My kids introduced me to the smooth brew of coffee made in an AeroPress, so I bought one.
It’s a simple device consisting of three inscrutable pieces of plastic that defy both intuition and logic. To use it, I googled, How to brew coffee in an AeroPress? In just six tenths of a second, I had over half a million answers. Clearly, I wasn’t the first to ask. Nor was I the first to be baffled by this coffeemaker’s simplicity.
I watched a two-minute video that demonstrated a perfect brew before attempting it myself.
I watched it again.
I’m usually a quick study of mechanical gadgets, but assembling the AeroPress pieces upside down was so counterintuitive, I had to start the video a third time and pause it after each step. I was rewarded with a cup of brown velvet.
The following morning, I tried to repeat my success, but in my pre-caffeinated fog, I misassembled the parts, flooding the counter with scalding water and grounds.
I watched the video yet again.
Over the course of a week, I variously filled the wrong chamber, failed to insert a filter, failed to secure the piece that holds the filter in place and tried to use the thing right side up.
Not only did each failure result in a hot mess delaying my first sip of essential mental lubricant, but each also helped me understand just why Google returned 552,000 answers describing how to brew coffee with this thing: It’s so simple, it requires a lot of explaining.
One of the beauties of the AeroPress is that it’s quick, yet the on-line instructions are lengthy. One had twelve steps, as if using the AeroPress were a recovery program. Another was a five-minute video for a process that takes ten seconds to two-and-a-half minutes, depending on whose instructions you believe.
There’s a world of instruction out there. And lots of advice for those who want to take the temperature of their brewing water and measure their coffee by weight. Now that I’ve got the hang of it, I wing it – and I get a great cup of coffee every time.
Full Disclosure: As much as I like my AeroPress, I have no affiliation with the company and do not stand to profit from divulging my AeroPress woes.
Your story is great. Ray and I got a good laugh at some of your adventures with the Aero Press.
I wished we knew you were having troubles with this lovely and complicated gadget as we have one and use it daily. It you need advice on some of the nuances of the press let us know, Ray would be happy to help. ✨☺️
We bring the Aero Press with us everywhere we travel. It’s great!!🎉✨💫
Now that I’ve made what I hope is every conceivable error, I’ve got the hang of it. But it’s that old chicken-and-egg conundrum: how do I make coffee before I’ve had fog-clearing cup?!