There are a lot of portable coffeemaking solutions on the market. What exactly is considered portable is mostly in the eye of the beholder and depends on use. Is it compact enough to pack in a suitcase? Sure. But can you justify the weight on a weeklong backpacking trip? Ehhhh.
Even so, most portable coffee sets aren’t quite as all-encompassing as they promise. They’ll be missing a kettle or a grinder or some other necessary piece of equipment keeping them from being truly all-in-one. Enter Portbrew. The new compact pour-over maker from Geartron is maybe the closest omnibus coffee setup to hit the market, and it’s live on Kickstarter now.
The Hong Kong-based Geartron is no stranger to travel coffee gear. They have in the past created a portable electric burr grinder as well as a foldable pour-over system. The Portbrew is a combination of many of their previous offerings, all in one thoughtfully space saving package. Along with the rechargeable, 25g capacity ceramic burr grinder—able to grind up to 40 cups’ worth of coffee on a single charge, per the campaign—it comes with a collapsable, v60-style brewer as well as two titanium folding handle coffee mugs. And here’s where the ingenuity kicks in; one of the mugs doubles as a gooseneck kettle.
Utilizing a detachable spout and a temperature gauge on the side, one of the mugs can be used like a kettle to make a pour-over in the other. Then, after the coffee making is complete, the spout can be replaced with a screw cap to convert it into a second mug. (The other mug a slight pouring mouth to that the brew can be easily shared without mess.)
Other accessories include a filter paper pack and cleaning tools. The entire setup clocks in a shade over two pounds, and the 4.5” x 10.8” pill-shaped carrying case, there’s enough additional space to store your whole bean coffee.
Now, before it can be officially crowned an one-stop shop for manual brewing, the Portbrew does have a few potential limitations. For one, there is no scale, which normally wouldn’t be a foundational part of a travel setup, but if you’re packing a kettle and a grinder, then it seems like a scale would be a no-brainer. The easiest workaround for that would be to pick up the Geartron pocket scale, which is a compact and affordable option. But it does feel like it should be included.
The other main potential abrasion is that the Portbrew lacks any way to heat the water used for brewing. Now, the titanium kettle is gas-stove compatible, and most taking this outdoors would have a Jet Boil in tow, so it’s mostly a moot point.
With just under a week left on the campaign, the Portbrew has already smashed its $1,000 goal, achieving over $20,000 in backing thus far. But there are still campaign options that can earn you a Portbrew, in your choice of Metro Black and Forest Green, for just $99, 38% off the $159 MSRP. Rewards are expected to begin shipping out in November of this year.
For more information or to back the campaign, visit Portbrew’s Kickstarter page.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
