Traveling Kitchen for a Digital Nomad - Beverage Edition

Part Three — How to travel with your favorite kitchen beverage gadgets

The kitchen is not just about food; it also provides us with beverages. In two previous stories, I shared handy cooking gadgets and multifunctional kitchen utensils. In this final article, I will focus on quenching your thirst while traveling.

Building a community is a natural part of expat life or being a digital nomad. We often meet others over drinks, hot or cold. Connecting over beverages is not only fun but can also be an activity shared with friends. However, it requires having some handy kitchen gadgets. 

I have learned to travel with some checked baggage or in some cases, team carry-on worthy items. Remember to check the airline or airport regulations for carry-ons to avoid having your gadget confiscated. Do not be like me, who got my pack of four metal straws taken away and labeled as “potential” weapons by airport security. 

Here are the next four kitchen items I took with me when I went from being an expat to being a digital nomad.

A collapsible funnel

I love making mixed drinks for fun. No, not the alcoholic kind, but the frozen type. I often live in the tropics, and frozen beverages are a lifesaver. I typically combine juice, water, and some form of carbonated drink. I reuse water or soda bottles to store my frozen refreshers. To make refilling my bottles easy, I use a small collapsible funnel that is budget-friendly and planet-friendly.

Bottlebrush

Being a planet-friendly traveler means having a bottle brush for your traveling water bottle, or cleaning the disposable plastic water or soda bottles to make them reusable. Your brush will be a necessary tool if you create frozen drinks like those mentioned under the collapsible funnel. 

To reuse water or soda bottles as many times as possible before finally discarding them, will require a bottle brush for proper cleaning. The brush can also be used for cleaning a glass jar like the one your store-bought pasta sauce came in, thus making it reusable too.

A wine/bottle opener

I typically travel with a metal wine/bottle opener because, in many countries, the bottles are not plastics or twist-off caps. Globally, carbonated drinks still come in glass bottles with metal caps. I have also stayed in housing accommodations that do not have a wine corker or bottle opener, so carrying your own makes life easy. 

While an opener will primarily be for bottles, you can get creative and carefully use it for opening canned items if there is no can opener available in your living space.

Steel mixing ball

A mixing ball is the ideal beverage tool for making cold slushy cocktails or mocktails. Invite some new acquaintances and demonstrate your mixing skills while having good laughs. Continue the mixology with classic drinks “shaken not stirred.” 

Your hosting skills might just make your place a hotspot for happy hour. Another excellent use for the mixing ball is with non-beverages, such as mixtures for scrambling eggs or omelets using your chopped ingredients, and the mixing ball in a jar or shaker cup.

The bonus item is a drinking straw set. Your choice of metal, bamboo, or reusable hard plastic straws is an amazing way to go on the road during these new health precautious times and try to protect yourself. Having such items can alleviate any stress or pressure of contamination or sharing the virus. 

I typically have a set of straws, both long, short, or curved, and a long teaspoon as well, that I carry around that serves me well whether I have been in a hotel with cooking privileges, or in short-term on the road grabbing a soda or coconut water.

In the end, all gadgets and utensils shared in all three articles are small. 

Most of them are flat in nature; therefore, they will not take up a lot of space in your suitcase or carry-on. Many of them are not only useful in the kitchen, but could also be used for other general purposes. Thus, it can be a benefit to have them as handy utensils while you are traveling for months at a time, staying in accommodation that permits cooking. 

If you enjoy being in the kitchen, having utensils that you are familiar with or are your favorites brings a sense of comfort while on the road. Buy your favorite from my affiliate store or a local retailer, pack them inside or between clothes, and have fun cooking on your travels. 

Your cooking experience should be hassle-free even while traveling short-term.

Happy cooking and drinking!