AeroPress Original

Had previously been using a cafetière to make coffee in, which is fairy limited in what it can produce. Bought the aeropress to make something closer to an espresso for something a little closer to a cappuccino (after being bought a milk heater/ frother as a present) - it gets close, with very little effort. Is it as good as a professional coffee machine AND a professional barista? No, of course not. Does it provide a reliable cup of coffee which is fast and tastes good without bitterness? Yes. Nice smooth coffee which is consistently good. Have tried using a finer and coarser grind and so far preferred the finer, but will keep experimenting. We were surprised by how easy it is to use - fast, throw it together, makes a single cup so no more cold leftovers to drink when using the cafetière, or in my case entire cold pots as I forgot I'd even made by the time it had brewed, to be discovered when tepid at best. But the best part? Easy to clean! No more having to scrub out a cafetière! (this somehow creates more mess than anything else in the kitchen, coffee grinds left everywhere). When using the paper filters, you just pop the whole lot straight into the compost bin, easy as. We also got a metal filter to use (came up as suggested purchased together item), and have to say wish I hadn't bothered, doesn't fit the press tightly meaning water just goes straight through without brewing - possibly we just got a duff or there are better brands. Disappointing given environmental concerns. However, no issues with the paper ones which fit very snugly and, as they can be composted along with the grinds, tbh isn't too much of an issue as paper seem easier.

I love this. We don’t use it all the time because we have lots of other ways of making coffee but when we do use it, it is a joy. The same coffee is somehow richer and, of course, hotter. We took it with us when we went away for a long weekend recently and it was great to have decent coffee rather than the cheap instant stuff the hotels provide. Our trip also included a few days in self-catering accommodation and again this came into its own as it is so much easier to clean up than the cafetière provided. Do be sure to have the press on a stable base as you do have to press down quite hard to push the coffee through but that is the only downside I can think of. Cleaning up after use is a doddle, push out the end of the tube into a bin and just wash the equipment, no messy grounds to deal with.

Excellent, more convenient than a cafetiere. Avoid fine ground coffee.

Quick, simple, easy to use and clean. However, I don't believe you can get any crema out of this as it is all extracted due to the filter. Best to fill it upside down, give it a stir, put the filter cap on, flip it over amd then plung it down. I am happy I bought it but I don't think I get the best out of my coffee due to their beimg no crema which adds to a good cup of joe.

PRICE 10/10 COFFEE QUALITY 10/10 COFFEE MAKER QUALITY 9/10 EASE OF USE 9/10 CLEANING EASE 10/10 DURABILITY 10/10 BREW SPEED 10/10 APPEARANCE 4/10 VERSATILITY 10/10 PROS • Great coffee • Small footprint • Portable/great for travel • Durable • Easy to clean • Inexpensive • USA made • BPA free CONS • All plastic • Only makes one cup of coffeeBUY ON AMAZON The AeroPress is one of the few coffee makers out there I think every coffee drinker should try at least once. In this review, I’ll try and show you why. I’ve been brewing coffee with the AeroPress for several years now, and it’s still working just as great as the day I bought it. For those who of you who have just been introduced to the Aerobie AeroPress (yes, it’s made by that same frisbee company), meet the coffee maker with perhaps the biggest cult following in the entire coffee industry. This ugly plastic coffee maker makes coffee unlike anything you’ve ever tried before and has basically created an entirely new brewing category that falls somewhere between immersion and pour over. Sure, the AeroPress isn’t necessarily for everyone, but given how versatile the AeroPress is, chances are good you’ll be able to get the results you want from it with a little bit of practice. What do I mean by versatile? Well, in this case the versatility I speak of has to do with the way you brew with it. Many people brew right-side-up (as is recommended by Alan Adler, the coffee maker’s inventor), and just as many, if not more, brew upside-down. Some brew with SCAA recommended water temperatures, others stick to the manufacturer’s guidelines of 175˚F. Some people stir 20 times, others don’t stir at all. And I could go on and on and on. Really, the reason this coffee maker is so versatile is because of how many different techniques have been adopted by its users. In fact, so many people love the AeroPress that there is actually a World AeroPress Championship that takes place at least once a year. You can find all of the winning AeroPress recipes/techniques here (you’ll notice not one is the same from competitor to competitor). UNBOXING Keep in mind that there are tons of different combo packages that you can buy on Amazon.But your typical set will come with an Aeropress coffee maker, a tote, and something crazy like 350 filters. AEROPRESS REVIEW The AeroPress is definitely one of the best investments I’ve ever made when it comes to making great coffee. It’s easy to use. Makes great (and unique) tasting coffee. It’s easy to clean. Oh, and it’s incredibly durable. I want to let that last point sink in a bit. This thing seems unbreakable. It’s really strong, BPA-free plastic. The only parts that really seem “cheap” are the ones that really aren’t essential (the scoop, stirrer, and funnel). The AeroPress itself however, seems as if it will never break. And if it does? Well, for less than £30 I won’t feel as bad as I could have potentially felt with a more expensive coffee maker. LOOKING FOR ESPRESSO? In my first brew, I was making what the Aerobie folks label as an “espresso”. My thoughts? Not even close. It’s concentrated coffee, for sure, but it isn’t espresso. Now, this isn’t to say that the resulting beverage doesn’t taste good. In fact, it’s really tasty. Just not espresso. Espresso requires about 9 bars of pressure. The AeroPress only uses 2 bars. So if you want “real” espresso, you should probably be looking elsewhere. If anything, the resulting coffee is similar to an Americano in mouthfeel and strength, but this of course depends on how much coffee and water you use. MY AEROPRESS RATINGS All right, so below you will find the breakdown of my ratings for the AeroPress. THE PRICE £30 is an incredibly fair price for a coffee maker that makes coffee as good as this. Easily one of the best value coffee makers on the market given how long it lasts and how great the coffee tastes. Score: 5 stars THE COFFEE QUALITY So far, I’ve been very impressed with the way the coffee tastes. Little bitterness…and lots of flavor. If you have the right brew parameters, you will likely get the best coffee you’ve ever had. Screw this up though, and your resulting cup could taste like dirt. Score: 5 stars THE COFFEE MAKER QUALITY This is by no means the best quality coffee maker. The thing is, it doesn’t really need to be. It gets the job done for what it is. The slight deduction from a 5-star rating are the complimentary plastic accessories that aren’t the best quality, as well as the fact that the entire coffee maker is made of plastic, albeit BPA free plastic. Score: 4.5 stars EASE OF USE It’s easy to use if you aren’t trying to get too fancy (read: inverted). Sure, it’s a little bit more hands-on than an automatic coffee maker…but aren’t you willing to do a little extra work for a lot better coffee? That’s what I thought. Score: 4.5 stars CLEANING EASE So easy. I love that you just press out the used grounds and run a bit of warm water through. That’s it! Score: 5 stars DURABILITY If it were glass like the Chemex or Hario V60, we’d have a pretty low score here. But since it’s 100% plastic, I think the AeroPress will last me a very long time. Score: 5 stars APPEARANCE It’s not the prettiest coffee maker. It looks like something you would see in a 90’s infomercial. But you don’t buy a £30 coffee maker for looks. Score: 2 stars BREW SPEED Aside from the time it took me to measure the beans and boil the water, the whole brew takes about 1 minute. It is more hands on, but this is a very quick brew process. Alan Adler, the coffee maker’s inventor, says the AeroPress’ coffee benefits from a quick brew process to reduce over-extraction (a bitter cup of coffee). Score: 5 stars MADE IN THE USA USA-made coffee makers are tough to find, but the AeroPress is one of the few that fits the bill! VERSATILITY Can be used in hundreds of different ways, with hundreds of different parameters. Even though it’s a manual brew process, this is still a very versatile coffee maker. Score: 5 stars FINAL THOUGHTS I highly recommend the AeroPress for all coffee enthusiasts out there. This may not be the best option if you are rushing out the door in the morning, but this is really the perfect choice for weekend coffee brewing for one. Yeah, this is a single serve coffee maker that’s easy to use, but it’s very hands on. I think the AeroPress is a coffee maker that every coffee drinker should try at least once. And for less than £30, it’s a very small risk to take in my opinion.

Much easier than the cafetiere. Great cuppa without the cleaning faff. It's going in to the campervan for great coffee which is asy to empty in the bin and just needs a quick rinse - simples!

I got into coffee during lockdown. My preferred brewing method of choice was a clever dripper (which is highly recommended if you want to brew well balanced immersion brew). I've never been one for espresso but as I got further into the world of coffee I wanted to try an inexpensive way of brewing that strength of coffee as I'm not in a privileged position where I can spend £1000s on an espresso machine and grinder. I started off by attempting to use a mocha pot to accomplish this. You CAN get good coffee out of a mocha pot. I was able to get good coffee out of a mocha pot but there are numerous downsides to this. It's easy to leave the pot on the stove too long and end up with burnt tasting coffee. It's easy to burn yourself on the pot. It takes a bit of cleaning up. Overall that process is hit and miss. It seems you can follow the same steps down to the letter twice over and get very different brews. Enter the Aeropress. I'm new to this process of brewing but I can say with high confidence that it's quick, easy and produces consistent results. The first brew I got out of this was very sour and highlighted the "fruit salad" tones the coffee claimed to have. I wasn't fond of this to drink but it highlighted to me that this thing was able to extract the flavour of the beans. The second brew I made I pushed down the plunger much more evenly. This yielded a more balanced brew from the same grinds. Once you've got the hang of this then that's it. You're making great coffee. Cleanup is easy. Just remove the filter cap and pop the puck out of the end. Give it a rinse and you're done. Personally for my morning brew I like to brew to the 1 cup mark then top up with hot water to make an Americana style coffee. But this thing is so versatile. I have also gotten great latte by adding the espresso strength coffee to milk. I've also added some cold water and poured over ice with a splash of milk for delicious iced coffee while it's been hot. It's a lot of fun tinkering with this thing. I've found the best results out of a finer, near espresso grind. It should be said though, the coffee this makes is NOT espresso. It lacks the crema because it lacks the sufficient pressure provided by an espresso machine in brewing. Now, I'm not personally a fan of crema, so I'm quite happy with the output and it certainly tastes better than what you'd get from many many cheap espresso machines. Just be aware that the output isn't actually espresso, just espresso strength. I'm personally fine with this. I've seen people do some crazy nonsense like getting a handle to increase the pressure but if you're going to those lengths maybe save up for an espresso machine. Overall if you love coffee, even if you have an espresso machine, give this a try. You might just have some fun and make some delicious coffee along the way.

The Aeropress is a hybrid of cafetiere, filter, espresso and even Cona approaches to coffee making which delivers a rich, smooth coffee in about a minute of the kettle boiling without the sludge associated with a cafetiere, or any of the complex equipment requirements for the other methods. However, the included instructions are probably one of the less successful ways to use the Aeropress, and a Google search for the growing online user-community will throw up a number of better alternatives. What it is The Aeropress is best seen as an evolution of the cafetiere/French press style of coffee making. The difference is that instead of pushing the plunger down on the coffee -- which always leaves a bit of sludge and/or grounds when you pour it -- you press the coffee through a paper filter at the bottom. Another way of looking at it would be to say it's a pressure assisted coffee filter, where you pour hot water in and then push it through the filter rather than simply let it drip. What it tastes like Out of the box, and using the original instructions (boil water to 75 degrees, put bottom half of Aeropress over a cup, having put a paper filter in, put in two (!) scoops of coffee, pour on water, wait 20 seconds, stir, press down) it makes a smooth, un-acidic cup of coffee which is strong but not bitter, and it more or less cleans itself afterwards. But making coffee this way uses a lot of coffee, and the taste is not as full or caffeinated as many British and certainly European drinkers would expect. Alternative instructions Users have experimented a great deal, and, at the time of reviewing, the most popular alternative method is the 'inverted' method, which is as follows: Boil the water to 100 degrees. While it boils, pull the suction unit out to Number 4, and stand it upside-down, that is to say, with the suction unit at the bottom. Put in one scoop or half a scoop of coffee, pour on the boiling water slowly. Stir, and leave for 30 seconds. While you wait, wet a single filter with hot water and fit it as per the usual method. After 30 seconds, turn the whole thing right way up (ie, invert it from what you have), and place over a cup. Now press down _slowly_ until you hear the air hissing. This takes slightly longer, is not self-cleaning, but it does make a fuller, richer cup of coffee, and uses one half to one quarter of the amount of coffee. The final taste Some claim that the Aeropress produces the best coffee you ever tasted. To my tastes, it doesn't. Really great Cona coffee (using a syphon coffee system such as this non-Cona one Coffee Master 5-Cup Syphon / Vacuum Glass Coffee Maker ) can make better coffee, and a really great espresso machine can also do it. On the other hand, if you don't like espresso, and have no time for Cona, the Aeropress makes coffee which is significantly superior to cafetiere (which is some people's preferred taste) because there are no grounds or sludge. The alternative instructions offer other tastes, which you might also prefer. The main drawback of the original instructions is the amount of coffee it uses -- more than for any other process I've seen. By the way, despite the makers' claims, this does not produce 'espresso', on anything like it. Verdict For a similar price you can get a decent filter machine, and, if you look around, a Senseo type machine. The Aeropress actually delivers better coffee than either, doesn't require special pods (like the Senseo), and doesn't need an additional power supply. Guests will also be vaguely mesmerised by the intricacies of using it, which is an added bonus. Ultimately, this is a fun, quick, entertaining and relatively budget way of producing really nice coffee. It may not be the best you ever tasted, but it will definitely be as good as most of the really good coffee you've tasted -- as long as you use the right coffee, and practise preparing it a little.