Zachary Crockett för Priceonomics:
The AeroPress was conceived at Alan Adler’s dinner table. The company was having a team meal, when the wife of Aerobie’s sales manager posed a question: “What do you guys do when you just want one cup of coffee?”
A long-time coffee enthusiast and self-proclaimed “one cup kinda guy,” Adler had wondered this many times himself. He’d grown increasingly frustrated with his coffee maker, which yielded 6-8 cups per brew. In typical Adler fashion, he didn’t let the problem bother him long: he set out to invent a better way to brew single cup of coffee.
Fascinating story about my favorite way to brew coffee, and about the 70 year old toy maker who invented it. The AeroPress has received somewhat of a cult status among coffee enthusiasts and become a huge success for the company, but it apparently wasn’t a cakewalk to enter the market when your product looks like a chemistry set for beginners. Go figure.
Speaking of which: I recently registered the domain name kaffeguide.se (Swedish for coffee guide). More about that in a week or two.