Save for the obvious (you know, family, my dog, friends, blah blah blah), there are few things in this world I care more about than coffee. For me, it’s life’s greatest little pleasure. I go to bed excited about turning on my Moccamaster in the morning, and come 2 p.m., you know I’m heading to one of my favorite coffee shops in Lisbon (my latest obsession is Casa Casa Cafe) for an afternoon espresso. So, naturally, when it comes to traveling, coffee is the focus there, too. I’ve traveled the world searching for a great cup, and even (not-so-humble-brag incoming) scored an honorable mention in the NATJA Awards for a story I wrote about Panama’s Geisha beans. I’ve started flying with Cometeer to ensure I can have a great cup mid-flight and always come home with local beans as a souvenir. But nothing—truly, I mean this pretty literally—can ruin a hotel experience for me faster than walking in and seeing a coffee pod waiting for me. Because those simply do not qualify in my brain as coffee (I've done the math: an average Nespresso pod has about a third less caffeine than a regular cup of drip coffee). They are—at best—an appetizer coffee that could maybe tide me over until the real thing. The good news here is that there are plenty of hotels that take coffee just as seriously as I do. |
Windy Hill Farm and Preserve, located in East Tennessee, sources its beans from Counter Culture, often regarded as one of America’s best roasters and one of the nation’s most sustainably sourced. At Alma San Juan, in Puerto Rico, guests can sip on Gustos, a homegrown Puerto Rican roaster, which is part of the hotel’s larger commitment to the island's coffee sovereignty and the farmers reviving its mountain-grown crop. And at Cannúa, a luxury eco-lodge in Colombia, they source their beans from Cocondo farm in Titiribí, Antioquia.
“They were the first internationally certified organic coffee farm in the region about 30 years ago and even today are one of the most famous and high-scoring in the world for organics,” Brian Schon, the owner of the lodge, says. “At the restaurant, we serve their washed coffee, and we also offer a two-hour coffee workshop where we discuss the history of coffee and serve Cocondo in various methods. In our store at the hotel, we offer Cocondo washed, honey, and natural.”
There’s also Drift Nashville and Drift Santa Barbara, which serve Brandywine Coffee Roasters and Tectonic Coffee, respectively. One of my all-time favorite coffee hotel destinations is Legendary Lodge in Tanzania, which sits on its own century-old coffee farm, providing home-grown coffee to guests here and across its bush camps. Then, there’s Orli La Jolla in California, which always has Cafe Moto on offer.
“For many, coffee isn’t just a morning routine; it’s an integral part of the travel experience,” Max Waitt, the co-founder of Orli La Jolla, says. “Too many hotels fall short here, offering dusty Keurig machines in the room or burnt, generic roasts in the lobby. At Orli, we are completely redefining that standard. We believe you should never have to compromise on a great cup of coffee while on the road, which is why we’ve curated a multi-tiered coffee program designed for every type of coffee lover.” That includes complimentary, on-tap Nitro Cold Brew, a courtyard xBloom, often called the "Tesla of coffee machines," or even an in-room Chemex (Editor’s note: Max, if I wasn’t married, I’d ask you to marry me). And, as Waitt adds, “If you are truly a coffee aficionado, book The Café, a specialty guest room that comes permanently equipped with a Chemex setup and a complimentary bag of the Orli Blend to take home.”
So, no, don’t let other hotels fool you into thinking you have to suffer through pods. All you need to do is book the right hotel that shows that it really cares about how you wake up in the morning.
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