Knowing about the Aeropress coffee maker years ago would have saved me some nasty coffee days. Before I started living in my RV, I used a French press to make my coffee. I had thought it would transition well to the RV life since it wasn’t an electric coffee maker. A coffee maker would not only take an electrical plug, it would also take counter space, even a four cup machine. Win right?
Well, hold on and let’s think things through. With my French press, the coffee grounds are smashed into the bottom underneath the screen. This means that on the bottom of the press you have compact grounds to deal with during cleanup. So even though it has a small footprint, it is helpful to have an unlimited water supply with a garbage disposal.
RV’s are different
In an RV, when not hooked up to water and sewer, you have to fill the water tank and empty the black and gray tanks periodically. A French press takes lots of water to rinse out. And it can deposit grounds into your holding tank. It becomes a bigger problem than the coffee maker that allows you to easily dispose of the grounds in the trash. Even scooping up the grounds in paper towel is messy and you still end up with some grounds in your tank. Not to mention the need to keep extra paper towel, which takes up space for storage. There are other RV food challenges, but this one is about coffee.
I ended up getting a holder to put on top of the mug and pour the water over the coffee. It works. It makes a good cup of coffee and doesn’t take up much space. This was an adequate solution for a good while, but it would have been a better one if I didn’t work so early in the morning.
The only problem with this method of making coffee is the time you have to take to make it. You are the coffee maker now. You have to add water and wait for it to brew or drain through the filter, as long as it takes to fill your cup. And when you’re filling up a “cup” for work, it’s more like one and a half to 2 cups, which takes longer.
Getting coffee at work
Any morning that was not the normal routine flow could delay things waiting to make coffee. I found over time I would simply put some cream in my mug and get my coffee at work. This created other issues, like the quality and taste of the coffee, or like how old or strong the coffee was.
I work in the shop, and guys have coffee 24 hours a day. The shop does CNC milling so there are also particulate’s in the air that will settle on surfaces. A communal coffee maker in the shop with particulate’s in the air is fine for some people. I am not one of those. If I made the coffee that morning I would clean the coffee pot, and the container that held the grounds too.
There were a couple guys who made the coffee about the same strength as I did, and one of them would also clean the pot and the filter holder. But there were also guys that made extra strong coffee. Because I did not like their coffee I never found out if they even rinsed anything.
Daily I would put creamer in my mug, which was more than I would use if I were making coffee at home. I only had one chance. If the coffee was too strong extra cream would hopefully make it drinkable. Even if it was not as strong, it was still Folgers, not Don Francisco’s, so extra was still not too much to ruin it. Then there was the job of determining who made the coffee before pouring a cup. The days I could make the coffee where the best obviously, but it was a game of roulette every day. Coffee was simply functional and having my morning cup lost all of it’s joy.
My world changed
Then one day one of the fellas of work rocked my world. He told me about something called an Aeropress coffee maker. When I went home that day I started researching all the things he told me about and well, my world changed.
The way the Aeropress coffee maker works is similar to a French press. But the water is pushed out of the press into the mug instead of smashing the grounds in the bottom and then pouring out the coffee. This method creates a smashed “puck” of coffee grounds. The puck can be popped directly into the trash and then rinse off the Aeropress – no mess.
So the Aeropress coffee maker doesn’t require a lot of water to rinse and won’t put grounds in the tank. It has a smaller footprint than my French press. It doesn’t take up counter space or require an electrical outlet, and it’s fast. Heat the water, pour it into the press, plunge the coffee into the mug, pop the puck, done!
But the best part is, the coffee is delicious! Best coffee I’ve had. And, I use less creamer normally now. When I started intermittent fasting and had to really watch the cream, I was able to use a tablespoon in my coffee and it would be okay with the flavor. Creamer can cause an insulin response if you’re insulin resistant.
An Aeropress coffee maker was the best discovery I’ve made for coffee. Even if I weren’t in an RV I would make coffee this way. I would recommend it just on the basis of the coffee flavor alone. But add that it is RV friendly, actually even tent camping friendly, I’m sold.
Static RV Food Challenges