This is Not a TOP Post

So stop criticizing me. This is not a TOP post. It's just a P.S. to last Sunday.

Here's the Aerobie Aeropress, is all I wanted to say. (Right, same people who make the flying ring.)

Here's how to use it.

I like this video because he pours the water in to "hate it up." (Note that he's also using the word "cafetiere," which might be unfamiliar to you. It just means French press.)

Despite his array of fancy equipment, the Aeropress comes with everything you need to use it except hot water, ground coffee, and a mug. And it passes the coffee through paper, which some people insist on for health reasons*.

The Aeropress makes a lovely cup of coffee and is fun and cheap and quick to experiment with. Try it.

Mike. Whatever.

(P.S. I'm not really miffed about the criticisms. I can stop with the off-topic posts and we can go back to photo-only or -mostly. I don't mind. I have the perfect job, for me, and if I ever complain, I shouldn't.)

*It reduces about the only harmful chemical in coffee, called cafestol, a stimulator of LDL cholesterol, to neglible levels. (If you drink boiled or percolated coffee, get your cholesterol checked—and if it's high, switching to paper-filtered coffee could help.)

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Roger Bradbury: "If you think that this is not a TOP post, then you need to wake up and smell the...er, the...er...um....

"Come on, Mike, that was just too easy!  :-]  "

robert e: "A wonderful (for some; for others, frustrating) thing about Aeropress is how forgiving it is. A relatively large range of grind size, temps, timings and pour/stir/steep tactics will net you decent to terrific coffee. It's also very tolerant of inconsistent grinds, as you can get from cheaper grinders. Some will want to dial in and lock down those variables and will have or get the equipment to do so. But those who'd rather just ballpark it will get great coffee easily."

Comments

[Richard]

What are your thoughts on coffee mugs? :-)

[Chip McDaniel]

Mike:

It's YOUR blog. Personally, I enjoy the OT posts. I drink coffee and grind my own beans. I don't play pool, but enjoy reading information about it of which I was unaware. Write what you want. You own it. Part of "blogness" in my opinion, is that a blog should reflect the interests and opinions of the blogger. If some people don't think the blog meets their needs, either topically or editorially, they can move one to other blogs. Keep on doing what you like. I and most others will be here to read you.

Chip McDaniel

[Steve Rosenblum]

I have an Aeropress. What's the best grind for it? [He shows you in the linked video. --Mike]

[Andre Y]

I like this one from Tim Wendelboe, who uses the right-side up method (I'm an inverter), and pretty minimal tools except for the Ditting grinder. Hmm, a Ditting or an Otus ...

The music's great too, and there's a complete recipe listing at the end.

https://vimeo.com/16261120

[Andre Y]

Steve, you can do a pretty fine grind on it since it uses a paper filter. Experiment and see what you like. Finer grinds will emphasize the bitter notes in a coffee bean, and the slightly pressurized extraction of the Aeropress will tend towards the sour, so be aware of that.

Coffee, in a very basic sense, lives on a spectrum that goes from sour (underextracted) to bitter (overextracted). You want to find the sweet spot on that spectrum for your tastes, and that takes some experimentation. There are other flavors that come out and the balance can emphasize and deemphasize other flavors, so this is a simplistic model, but it gets you in the right ballpark.

If you like lightly roasted beans, as is the fashion amongst the hipster coffee crowd, you might want a finer grind and slightly cooler water. The Aeropress does great with dark roasts, because of its pressure extraction. Peet's has their amazing Ethiopian Supernatural out now for another week or so, but their Arabian Mocha Sanani is one of the great coffees you can get relatively easily.

[Aaron]

The aeropress + taller Porlex manual grinder make a perfect travel set up. The tall skinny grinder fits inside the plunger of the aeropress - the whole shebang hardly takes up any space. For maximum packability (and a guarantee it'll be checked by TSA, in my experience), you can fill the top and bottom of the grinder with beans.

[Jason in Hawaii]

Inverted Aeropress with Blue Bottle Bella Donovan beans (delivered to my door biweekly) fresh ground in a Baratza Encore grinder on #6 with water just off boiling....Yeah, I think it's safe to say both of my feet are in the geek pool.

[Marten Collins]

Mike do keep on writing as you do. In any case as a coffee and lens addict I appreciate your thoughts!

[John Seidel]

Mike, write about any topic that holds your attention. Like most people, I have multifarious interests as well, and I find your commentary on various topics quite enjoyable. Those who seek to ingest one topic continuously can go fly many kites.

[Marc Gibeault]

Much simpler and so much better (it's also my exact setup);
http://youtu.be/C9Dmawmzh7Q

[Thomas Paris]

I don't care about coffee at all so don't care about these posts a single bit, but there's no way I'd complain about your writing about what you care about. There's so much more on TOP to please me that a couple of coffee-related posts don't bother me and if they make you happier, I'll even love them for that.

[Stephen Gibson]

I'll have to disagree, partially, with Andre Y above and say that the I've gotten my best results with light-roast coffees when I use a pretty coarse grind. Very close to French Press coarse, in fact.

Low temps I agree with, around 79C.

[Andy Munro]

Mike,

I am happy with the way the blog runs. As some have commented it is your blog.

I'm not so interested in the music off-topic posts but then all I have to do is just scroll past them.

Keep up the good work, its all enjoyable.

Cheers,

Andy

[Gerry]

Thank you, Mike. I had been considering getting an Aeropress. I'll give it a try.

[hugh crawford]

Ceci n'est pas une commentaire

Really, this morning I wrote "This Is Not A Comment" and I almost pressed the Post button, but then I thought, geez Mike probably already has a dozen or so Not Comments , why add to the pile.

Cafestol ehh? I guess that means that I should probably stop munching on coffee beans like peanuts.

[Skip Davis]

Mike…You can write anything you want and I will read it along with my morning coffee. I am at my desk by 5:00 am every morning and I have about 7 other websites that I read over each and every morning. Then I grab my road bike and go for a 20 or so mile ride.
My camera use has all but stopped and I am still very angry at Adobe. It took me a long time to save up enough money to buy my first Photo Shop program. At the time I bought it, the person at the Adobe store did not bother to tell me I was buying a dead version and that there would never be an up date or follow up version. So now I am stuck with a PS program that will just dye in time and that is that. Thanks Adobe. OK, so now that is off my chest.
Mike keep up the good work and just write what pleases you, and I will read and enjoy it along with my fresh ground pour over cup of coffee in the morning.

[GH]

Mike, I think your coffee posts could not have come at a better time. I just moved to the coffee land of Portland, and I've started drinking less tea and more coffee. I just received my AeroPress yesterday, via your recommendation, and I'm already making better coffee at home than I ever have. I can only imagine how good it'll be once I get things dialed in. Thanks!

[Marc Gibeault]

Hugh, you have to say "ceci n'est pas un commentaire"