Aerobies: from flying rings to coffee

Some years ago, in addition to our Frisbee disks, we acquired an Aerobie flying ring. It was the champ for long distance throws. In fact, it has been thrown over 400 meters. We didn’t come anywhere close to that, but we sure could throw it farther than a Frisbee. I never developed the ability to throw it accurately, however.

It was thin, with minimal wind resistance, and it sometimes disappeared on approach when it was just exactly edge-on. Even though it had a soft rubber edge, it was a little scary. I haven’t seen ours for years—it has either wedged itself into some dark place in the garage, or it was banished to the island of unused toys.

I recently bought another Aerobie, but it doesn’t fly. In a remarkable break with its tradition as a toymaker, Aerobie invented a coffee maker, and I have to say, it makes really good coffee. Technically, I guess it is a coffee press. The filter goes at the bottom of a plastic tube, ground coffee goes into the tube, add a bit of 175° water, stir for 10 seconds, and press the brew through the filter with a rubber tipped plunger. What comes out is rather like espresso. I add more water for a nice Café Americano. It takes me about four-and-a-half minutes to make a cup, and I could do it faster but I’m lazy. One down-side is that it can only make two cups at a time (and pressing the brew through two cups worth of grounds is a bit more effort than for a single cup). Another down-side is that I need to use more coffee grounds, but I get a richer, less bitter coffee than using a drip coffee maker.