My coffee, which I make in an Aeropress XL, hasn’t been great lately, so I experimented with hotter water this morning.

We have a third tap on our kitchen sink, an instant hot water tap suitable for making hot beverages. However, it does not dispense boiling water, which is not up to code. I wondered whether that was the problem — whether the water was simply not hot enough. So I tried boiling water in a kettle instead.

According to the Internet, you should not use boiling water with the Aeropress. Instead, you use water at 195 degrees Fahrenheit. We don’t have a kettle with a thermostat, so I asked ChatGPT how long I should let water sit off the boil to get to the proper temperature. ChatGPT said two to three minutes. This is within the range of answers I find when I Google the question, so I tried it this morning.

I think that improves the flavor. The coffee is hotter, which is better.