September 11, 2008
The Aerobie Coffee Maker (aka the Pump)
Tmonkey is very grumpy in the morning. He depends on his morning coffee to wake up!
Recently he purchased a new coffee making device called the Aeropress Coffee/Espresso Maker. The old espresso machine was pooping out, and this Aeropress was inexpensive and REQUIRED NO ELECTRICITY (except to heat up the water and grind the coffee).
Also interesting to note (and somewhat suspicious) is that this is the same company that makes those Aerobie flying discs. I almost decapitated someone with that thing in high school… Anyway, the Aeropress is very easy to use. You hardly have to read the instructions.
First the coffee beans: Today Tmonkey is having an Italian Roast from Empire Coffee & Tea.
Grind the beans for about 20 seconds. Do the bean-grinder dance.
No Tmonkey, the coffee grinder is not an electric shaver.
One of the key components to the Aeropress is this filter.
You place a little paper filter on it:
Then screw it onto the test tube component.
Scoop the ground coffee into the test tube.
And place the test tube atop a coffee mug.
Now we’re ready for the water. The Aeropress manual recommends water at 175 F, which is quite low (water boils at 212 F). (Fuck Farenheit, by the way, why can’t we convert to the metric system like the rest of civilization??) This lower temperature prevents the coffee from getting bitter. We have our Tiger water maker with a setting for 194 F. Close enough… 
Pour the water into the test tube.
And mix it up with the special paddle.
Allow the coffee to sit for a moment.
Now the pump part! This component, like the piston of a syringe, has a rubber gasket on one end.
This is what pushes the water through the filter and creates the rich, dark, coffee with little bitterness.
Good morning!
How awesome is this thing? Let me count the ways:
- Made by a frisbee company!
- Uses hardly any electricity (perfect for office or camping)!
- Cheap-o ($20!)
- Hardly any clean up of coffee grounds (you just pop the filter and grounds out and it practically cleans itself!)
- Fun to pump!
But all of these reasons would be meaningless if it didn’t make an amazing cup of coffee. Which Tmonkey insists it does. As a coffee nerd, he has tried every single method of making coffee — from the super high tech chemistry set Japanese siphon vacuum method to the totally low-tech cowboy coffee method (stay tuned, Tmonkey might do another post demonstrating this method) — and, according to Tmonkey: “The Aero-press makes an incredibly well-balanced, aromatic, pure expression of the coffee bean.”
Although I myself am not a coffee drinker, I’m quite fond of the Aeropress — i just get a huge kick out of the mechanics of this thing. I’ve been calling it the “Penis Pump” for obvious reasons, but the other day, I did happen to catch Tmonkey doing something else very strange with it…
13 Comments
Easy cleanup and versatile in providing function and pleasure! This sounds like a miracle product. Just don’t buy it from TV, yamahomo.
I like how the measurements look arbitrary: just 1, 2, 3, 4, no units of measurement. Mitame ayashii ne…
Looks like a great machine! And for only $20, what a steal. I think I will be ordering one of those…one can never have too many coffee-related gadgets!
oh the LOLzzz… that last pic is better than coffee! =D
this post is so good it has rendered me speechless. great pictures, easy to follow step-by-step directions, and Tmonkey, the best facial expressions ever.
made my day!!! i’m hella getting myself one of these pumps. SO COOL!!!
still dying.
Tmonkey did a great job!!! Loved this post :) The Tiger brand also makes good rice cookers, right?
The test tube is made of plastic though, right? Hmm.. not sure how I feel about boiling hot water in a plastic container though.
Actually, you should not use boiling hot water when making coffee! This is what causes coffee to taste bitter. You should use sub-200 F temperature water.
OMG OMG OMG!!! The best post of Umami!!
OMG! hahahaha
Oh I was just reading about this a few days ago…but it seemed kind of messy to me? I just bought a Nespresso machine that doesn’t work have you tried it before?
This is the least messy, easiest to clean coffee maker I’ve ever had. And I’m pretty lazy when it comes to cleaning up coffee grounds. With this, after you press, the coffee grounds are condensed into a hockey puck with the filter and you just pop it out into the trash, rinse off the top, and since the syringe really cleans the inside of the tube, that’s it! Easy peasy, coffee squeezy.
Aren’t those Nespesso things really expensive? And it doesn’t work? Doh.
HAHA BEST UMAMI PIC EVER…..
still……laughing…….
still……..laughing