Coffee

As a diehard coffee snob, driving OTR was difficult for me. You could usually find 'decent' coffee most places east of the Rockies, but when you got down to Oklahoma and west Texas and ANY of the mountain states, the coffee was AWFUL. you don't find 'decent' coffee again until you're pretty much on the west coast. After a few months, I figured out why this was:

First of all, I remember my first REALLY awful cup of coffee, at a small truckstop in Oklahoma. It has a really bad aftertaste, which I tried to wash away with a glass of water........which had the same awful aftertaste. The water was so hard it probably would scratch glass!

Second of all, there was a single large coffee wholesaler in the mountain regions whose name I can't recall now, but they sold a blend which I could only characterize as 'cowboy coffee'; dark roast, bitter, with a lot of caffeine. I think in the west they also end up overheating the coffee....

 

I remember seeing a guy named Alex or something similar on YouTube 3 years ago that was OTR before leaving to work with a family member roasting coffee, was that you?

 

When on the road, I’ll grab a coffee at either PFJ, Allsup’s, or Stripes.
The last few years, as most places(except Stripes) now have the beans in bulk at the machine and you pick your flavor has improved the taste significantly. I try to avoid the coffee brewed in those huge auto-drip machines, and coffee sits and foments in the huge tank. As for creamers, only use real half&half, that powdered crap will kill you.

 

Just so you know. This is how Pilot buys and delivers it's coffee.

 

I have found it to be mostly consistently bad, or at least not suitable to my taste, anyway. But yeah, can't rely on them at all, and coffee is too important IMO.

I have even noticed funny tastes in the water at the soda fountain in some parts of the country (Iowa?). Just awful.

Go on...

I like the taste of the Coffee Mate liquid stuff (hazelnut or seasonal flavors), but the #1 ingredient is soybean oil, which I would love to find an alternative to. I drink the sugar free stuff, which is something else you can't hardly find out there, so I make sure I keep a supply of my own creamer in the fridge in the truck.

For all the above reasons, I make my own coffee in the truck. It seems to be the only way to get a reliable result. I bought a cheap 4 cup regular coffee maker at Walmart. That fills up my double wall stainless steel cup just perfectly, leaving just enough room for creamer. Of course you need an inverter for that. Another advantage is you can have a good cup anywhere, even dry camping for your 10 at a shipper/receiver (which I do often as I'm a hustler).

I like Cafe Bustelo. It's strong to begin with, and I make it strong (3 heaping tbsp for 4 cup water). It's so strong that you will need to go use the toilet about 15-20 minutes after starting to drink it. Sam's Club is the only place I found it at reasonable price (especially in the quantities I consume), a 4 pack of vacuum-sealed bricks for a little over $10 last I checked.

I only drink one big 'cup' (4 cups actually) in the morning for a few hours, no more after that. It blunts my appetite and gets me going in the morning. Later I eat my first meal. So it ends up being a sort of intermittent fasting program as well.

 

For a strong cup and great flavor, fresh beans and a press. But I normally just make instant. Quick and easy and no cleanup.

 

Some of it might be the harder water too

 

DING!DING!DING! Aaaand we have a wineer, "Captain Obvious"!!!