cooking in the truck

Need Boiling Water??

I tried all of the 12 volt DC "water heater" appliances that could be found in truck stops, and threw them all away. None worked, they were miserably slow (if they could at all) at heating water to a reasonable temp suitable for instant coffee, instant grits/oatmeal, etc. I came to the conclusion I was going to have to go to 120 volt AC appliance and use my inverter.

Went to Walmart and got this http://www.walmart.com/ip/Rival-Kettle/21109378 for about $15.00. It runs at 1,200 watts and my inverter can handle it and it will boil water in a few minutes as opposed to never with the 12 volt dc devices. Note that Walmart also has others similar that run at 1,500 watts but I opted for the slightly smaller one to not tax my inverter any more then necessary. And boiling water in 2 minutes is plenty fast for me. Always use bottled water (with no added minerals in these) and they will last much longer without scaling issues.

 

I have not read this entire thread ..but I went through a bunch . Very interesting .

I dont remember seeing Keurag mentioned . Are the power requirements too high ? Or maybe its the pricetag on em . I know it makes a decent enough cup of coffee at home , and the water is hot enough for cup of noodles

 

There are some small[er] Keurig compatible brewers that are under 1850 watts but they are just a little bigger (bulkier) then I care to stow away and can tend to leak any left-over water on a bouncy road, plus the truck stops do not sell any of the Keurig coffees so you have to get that elsewhere (in a pinch).

I love some of the coffees you can get from a Keurig compatible setup and have one at home, but in a truck, 2 or 3 mornings a week, I can live with a decent instant coffee. Furthermore, if you're truly into great coffee, you could do a french press setup with the boiling water but there's the cleanup afterwards.

Plus the keurig brewers aren't very adept at producing enough hot water in one batch to do both coffee and other instant hot breakfast cereals such as grits or oatmeal.

 

The Keurig I have is the one cup machine that sells for $99 at wal-mart, I like it and I don't at the same time. It's pretty bulky and doesn't really fit anywhere in the truck, because it is top opening all the shelves are out so it has to reside on my floor bit as far as that goes it does get points for durability, been knocked over and kicked several times and doesn't miss a beat. The coffee itself is pretty weak, I have some specialty (not available at wal-mart basically) on order which is supposedly pretty strong so see if that helps.

 

Caribou and Starbucks K-cups are the about the only k-cups I use . Starbucks is stronger but more expensive , so caribou usually hold a place in the cupboard , its not bad either . Best tip I was ever told about using a Keurig was to use the medium cup setting , as opposed to the large . You get much less water squeeze at the end of the brew with the medium setting = stronger coffee in the cup .

~S~

 

appreciate the info, I will try the medium size. Jet fuel from the coffee people is what I have ordered, I'll report back if anyone cares. Just tried community coffee k-cups and while I love the taste it requires a couple of them to wake me up even a little.

 

You can gauge the "strength" of most of the K-cup coffees by looking at the net weight of the box (factoring in the box count) less weight per pod = less kick. I've found the "bold" starbucks coffees to not be so bold compared to other "bold" coffees. I like the Newman's Own Special Blend as a good all-around coffee. Not dark/bold but not mild either.

 

Good to know. I'll try the Newman's as well, more than happy to support them anyway.

 

Ahhhhh.... coooffffeeee (in Homer Simpson's voice)....

... I just brewed my favorite instant today and it was horrible. Bad water. At any rate today I was trying to find a Melitta single cup top to brew a single mug of coffee at a time, but all Walmart had was the full on Melitta coffee makers and only the #4 filters. I'll have to find a #2 mug top and #2 filters, then get some REAL coffee. I'm ready to move up from instant. Be nice to get my favorite Kona Coast or Sumatran again from nicely roasted beans.

 

We had a one cup coffee maker with the washable filter made by Black and Decker that worked good. I would pour the coffee made over into a large Pilot size reusable mug and add the creamer, etc. It would make a pretty good size cup of coffee that way. I think it costed under $20.00 back then (about 5yrs ago).