Coffee

There are plenty of travel brewing options, the aeropress, pipamoka, espro, and an eruption of practical portable espresso options lately. Unless you are either traveling a lot or using these regularly at home, they can be difficult to dial in to the brews you might be used to if you are a primarily pour-over brewer. There have been a number of foldable, portable, optimized pour-over brewers, but these tend to do best with a gooseneck kettle which is a deal-breaker for me when selecting a travel companion. Immersion options like the clever dripper have been touted for their travel-friendly simplicity, but it’s a notably different brew profile if you are used to pour-over. Two recent zero-bypass brewers have caught my fancy as work / travel options, the Ceado Hoop and the Orea Z1. Neither is really touted as a primarily travel brewer, but they are both super simple to use, do not require a gooseneck, and they are durable with high quality simple construction. In brief, either one of these is worthy of its space in your luggage, but which is the best?

Brief Rundown of devices

I’ve described the Hoop a bit briefly but only in reference to its filters. It’s a unique radial infusion brewer where the coffee grounds sit in a central chamber and water flow into the chamber and over the grounds is determined by a series of small holes that connect to a larger outer water reservoir.

The Z1 is basically a spinoff of the tricolate zero-bypass brewer but utilizes a fast Sibarist filter and has a built-in melo drip disperser which allows for a clumsier water source than a gooseneck kettle since it converts any pour into a diffuse uniform drip.

Packing

Let’s look at portability and practicality for travel first. Both are high quality food grade, high heat tolerant plastic. The z1 is Tritan and the Hoop is BPA free plastic but the resin type is not published. Both fit pretty practically in luggage, and while you can’t do that cute thing like you can with the aeropress where you slide a grinder inside of it, they certainly aren’t space hogs. The Hoop has a little bigger footprint, but if you are willing to stuff a clean pair of socks or something in it, I think it actually takes up a bit less space.
Winner: this one’s a tie

Brewing

I’ll lead with saying both can brew an excellent cup. They are very simple to brew with, but the Hoop takes the cake for simplicity if that’s what you crave when being out of the comfort of your kitchen coffee lab. The Z1 on the other hand is going to require a few pours and does offer some variables you can play with a little to tweak your brews. Both brew best on the coarser end of the pour-over range which is good news if you want to have a separate travel grinder – a middle of the road grinder will do very well with these. The Hoop is extremely flexible with how you pour the water in. You could take a large pot and just dump the water into the reservoir and you’d be fine. The z1 is fairly forgiving too, but you do need something with at least a bit of a spout. I usually use a collapsible travel kettle or a hotel kettle and these work fine, but you can’t pour too quickly or the Melodrip will overflow and slower pour rates can lead to dribbling and dripping with conventional spout kettles. I do usually make a little bit of a mess with the z1, but nothing terrible. Of note, I’ve learned that since I bought my Z1 (very early adopter), Orea sells a travel kit which includes a little cup with a pour spout. I remain skeptical about how usable this is, as I imagine this must be very hot to hold when filled with near-boiling water. The big issue with both of these is their big bottoms. That’s right, they both have weirdly large back-sides and it’s a frustrating design attribute that can really leave you stuck on the road. Neither fits on my Hario 02 carafe at home, nor do they fit with most standard sized coffee mugs. The Hoop is the bigger offender here requiring a 7cm diameter opening on the vessel below it. The Z1 isn’t much better, but enough so that I can typically find a large mug at an Airbnb or thankfully the wide mouths of the hotel paper cups typically fit. I’ve traveled with the z1 a lot and have always lucked-out with this, but I can imagine a situation that leaves me stuck with hotel coffee and it does give me some anxiety. I’ve found a nice 3D printed adapter that I’ve previously plugged for the Hoop – it’s durable and easy to travel with, but still – it’s another thing.

The Coffee Soldier's typical hotel room setup =)

With a filter in place the z1 doubles nicely as a dosing cup and fits nicely onto some grinders.

I do like how the Comandante grind cup fits perfectly onto the z1 as well for a no-mess transfer.

Winner: it’s close, but the z1 has an edge here.

Cleanup

Both are easy to clean and have just two parts that need washing off. The perforated bottom grate of the Z1 does require a little agitation to get residue fully off it, and I find the Hoop rinses off a little faster.
Winner: Hoop by a margin

Cost/Value

Orea seeks helpless coffee gear heads like online betting websites seek gambling addicts, and I think even those that like their products resent them a bit for it. At over 80 USD for the z1 not including any of the growing list of accessories for this, it is obscenely overpriced for a small plastic cup with some holes on the top and bottom. You’ll also be quite locked in to the special Sibarist filters which perform well but are hard to come by and also very expensive. The Hoop is reasonably priced, and you can in theory use Aeropress filters, but in reality, the experience and cup are only worthwhile with either Sibarist filters or Scott Rao 62mm filters currently. The Rao filters are more reasonably priced when comparing them to the Sibarist options. Winner: Hoop by a longshot

Wrap up/TLDR

Either of these makes for an excellent travel brewer. These are worth considering if you don’t have a travel solution yet or if you are looking to switch your travel brewing to a pour over method. If you’re not traveling all that often and want to keep things as simple as possible, I would recommend the Hoop but do recommend the 3d-printed step down adapter to make sure you can fit it on your cup/mug. If you travel frequently or for longer durations and want to have some options to tweak your travel brew a bit, the Z1 offers some flexibility that is a little closer to more traditional pour over methods. If you haven’t quite gotten to the point where TSA is pulling coffee gear out of your luggage and giving you WTF looks, I would lean towards starting with the more reasonable price point and simplicity of the Hoop. What am I up to these days? I travel with the Z1 and I’ve parked my Hoop at work as a perfect yeah I have enough bandwidth to pay some attention to this Zoom meeting and brew a pour-over at the same time solution.

-- I already have a recommended HOOP brewing recipe and hope to have my Z1 recipe available by next week.

Do you already have a travel favorite brewer? Do you have another pour-over on the go solution?