The Perfect Cup of Coffee Doesn’t Exi—

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It’s been a while since I’ve told you about an inventor from my old Inventor Portraits Project, so let me tell you today about Alan Adler. He invented two things that you have almost certainly seen even if you haven’t used them yourself, and you would never guess that they were invented by the same person.

I’m talking about the Aerobie Flying Ring and the AeroPress Coffee Maker.

I didn’t even realize that they were invented by the same person when I decided to reach out to Alan for my project. The AeroPress was very hot at the time and I kept seeing mentions of it all over the place. I knew that people liked to customize how they used it to the point that there were AeroPress coffee-making competitions to see who could make the best cup of coffee with an AeroPress.

I finally got one for myself after seeing a short video Adam Lisagor made about his AeroPress ritual.

I figured that if the coffee maker had so many fans, a video about the man behind the coffee maker would surely be a hit. When I looked into its inventor and discovered that he also invented the Aerobie toy that I played with when I was a kid, I was delighted to discover a broader story than I originally anticipated.

The Aerobie, if you don’t know, is a ring that’s thrown kind of like a Frisbee, but is aerodynamically designed to fly much further. In fact, the world record for the furthest distance an object has ever been thrown is 406 meters with an Aerobie!

So I sent Alan an email asking if he’d participate in my project, and he said yes, becoming the 46th inventor in the series.

We met at his office in Los Altos, California, near Stanford, for a video interview and photo shoot. I’d designed a coffee mug that featured a simplified rendering of the Aerobie — an object that sort of combined his two major inventions — and brought it as a prop for our photos and as a gift for him to keep. I think it looked pretty neat.

Since I was making a video, I needed some footage of the Aerobie in action. So we went to a school playground nearby to throw the Aerobie in an open field for b-roll. I learned that I had been throwing the Aerobie wrong my whole life. I tended to throw it with a slightly upward slant, like I would a Frisbee. But the Aerobie is designed to fly best when thrown flat and level.

Just look at this actual unedited shot, and keep your eye on the Aerobie:

It flies so straight! Not only does it not get any lower as it travels through that image, but I swear at the end it looks like it might be getting higher!

The lip of the Aerobie is designed like an airplane’s wing to give it a bit of lift as it travels. And being thin, it doesn’t encounter a lot of resistance like a Frisbee does, so it goes a lot further.

Here’s how Popular Science explained the physics in 1986:

While we were at the playground, I took some photos of Alan with his invention:

And before we left the school grounds, Alan played me some music on an instrument he designed and built based on the Japanese shakuhachi.

Back at his office, we talked about the AeroPress.

He described what motivated him to find a better way of making coffee:

Eventually he settled on the design that people came to love, making a single cup of coffee in just about a minute.

We shot video where he elaborates on the process, explains why people prefer AeroPress coffee, and demonstrates how he uses his AeroPress.

You can watch the full finished video telling Alan’s story about both inventions here:

Another coffee man

A couple years later, I had an opportunity to make a video with another person important to the world of coffee: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. This was well before his disastrous Presidential bid.

I was only going to have access to him for about 10 minutes, so I came up with an idea for how to make the most of his time. I asked his team how he prefers to make coffee and learned that he likes to use a French press. So the structure of the piece would be: The Starbucks CEO demonstrates how he makes coffee and while it’s steeping he answers some questions printed on index cards.

We shot it at the then-new Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle, which gave me some opportunities to capture some lovely b-roll.

I was really happy with how it turned out!

The opening shot with the barista putting down the cup that says “Howard” was filmed weeks later at a Starbucks near my office. The barista nailed the placement and angle of the cup in one take, and had perfect handwriting for this. I don’t think I’ve ever seen better barista handwriting.

Maybe one day I’ll have a reason to make a third video about someone important to the world of coffee, completing my coffee trilogy. I don’t know who that might be. Any suggestions?

In the meantime, thanks as always for reading. And if you aren’t already playing Gisnep, what are you waiting for?

Someone recently asked me if Gisnep is pronounced with a hard or soft G and I realized I may have inadvertently created a gif situation. For the record, I say Gisnep with a hard G (unlike gif, of course).

Your help spreading the word about this newsletter (and Gisnep) is always appreciated, as are any donations you might be inclined to give to keep my projects going.

See you next time!

David