A Portable, Recyclable French Press

This week I came across a Chris Pirillo video on a new product being made by XPress, called the XPress smartcup. The smartcup is a portable, recyclable french press, completely made of plastic. It works like a regular 3-cup french press would – add the ground coffee to the cup, pour in hot water (195-205 degrees Fahrenheit), stir after a minute, then after 3 more minutes of steeping, slowly push down on the plastic ‘T” part until it clicks and you’re ready to drink (you can see this about 4 minutes into the video linked below).

I don’t really see too many people using this in the home (but I could be wrong). I do see the value of the smartcup in coffee shops and coffee bars. Most shops use drip brew coffee machines which can limit the flavor potential of the coffee, but a handful of shops offer french press coffee to customers (small, 3-cup presses or large, 8-12 cup presses for groups).

Plastic french presses don’t really hold heat too well, though, and glass french presses are dropped far too often. For these reasons, I think individual, recyclable french press cups that customers can take with them has a lot of potential, as long as coffee shops make sure to grind the beans coarsely, use the right temperature of water and also educate customers on how to use the french press cups. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.