Damage Control on Hotel Coffee

Jerry Baldwin of the Atlantic offers a few tips on what to do when you’re stuck in a hotel and the only thing on offer in the morning is the hotel coffee in your room:

If I’ve failed to purchase bottled water, I draw the tap water the night before. This achieves two things: the chlorine will partially evaporate, and the temperature will rise to room temperature. The heaters in coffeemakers will raise the temperature a certain number of degrees. They don’t have holding tanks like commercial machines. A twenty-degree difference between newly drawn tap water and room temperature will result in nearly a twenty degree increase in brewing temperature.

I used to just bring my own coffee with me when I traveled (I know, I know) but a few years ago hotels began to replace normal filters and pouches of coffee with pre-packaged coffee that came in an unbleached pouch that doubled as a filter. I’ve toyed with some of the tips offered in this article but some are new to me–my favorite is the above tip about letting the hotel tap water sit overnight, since most of the time I loathe the overchlorinated water in hotel taps and the rubbery coffee it makes in the hotel coffee machines.