Not sure how you think it's too much work.

Boil water
Grind Beans
Add water
Wait 4 minutes
Pour

Im not up for that at 4am!

Also, its not the brewing, its the cleanup.

The 30 seconds it takes to clean the glass and strainer is well worth it

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...cL._AA160_.jpg.

My sister's is about 15 minutes of disassemby and washing every time. Hers also tends to get grounds in the coffee.

She got the wrong french press then. It's easier than a drip coffee maker to clean up. Just pull out the strainer, pour out the majority of the grinds and rinse. It literally should be 30 seconds. Generally all I do is rinse it out. Like a Moka Pot you don't need to scrub every nook and cranny with soap and water. It's not like people wash and scrub their drip rigs every use. I've seen some pretty nasty build up in people's coffee machines and yet it doesn't bother them I guess because they never take the time to look inside their machines but maybe it's because the French Press is so out in the open and visible.


If you're getting excess sediment in your coffee it's because you're using too fine a grind. French Press coffee requires a pretty coarse grind. And again I still don't get the American obsession with not having a little bit of grinds at the bottom of your cup, it's a normal part of the coffee experience the world over. Heck there are entire practices dedicated to reading the fortunes spelled out by coffee grinds at the bottom of your cup.

That's just one more advantage of French Press. Many people never take the time to remove old coffee from their machines, thus changing the taste of fresh coffee.
I gotta believe most people were like me, that just got used to the taste old coffee, bitter coffee.
Hey Rock, I have to say you're starting to inspire me to experiment with making Espresso.

I clean my percolator regularly....stainless steel, so its easy. I despise grounds in my coffee, hate ot with a passion. I want to be able to FINISH the cup without gagging!

There are no grounds in coffee with a good french press.

It won't get you a real creama however I do use them from time to time.

Prefer the stainless Bialetti to the Alziemerinium:

I have a few of each of these:

http://www.bialettishop.com/Espresso...nlessSteel.htm


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

You know what I'm gonna post a video, first I gotta make it and caption it though. You can get a pretty decent espresso out of the very inexpensive Mr. Coffee ECM-160. It is steam powered and many people poo-poo them but when done right the quality definitely surpasses Moka Pots which tend to overextract the coffee because of unregulated temperatures and sending steam through them.

Hi
As long as my coffee is strong and black its fine with me
Never was one for all of these fancy fraps capps etc
Take care and ride safely
Yours Hank

Here it is fresh off the youtube video editor. The coffee machine is a Mr. Coffee ECM-160. It's probably the highest quality and also the least expensive of the steam powered espresso makers I've run across at $40. Many are cheaply made and tend to not seal tightly so they leak or just don't provide the kind of brewing pressure.

Of course you need to buy a grinder, I use the Hario Skerton ceramic grinder, I've modified mine with a ball bearing for smoother, more consistent, and less effort grinding. And of course the tamper, it's a 49mm tamper.

All put together you can buy all three pieces on Amazon for $91 and make your own Starbucks style espresso drinks for a lot cheaper and better quality plus experiment with different beans, roasts, and grinds to customize your coffee experience.

If you don't feel like grinding your beans yourself I find the best preground espresso actually is Cafe Bustelo, very inexpensive yet still pretty good espresso coffee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxA5EB-gHcE

When I am in a hurry I will use the Cafe Bustelo Instant Espresso for my Tiramisu and Chocolate Cappacino Cheescakes.

They have been around for many years and make a decent product.

Hank, I'd encourage you to try a French Press made coffee....Strong and black just as you like it. I promise you, you'll be able to taste the difference in smoothness compared to what you now drink.
French Press is not about "fancy fraps capps etc" Its just a process that brews coffee in a more pure and clean way.

To be fair the best coffee I ever had was from the old fashioned glass vaccuum pots.

I grew up with one similar to that in the link below and it was by far the best. Had good entertainment value too. Put the water in the bottom and coffee in the top. Set it to boil and let it go until all the water ended up in the top after which you turned off the burner and waited for the coffee to filter back down through the grounds into the bottom pot.

Always made a good smooth pot of coffee. That is until my sister dumped the glass top hot off the stove into a sink with crushed ice in it.
http://www.amazon.com/Bodum-Santos-S.../dp/B00005NCX5