This is not an ad. I have yet to taste a drop of coffee from this birthday gift to my wife. I cannot say a thing about the quality of coffee it makes.
That said, I expect it to be good. My wife and I both like coffee brewed in a French press. The French press was, as far as I could determine, patented by the Italians Attilio Calimani and Giulio Moneta in 1929. No, it wasn't patented by the French first.
What is said to be the most popular design was patented by Faliero Bondanini in 1958. Bondanini was Swiss and not French but he did have his design manufactured in France. Still, the version that made the French press a household name in North America was a Danish company: Bodum.
What makes French press coffee special are the coffee oils remaining in the brew when poured. Sadly, some of these oils are said to change a coffee drinker's blood cholesterol, and not for the better. Paper coffee filters absorb some of these oils and so drip coffee is the brew of choice for those with hardening of the arteries.
Which brings us to the AeroPress. And American invention from Palo Alto, California, it is said to filter out the unhealthy coffee oils but somehow magically retain the full flavour of the ground coffee. To me, it looks like an American take on the French Press with a coffee filter added.
I call it ingenious as it certainly addresses the concerns of those with certain heart disease problems by removing the heart-offending coffee oils. Sales are through the roof. Bodum is jealous, I'm sure. If the coffee is no better than that from a drip machine, it is a rip-off but one in tune with history. The Americans have to get in line behind the Swiss, the French and the Danes when claiming bragging rights to the creative invention of a pair of Italians almost a century ago.
1 comment:
This is the first I've heard of it.
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