Oh for the sweet smell of coffee!

I dropped by my favourite haunt Ristretto Espresso on Friday to pick up the last Aerobie AeroPress coffee maker. I had read so much about this contraption online and wanted to jump on the bandwagon and see if it was really any good…..and the verdict? Absolutely fantastic! I don’t have to go to work now thinking that all I have got to use is Nescafe…yuck! Emanuele at Ristretto gave me a bag of their Custom Espresso, and threw in some Limu Ethiopian coffee to try. Very good for $70. And just to top it off, I ordered a takeaway flat white to go because I was on a coffee high.

The chemistry set.

Excuse my “layman’s terms” but I’ll do my best to give you an explanation of how it works. The coffee maker is like a syringe. You place a piece of filter paper onto the filter holder, and then screw the holder onto the beaker. This gets placed on top of a coffee mug, and you use the provided measuring spoon to place an amount of ground coffee into the beaker. Hot water is poured into the beaker (measured to level 1, 2, 3, or 4 – these indicate the number of espresso shots required), and then the mixture is stirred. The “pump with the rubber stopper” as I like to call it, fits into the beaker and is used to push the liquid mixture down so that the espresso shot(s) filter through the paper into the coffee mug. And voila! A simulated version of an espresso. It works in much the same way as an espresso machine in that you are getting a full-flavoured extraction from a coffee cake, but without the dense caramel colour. The resulting espresso is more liquid with a smooth taste. The pure beauty of it is in its simplicity. Maybe my explanation sounded a little too complex, but it is actually very easy to use.

Measuring spoon, stirrer and filter holder.

“Pump with the rubber stopper” and “Beaker”

More info on the AeroPress can be found at the Aerobie’s website here.
The Australian distributor for AeroPress can be here found here.

Alternatively, you can purchase the AeroPress at Ristretto Espresso in-store. They should be getting some new ones in stock soon.

Ristretto Espresso

Shop G18A, 160 Central Arcade
160 St George’s Tce, Perth

Mob: +61 415 954 814

Opening Hours:

Monday – Friday (6.30am – 3pm)