The inspiration was really more like frustration. I could not make a good single serving of coffee using the various coffee makers I owned, so I decided to study the fundamentals of coffee brewing. I discovered that lower temperatures tasted much better. I also wanted to try shorter wet time, but pressing on the slurry in a pour-over didn't shorten the filtering time. So I made an air-tight brew chamber which I could press to shorten the filtering time. That was really the first AeroPress. I was amazed at how smooth and rich the brew tasted. Next, I made over 30 prototypes to experiment with variations in the basic configuration. I then made five duplicates of the best version and loaned them to five high school teachers to use at home for two weeks. They loved them, so we went forward to production.