The Pakt Coffee Kit Solves Your Vacation Java Dilemmas

Serious question: When is the last time you walked into a resort room and thought, "Boy, I can't wait to make a cup of coffee"? If I'm a gambling man, my money says never, but crazier things have happened. I ask, though, because the one thing that I truly dread about traveling is not having access to a good, or at least decent, cup of coffee. And, let's face it—those little pods in your hotel room aren't going to cut it.

Also—and this is a huge issue for javaphiles like myself—some of my favorite places to visit don't have our popular coffee chains. That means if I'm not content with the random coffee pods in my room, I have to settle for the stuff in the lobby or at the breakfast buffet. I don't mean to sound like a Picky Pete, but coffee is extremely important to me—here, there, anywhere. And it's not like we can just pack our own coffeemakers and bring good coffee with us... or is it?

From the people who brought me my favorite weekender bag, the Pakt One, I now have the Pakt Coffee Kit, which is one of the coolest devices I've ever had the pleasure of squeezing into my luggage.

Not so long ago, I would have scoffed at the notion of using valuable and very limited bag space for something so seemingly unnecessary, but the folks at Pakt really have this down to a science. About the size of a camping thermos, and weighing less than four pounds, the Pakt Coffee Kit packs up neatly into a travel case that not only wedges neatly into the corner of a bag, but is also built to take its lumps (coffee pun very much intended), and so it actually serves as extra protection for stuff you don't want to be scuffed or damaged (I lined my dress shoes up against it so they couldn't move at all when my suitcase was being manhandled and/or transferred from the plane to the carousel).

And when I'm not traveling, this coffee kit fits neatly into my office drawer so I can use it to make an afternoon pick-me-up, which is especially great for people who don't want to use common area coffee machines that aren't cleaned and maintained properly.

(Only as I was cleaning my office and moving things around did I realize that this coffee kit's case lines up perfectly inside the Pakt One weekender bag. That's not much of a surprise, obviously, but I am a huge sucker for synergy that makes my packing job even more organized.)

My mantra is simple: you can't blame yourself for bad coffee when you're the barista. The Pakt Coffee Kit's brewing routine is wonderfully simple, from the Russian nesting doll storage to the easy and clean pour-over process, so making good coffee all comes down to packing the coffee you like (the kit includes a well-secured container that holds up to 22 tablespoons of ground coffee) and brewing it to the strength you prefer. I even keep a little bottle of peppermint in my kit so I can top my cup off just right.

Speaking of the cup, I also use the 12-oz. travel mug when I'm in a hurry and need to pop a quick pod (reusable, naturally) in my Keurig and head out the door. The stainless-steel cup with the matte black silicon sleeve just looks cool.

They really thought of everything with this coffee kit, which is why it's no surprise the Indiegogo campaign did so well.