If you don’t believe that coffee makes you a more productive, creative, attractive, interesting, and overall better person, then you may not find the rest of this post very interesting. I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a coffee geek. True, I occasionally roast my own beans, and will sometimes indulge in the zen of a pour-over, but most days I can make my peace with Mr. Coffee if it comes out strong enough. But that all changed when the Aeropress entered my life.
Like broadband, mobile phones and DVRs, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to remember what the world was like before Aeropress. I vaguely recall a notion that there were two worlds of coffee: the one at home where I could make something well above functional, but acceptably short of sublime, and the other in the outside world of expensive espresso machines operated by artful barristas in some aromatic sacrosanctum. For less than $30, the Aeropress collapsed those worlds into two minutes of meditative perfection.
I should host this in my kitchen
Coffee is a ritual. I know that I am not unique in the peace of mind that I experience in the particular and personal way in which I prepare, measure, grind, filter, and execute the first and most important cup of the day. But with almost every method, you must ultimately disconnect yourself and trust the machine, the process, or simply time itself. Once your water is heated and your beans are ground, you are less than one minute away from coffee, but the Aeropress requires you to become part of the process. Without rehashing the details of how the system works, which is more thoroughly described elsewhere, the Aeropress requires you to exercise equal parts patience, finesse, judgment, and care. In other words, it takes a bit of practice, but you feel a true sense of connection with your coffee. For what it’s worth, in my opinion, the properly-executed result is as good or better than what I can get in a cafe in the Bay Area, which is High Praise across the board. If you’re looking for a good bean, I’ve been pretty fixated on Highwire Espresso.
You’re probably wondering, what on earth does this have to do with Immersive Storytelling Technology? Well, I’m not going to lie to you, strictly speaking, nothing. However, it’s worth noting that the Aeropress is known as an immersion brewing method. While simple, it has enough science and technique behind it to qualify as technology. And as far as I’m concerned, after a cup of this stuff, I’m ready to jump into just about anything creative, including my favorite pursuit: storytelling.
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