MemeMachineGo!

Pocahontas and I have had a coffee habit for a few months now. We get our grounds at Peet’s; we brewed them in a French press, according to this somewhat labor-intensive method, — letting it steep a minute, stirring it, letting it steep another 90 seconds. It made a nice cup of coffee, the grounds at the bottom of the cup (an inevitable consequence of using a French press) notwithstanding.

I was intrigued when I heard about the Aeropress coffee maker on Digg and MeFi. After dithering for a day, I decided to get it. I was afraid the web exposure could mean it would be back-ordered everywhere, but Locals Only Coffee’s order system gave me a mid-3-digit customer ID and a very-low-4-digit order number.

Some of the serious coffee geeks at, um, Coffee Geeks describe being pleasantly surprised; one reviewer at Locals Only Coffee says:

How in the world can something so simple work so well? In one minute flat we have the sweetest espresso or American cup anyone in this house has ever tasted. Our $1,100 espresso machine and our $150 drip machine have been moved out to the garage.

I don’t know anything about home espresso machines for comparison, but I am thrilled with my Aeropress. It’s faster than making coffee in the French press, makes better-tasting, incredibly smooth coffee, and is trivially easy to clean. I was bothered by the idea of disposable paper filters, but they’re just flat circles two inches across and can be used multiple times — the inventor says he uses his 21 times.

Now I’ve bought decaf grounds so I can have a cup in the evening without being up all night. I’ve already brought it with me on a trip — it’s small, and travels well. I’ll probably get another to keep one at work.

The Aeropress: I’m for it.