The American Press represents the best of American ingenuity. Ypsilanti, Michigan based designer and coffee lover, Alexander Albanese, saw a problem, found a beautiful, simple solution and turned to the people at large to help make it a reality. The problem that Albanese saw was that his coworkers seemed to like making coffee in a French Press, but wanted nothing to do with cleaning a French Press. This paradox of sorts undermines the selling point of a French Press, which is that it brews a cup of coffee without any of the stale, leftover coffee taste that can come from an automatic coffee maker. There had to be a way to get that strong, pure coffee emblematic of brewing with a French Press while eliminating the need for a time consuming cleanup. That best of both worlds solution was realized in the design for the American Press.

The American Press utilizes pressurized extraction to get all of that rich, complex coffee taste from the grounds into the water with no residue making it from the grounds to your cup. The coffee grounds are placed in the reusable pod, and the pod is then pushed through the hot water that has been poured into the carafe. This forces the hot water through the grounds and out the other side in an Espresso-type preparation, leaving you with a beautifully-rich cup of coffee. It’s not only extremely easy, it’s also visually stunning. As the pod is pushed through the water, its seal makes it so that on one side of the pot is crystal clear water while the other side is dark and rich coffee. The transformation from water to coffee happens before your very eyes. Once all of the water is transformed into delicious coffee, the spout at the top of the carafe allows for quick and easy spill-free pouring.

Alexander Albanese has just wrapped up an Indiegogo campaign to fund the first run of American Presses, and they should be shipping out this summer. It is a testament to the ingenuity and beauty of the design that the crowdfunding campaign reached 450% of its stated goal. The American Press is becoming a reality and we cannot wait to try it.

Images compliments of It’s American Press