from

Weight: 227gm

Best Travel Coffee Makers

1: Best portable coffee maker for Car journeys: Handpresso Hybrid Auto Set

Pour in your water, pop in your capsule, plug the machine in to your cars cigarette-lighter and in 2 minutes you will have a high quality espresso. And I mean high quality! Espressos are an art, you need the right coffee, the right water, the right pressure, the right temperature, and the right cup. The Handpresso hybrid auto set set somehow manages to provide you with this, while sitting in your car.

The Handpresso itself can generate the pressure (up to 19bars of pressure) and the temperature (it beeps when its ready) that you need, so the only thing left for you to do is chose the capsule coffee you like! I prefer Nespresso pods, I know there are other options out there but with the Handpresso Hybrid auto set and an Arpeggio Nespresso pod I get an espresso that I enjoy, every time.

I do have a favourite coffee mug, but I have taken a shine to the espresso cups that come with this set. You pay a bit more for the set over just buying the machine on its own but, for my money, it’s worth it. I keep this in my car for when I’m out and about, going to meetings, or travelling across the country.

Handpresso Travel Set

There is only 1 downside for me and that is that I prefer a longer lighter coffee. An espresso for me is an “awake machine” I want to enjoy the taste of course, but it’s for long drives, early mornings, and boring meetings. You just don’t get that kick with other kinds of coffee (or I don’t anyway). If your preference is for an espresso I don’t think you could find a better machine than this!

A quick note, I do recommend opting for bottled water over tap water, you get a better crema this way.

2: Best for steampunk backcountry adventures: Bripe – Coffee Brew Pipe Kit

This is by far the strangest coffee contraption I have ever come across.

The set comes with a coffee brew pipe, that sits on a baseplate, a “quad head jet torch” and a thermometer to keep an eye on how hot your coffee is getting. Once you have your coffee hot ,you drink through the straw that is the pipe, which thankfully has an insulated cork handle to keep your fingers safe!

When you see the Bripe you might think it looks like a pipe that Gandalf would smoke from, but instead of putting your tobacco inside, you put your coffee. You light your “quad jet torch” for just 2 -3 minutes and you’re done. Honestly the quad jet torch does, just about, stand up to winds but it also looks like a flame gun so I adore it.

Bripe Torch lighter is re-fillable with adjustable flame

You have to drink through the “pipe straw” which adds to the overall strangeness of the experience. It is a stunning piece of design that delivers a delicious hot shot of coffee at the drop of a hat (or the drop of a pipe as the case may be here). This is not for your car, or for inside a tent (it’s an open flame after all) this is for your adventure. It’s light, it’s fast and it delivers.

It has some stellar steam punk vibes and it functions in much the same way as the Latin American Yerba Mate does where you drink the hot brew through a straw. It’s not going to give you the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had, because, well for one, it’s not in a cup. But it is going to give you a good shot of coffee, fairly quickly and is easy to carry.

Personally I don’t think I would ever use this in a public place. I would keep this to the back country trails, not just because I don’t want to win the crown of the hipsters, but because it may look like I am smoking something strange from a pipe, which isn’t really the attention I’m looking for.

3: Best for unpredictable access to electricity: Makita DCM501Z

I first heard about the Makita DCM501Z through friends, who work in construction. It’s battery powered, and when I say battery powered I’m talking about the kind of batteries that you use for a drill, not the kind that powered your walkman in 1991! In fact if you own a Makita power tool you can use that same lithium battery to power this coffee maker.

Let’s be clear about this up front, this is not a light weight coffee maker that you throw in your pack before you head out on a hike, nor is this something you will keep handy in your car for when you need an emergency caffeine hit. This is a different beast altogether.

The dimensions of this don’t scream portable at all and you do need that handle to carry it. Although it is only 1.9kg (2.2kg with it’s battery attached) it still has a rugged “building site” aesthetic. It’s more like a coffee machine that happens to be portable rather than a portable coffee machine.

makita has a handle for easy grip

The Makita DCM501Z is a perfect battery-powered electric coffee maker if you have unpredictable access to electricity whether because you’re working on a construction site or hanging out with friends on your apartment building rooftop. It produces reliable, hot coffee in a matter of minutes.

It comes with a stainless steel mug that is pretty much indestructible which also keeps your coffee hot. Unlike many other portable coffee makers, that are designed to make single coffees on the go, this behemoth can produce a pint of coffee before you need to refill the water tank. Enough to keep even the most caffeine hungry of us happy!

You may notice I haven’t mentioned crema, or grind, or favour profile here. This is not going to make you the espresso of your dreams, but that’s not it’s job. If you are looking for more than a hot coffee this is not for you.

4: Best for lightweight adventures: Wolecok Silicone Collapsible Pour Over Coffee Dripper

Wolecok Silicone Collapsible Coffee Dripper For Camping

This is a collapsible silicone dripper. I feel like the review could almost end there, as it nearly speaks for itself. The Wolecok silicone collapsible dripper is light, it makes drip coffee,…and it’s collapsible (it’s there in the name!). This particular brand also comes with a clip so you can attach it to your bag (or your harness) and it weighs almost nothing. You place the silicone dripper on your cup, place a paper filter inside it, scoop your preferred coffee into the filter and then pour over with hot water.

This is not exactly exciting, ground breaking, steam punk or high tech but it does deliver hot, well made coffee, in any environment. This is the lightest option on my list, and it punches above its class. It is ideal when space and weight are the deciding factors.

More than any of the other options discussed so far this produces a delicate and light coffee, the slow drip makes for a longer brewing process, extracting more flavour for you to enjoy. You do need access to boiling water to use this, which is an added component that makes it somewhat less portable. If you are travelling and staying hotels this is perfect and easy to keep clean. If you are packing for a long hike where you will bring something to boil water with anyway, this is a very easy addition to your pack (I prefer the jetboil for boiling water if you’re interested).

Wolecok coffee dripper is light and easy to carry. Great for travel and backpacking outdoors

There are, of course, downsides, it can be frustrating when the collapsible nature of it makes it harder to keep standing in high winds, I personally don’t use this when I’m at home, I have a ceramic version I keep in my kitchen instead. It also will never give the espresso lovers of the world what they need. But it does provide beautiful, clean, light coffee and fits in your pocket. What’s not to love?

5: Best Small Travel Coffee Maker: AeroPress

AeroPress Coffee Maker For Travel

The AeroPress has somewhat of a cult following, with new methods for brewing being shared regularly. The AeroPress itself is very light and is a plunger style brew, with a difference. You need a very particular grind get the best out of your AeroPress but given its popularity since it’s launched in 2005 I have yet to meet a coffee shop who doesn’t offer an “AeroPress grind”.

My preference is to use the “inverted method”. This maximises the coffees flavour and texture by extracting the crema which contains all those aromatic compounds that are responsible for your coffees taste. In the inverted method you fill your “brew chamber” with your ground beans, pour over your hot water (slowly) and when you screw on the filter cap you place your upside down cup on top and then (carefully) flip the AeroPress and plunge your brew through the filter. If you prefer a “french press style” add a wire mesh instead of the paper filter, and you can also use it to make cold brew i’ve been told.

The first option for me is always an AeroPress, even when I’m at home. The AeroPress revolutionised coffee for me, not just portable coffee. If you want a long lasting, easy to clean, lightweight, hard to break, coffee maker this is, I believe, your only option! Why even talk about the others?

Well the AeroPress does have its draw backs. It cannot produce it’s own hot water and it can be a little challenging to use if you don’t have a level surface to place it on. For the AeroPress to really deliver you need a very particular bean grind and the right weight. We aren’t all travelling around with a coffee scales in our pockets but AeroPresses scoop will give me the weight I need for my standard cup of coffee, reliably enough.

What comes in the box

Related:

Best Small Coffee Makers

Which is the Best Portable Coffee Maker for me?

You may have already guess that my favourite coffee maker is the AeroPress. For me and for many others, it’s not simply for portable coffee. I will regularly let my coffee machine at home gather dust in jealousy and use my AeroPress almost daily. The Bripe is attractive, and lightweight but the AeroPress continuously provides me with predictably good coffee. I can’t imagine sipping on a Bripe and feeling as content as I do with my AeroPress. The Handpresso will never give me that light, aromatic, long coffee that I enjoy even though it provides a more refined experience with the set, and the Makita just isn’t portable enough for my lifestyle. Although the collapsible silicone dripper comes in a close second and really does make a quality cup of coffee, I think the AeroPress is the best portable coffee maker around.