Status-Q

OK, I admit it – I’m hooked. It was my friend Hap who first told me how he’d tried it and enjoyed it at a friend’s house, and then another friend gave me a sample and I decided I had to have this…

I’m talking, of course, about the Aeropress – a coffee-making device from those people at Aerobie who brought you the better Frisbee. This is a better cafetière. I’m pretty fussy about coffee and I think this makes perhaps the best I’ve ever had. Actually, it’s a sort of cross between a cafeterière (or French press) and an espresso maker, because it pushes the water through under pressure. The hot water only stays on the grounds for about 20 seconds, which I think is part of the key to its success.

I’ve long been a fan of my Nespresso machine, but I have to admit it’s been standing idle for the last couple of days since this arrived. The Aeropress has been on sale in the US for a while but it’s only fairly recently that you’ve been able to find it easily in the UK – I bought mine on amazon.co.uk for a small fraction of the price of the Nespresso machine.

A very fine bit of design, and definitely recommended.

You can see one in action here:

I use water from a not-quite-boiled kettle rather than doing the microwave thing, but this shows you how quick the process is. Oh, and the stirring is important.