Have coffee maker, will travel
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My friend Janet is quite possibly the pickiest person I know, and that’s saying something, surrounded as I am by people who spend hours debating the ins and outs of antique peach varieties and various Burgundian vineyard sites.
How picky is she? Whenever she travels -- even just overnight -- she has to take her own coffee maker with her. Of course, it’s not just any coffee maker, it’s the AeroPress, made in California and designed by a Stanford engineering lecturer named Alan Adler. It is available at some Sur La Table stores for $29.95, or online for a few dollars less on Amazon.com, where it has gotten more than 400 perfect five-star reviews. [Updated at 4:00 p.m.: An earlier version of this post said the AeroPress was rarely found in stores.]
It comes in two main parts: a chamber for brewing and a plunger for pressing. You put a filter in the bottom of the chamber, add ground coffee and fill it with hot water. Then you place the chamber directly over your coffee cup (a funnel that makes this easier is included) and after 30 seconds or so, press down with the plunger. It’s kind of like a French press, except that the coffee doesn’t sit on the grounds after brewing.
The resulting brew is really terrific, clean and bright without any sludgy over-brewed flavor. And, of course, the whole kit and caboodle is made from hard plastic, so it’s both light and sturdy -- perfect for taking on the road. So perfect, in fact, that Janet and her husband (a fairly picky guy in his own right) now travel with a his-and-hers matched pair .
AeroPress coffee maker, $23.45 on Amazon.com
-- Russ Parsons
