The AeroPress

My wife Gail and I are self proclaimed coffee snobs. We like our coffee strong, robust and fresh. We have been buying whole bean coffee and  grinding our own beans since 1978, and have had every kind of coffee brewer, espresso maker and French Press you can imagine. My wife and I are now empty nesters. Our son Joshua is married with a family of his own. Our daughter Michelle is away at college. We no longer need to make a full pot of coffee every morning. But, we are strong believers in sustainability and recycling so we will never ever buy one of the fancy expensive single cup coffee makers that are so popular.

These one cup coffee machine, such as the Keurig and Tassimo, seem to have become ubiquitous. I see their little “k-cups” and coffee pods everywhere. Although expensive, many people have opted for the convenience  offered by these single serving coffee systems. According to the Los Angeles Times, in the 12 months ending in November, nearly 46% of the dollars going toward the purchase of coffee or espresso makers went to single-serve machines. The L.A. times story reports that according to Keurig 13% of all US offices has one of their machines.

The problem with this is that single servings of anything, by definition, have more packaging and create more waste than buying the same product in bulk. In this case, the environmental impact is complicated by the difficulty in recycling the single serving k-cups and pods. Tim Wall at Discovery News points out that the k-cups are made of a plastic shell, lined with a paper filter and topped with aluminum. Individually, the components are recyclable, but put together they can only be trashed. What’s more, the compostable coffee grounds are trapped inside.

So how to make a single or double cup of really good coffee while staying true to our core values? The answer turned out to be a $30 little plastic coffee maker called the AeroPress. I had kept coming across references to it in different blogs but couldn’t find it in any local store. The reviews were simply amazing. As explained by Mike Crimmins in his Daily Shot of Coffee Blog, the Aeropress came from inventor Alan Adler, who is best known for his Aerobie flying ring and similar toys. He took a scientific approach to making coffee and came up with the Aeropress.

The Aeropress is a simple machine. According to Gizmag the AeroPress delivers the smoothest, richest, purest and fastest cup of coffee (under 30 seconds) you’re likely to find.  The AeroPress can make up to four cups of great coffee at a time, much faster than my espresso machine or a single cup system. I have to agree and best of all, the only consumables used are the coffee grounds and the small paper filter, both of which are compostable.