Coffee A-Go-Go

My girlfriend headed off to Chicago this morning on business. Planning for her trip, she faced the age old question: "What if I can't find a decent coffee shop while I am away?" Okay, maybe it isn't age old, but it is one that I have been mulling over for some time now, ever since Erin came back from Memphis complaining that she couldn't find anything that had the caffeine kick she needed to get started in the mornings. Not wanting to take the blame again for having got her hooked on the high-octane stuff in the first place, I packed her off with a coffee kit containing several single-serving, air-tight vials of freshly roasted and ground coffee and a device called an Aeropress. The Aeropress (which gets it's name in part from the fact that it is marketed by Aerobie, the company that started by selling those ring-type non-Frisbee brand frisbees) has the advantages of being not only portable and hand operated, but also capable of brewing at relatively low temperatures. The latter feature is important in case the only access you have to hot water is an hotel-room auto-drip coffee machine. If you read my first posting you know, the average coffee machine rarely produces water much above 185 degrees. I'll be sure to let you know how it works out.