How do you brew the perfect cup of coffee at home without an expensive coffee machine?
Up until a few years ago, the answer was, you couldn’t. But thanks to AeroPress, brewing a clean
and smooth cup of coffee is quick and easy. But where did this revolutionary coffee
maker come from, and why has it taken over the coffee world?
Join us as we break down AeroPress and learn more about who invented it,
what inspired its invention, and why it got so popular.
To understand how AeroPress came to be, we first need to understand
a bit about its inventor Alan Adler. A Standford professor and life-long inventor,
Adler started his career in the 60s as an engineer. He designed submarine
and nuclear reactor controls, instrumentation systems for military aircraft, and optics.
A curious person, Adler pursued a variety of hobbies. Because he always wanted to
make things better, he invented things based on these hobbies. He now holds more than 40 patents
ranging from mirrors for astronomy, a race-winning sailboat, and designs for a Japanese flute.
One big fascination for Adler was flight. So, in the 1970s,
he started working on designing a flying disc that was easy for the average person to throw.
The result was the Skyro, which he licensed to toy manufacturer Parker
Brothers. Even though it sold a million units, it wasn’t enough to maintain their interest,
and they returned the license to him. But the Skyro had one major problem. You had
to throw it at the right speed for it to fly optimally. So Adler spent the next six years
optimizing the disc. He discovered that a spoiler lip around the disc solved the issue.
This time, Adler decided to launch the product, known as the Aerobie Pro, himself.
Adler got tons of publicity for the Aerobie Pro because a toy being invented by a wacky
college professor made good headlines. This led to early success for the disc.
Adler’s goal for the Aerobie Pro was to outsell Frisbee’s 10 million units,
which he has more than achieved. Since the success of the Aerobie Pro,
the company has released 18 aerodynamic toys,
including a football with fins and a dog-proof disc. But, a conversation
with his sales manager’s wife would prompt Adler to invent his most popular product.
The question that pushed Adler into action was “what do you do when you want one cup of coffee?”
with both agreeing that coffee from a drip maker is terrible.
So Adler started trying to discover how to make the perfect cup of coffee, not
thinking he was working on his next product. He developed some methods to make pretty good
filter coffee. But he also noticed that the 4-5 minutes it took for the coffee to pour
through the filter added a bunch of bitterness. So Adler started experimenting with ways of making
the brew-time shorter. He came up with the design of the AeroPress, which, using air pressure,
reduced this time to less than a minute. After making the first prototype in his garage and
tasting the resulting coffee, Adler was blown away by the results. He invited Aerobie General Manager
Alex Tennet to his house, who, after tasting a cup, said, “Alan, I can sell a ton of these.”
Adler spent the next year refining the product because he didn’t know how to use it himself yet.
The result was the simple to use AeroPress. All you had to do was put in 2-4 scoops of coffee
into the plastic tube, add 175-degree water, stir for ten seconds, and insert the plunger.
Then slowly push down to get a pure cup of coffee that was about as strong as espresso.
An unintended feature of this method is that it self-cleans the device as you use it.
In 2005, at Seattle’s Coffee Fest, Adler debuted the AeroPress, which was well-received.
Still, in the first few years after its launch, sales of AeroPress were low.
Tennant even had to convince a prominent sales rep group not to drop the product.
What made things even tougher was that there were many coffee makers AeroPress had to compete
against in the same price range. But it set itself apart by creating fresh, single servings
of coffee compared to the 8-12 cup drip makers. The company decided to focus on what AeroPress did
best, make a great cup of coffee. They kept attending trade shows and sending products
to food writers and coffee experts. This tenacity paid off when, in 2008, sales started to rise.
One strategy Adler used to get the coffee community on his side was to join a popular coffee
forum. Here he answered almost 700 questions users had about his product on the site.
This attention helped the AeroPress become popular not just in the US but also internationally.
Fans like the AeroPress because it’s easy to make a quick, clean, and smooth cup of coffee.
But there’s another reason why coffee-lovers are drawn to the product, its hackability.
AeroPress is perfect for people who want control over all aspects of the brewing
process. It allows you to adjust all of its variables, including temperature,
brew-time, coffee water ratio, and more. The customizable nature of the product has led
to several feature-extending inventions. These include a reusable metal filter,
specialized brew stations, and weights that push down on the plunger for you.
This popularity and flexibility has led to a fun expression of AeroPress obsession,
the World AeroPress Championships. Since 2008, baristas using different
recipes have been competing to make the perfect cup of coffee with AeroPress.
In 2017 Adler sold the Aerobie toy line and renamed the company AeroPress Inc. He
started focusing on a new product, resulting in the release of a travel-sized model called
the AeroPress Go. Now AeroPress doesn’t
disclose its revenue figures. Still, with the original AeroPress retailing for $29.95
and the AeroPress Go selling for $31.95 and having sold more than a million units, it’s safe to say
that the business is doing alright. After 16 years of heading up AeroPress,
Adler decided to sell a majority investment to Tiny Capital for a reported $70 million.
While AeroPress has gone from a slow-seller to one of the best-known coffee-makers, little has
changed with the product. Apart from some visual upgrades, it’s still the same AeroPress.
And although they introduced a new product with the AeroPress Go,
Adler has always said he isn’t interested in making a larger AeroPress. Still, with new
ownership, this could change in the future. Whatever the future holds for AeroPress,
what can be said is that thanks to Adler, a fresh, clean, and smooth
cup of coffee is less than a minute away. From designing control systems for submarines
to inventing record-breaking flying discs, Adler’s constant curiosity has taken him from engineering
to the toy industry. His desire to improve things has netted him over 40 patents. This includes a
revolutionary coffee-maker that’s captured the hearts of millions of coffee lovers worldwide.
That’s it for our breakdown of AeroPress. What do you think of this innovative coffee maker?
Do you think it makes the best coffee, or is it overrated?
Which business would you like us to break down next? Let us know in the comments.