Try it both ways. Bet that you either won’t notice a difference or that you might slightly prefer leaving it off. Brewing at near boiling the entire brew might be tolerated by some pretty light roasts, but in general a little less extraction of the late grinds is typically preferable. It feels a bit less fussy to not have to keep popping it back on the stove too.

Oh nice catch. Fixed that!

Give it a try!
I love that little stirrer. I worry about breaking it or losing it and hope there is a way to get a replacement should that ever happen!

French Press - I do not think so. Aeropress is highly versatile and there are tons of recipes to try. I’ve had a harder time getting the consistency and gentler flavor profiles to shine with the aeropress as compared to the switch. If you are happy with the aeropress and are still having fun exploring it’s many different ways to brew, I think I’d probably keep exploring that before adding the switch to your arsenal. However, if you don’t already have a v60, the switch is neat because in addition to an immersion brewer you automatically then have what I think is one of the best conventional pour over brewers just by keeping the lever open.

In short yes. This is both the fun and frustration of specialty coffee. These details can make a difference and just when you get things all dialed in, you try different beans and you need to adjust things again. This recipe is pretty forgiving thanks the immersion component. It’s not meant to be intimidating, but all the details provide starting points. Different beans, different grinders, different water can all cause adjustments as can personal taste preferences. The end goal is always the perfect cup of coffee for any particular bean while also reminding oneself that “pretty damn close” is still a highly enjoyable experience.

The drip tray is Tritan, about as inert as plastic gets.

Cream meant as in milk or dairy products is common in both the US and much of Europe as well as much of Latin America. Calling it “cream” is perhaps more of an American thing. If you end up with a brew that tastes decent but seems to lack a bit of body, give just a very tiny bit of milk a try if if you have some around!

Yes this does need a TLDR - added one!

I’d include that in the broader definition of “cream”

Cream as in milk products of any sort. Everyone has a different preference. I like whole milk, hence the specific reference, but cream or half and half or lighter milks work as well. Full on cream or half and half require even smaller volumes. Half a mL of half and half can be effective even.

Me too (ok, no, it was my second cup)! Really surprised about that. The sock allows for a more oily brew, I really thought it would let those elements through.

Unfamiliar. Can you provide a link?

Yeah the timing on that was kind weird in a neat way.

wow - Just posted about coffee socks, and I had always thought from the rich oily nature of the coffee that comes from these, that the diterpene levels were high. This is the first data I’ve seen that argues otherwise and I think it’s great news for one of my favorite brewing techniques!

I have not. I guess the fact that putting 60g in all at once produced fractionaly less fines argues that slow feeding might have diminishing returns.

Agree. In general you have more room for finer grinding with lighter roasts, but I think that’s an over simplification. Personally I just tweak the grind size and / or try a different brewing method if I’m chasing the right taste for a particular bean. Could consider adding this as an option to try too, but usually I run out of beans before I run out of ideas for things to tweak on each brew already. With a few different beans I tried (all South American or Ethiopian) , I didn’t get any real wow results with this though. There are some nice apps for wines where you can take a photo of the bottle and then pull up price checks, tasting notes, and reviews. I’ve always thought this would be cool to do with coffees with the added benefit of sharing bean specific brewing notes.