Originally published at: Watch: why the AeroPress is a great little coffee maker | Boing Boing
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Two things wrong with the AeroPress, plastic and filters. A third thing, I’m stubborn and just look at this as a fancy French Press which I’ve been using for decades now.
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You can use a metal filter. This is what I do. Full disclosure I did have to buy a replacement plunger for mine at one point. As for plastic: I don’t personally have any problem with this as it doesn’t seem to alter the flavor at all and something more interesting will probably wind up killing me.
Apples and oranges. They take different grinds and produce different strengths/amounts. Personally I hate french press because the amount of grinds I get in the end result hurts my stomach and they use an ungodly amount of coffee. 1 cup of french press brewed to the strength I like requires 3x the amount of beans as an aeropress. Edit: also for my money a french press is the hardest to clean of any way to make coffee and the aeropress is the easiest, at least if you’re trying to compost the grounds.
Anyway you do you, I’ll do me. This post reminded me I meant to look into their new portable model. If anyone here has gotten one and can offer a recommendation please do let me know.
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I just use a Mr Coffee drip machine, but i do grind up my beans fresh. Works for me 
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Interesting. I don’t know if it will eventually bug my stomach, but don’t mind a bit of grit in my coffee. One person’s trash is another’s treasure. What Happens If You Eat Coffee Grounds? Getting more coffee per pound of coffee is a good argument, though, I do prefer the liquid to the solid coffee.
James Hoffman just did a HUGE 3 part aeropress deep dive, ending with an “ultimate aeropress” recipe The Ultimate AeroPress Technique (Episode #3) - YouTube
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I’m not even sure how long I’ve had my Aeropress. It’s an original model. I think we got it before our last move and that was over thirteen years ago. I’ve had to replace the rubber gasket on the plunger twice because they degrade with time. I’ve also had to replace the filter retainer as I used an espresso grind of coffee once and put too much pressure on the filter and it cracked. Also made a cup of mud. Normal drip grind works perfectly fine and filters a lot quicker.
It’s all I use to make coffee, but don’t drink all that much anymore, so the individual serving size of it is perfect for my needs. My spouse drinks a lot more coffee and uses a normal drip machine.
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I like coffee (but not caffeine) and love mine. (I even preordered the travel version when it came out.) With decaf having way fewer options I want any edge I can get for a better cup, and aeropress delivers.
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I actually like the paper filters, which surprises me because of the waste. 1. Tried several different metal filters but quality of the coffee made was worse, I think the pore size was off. 2. The lab grade paper filters let me pretend to be a mad scientist/chemist as I putter about in the morning. 3. They compost nicely.
And seconding the James Hoffman YouTube series mentioned above.
Love coffee from my Aeropress but I really wish it would make more than one cup of coffee at a time
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You know you can reuse the paper filters round a dozen times or more. Just rinse them off and set them to dry on top of the filter retainer. Keep using it until you start to need to use a lot of force to filter your coffee. Then compost it.
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I don’t normally use my aeropress for this reason; I want a larger volume of coffee in the morning than the aeropress can make. So I make a pot of filtered cowboy coffee in the morning and use the aeropress for a smaller amount some afternoons.
I bought my AeroPress about 5 years ago and haven’t pulled the French press out in a couple of years. I grind the beans fresh for every cup and can use the AeroPress for up to 2 mugs of coffee at a time - just add more ground coffee and top up the mugs with hot water.
Going to make my afternoon cup right now!
Pro tip: put your coffee grounds in the brewchamber, then add just enough cold water to cover them to twice their depth. Leave that to steep for 30 seconds first. Then add your hot water and make the coffee. Dunno why, but it makes the coffee taste way smoother for me. Doing it this way I can use even the cheapest coffee and it tastes great.
At one point in my life I had 12 different coffee setups at home but after getting the Aeropress I have simplified and now only have a Mokapot (for initial wakeup coffee at home) and Aeropress (for everything else).
I’ve got 3 Aeropress - one for the office, one for home and the portable. The portable is really nice for travel with everything in one package but it makes a smaller cup of coffee and for me, the cup shape isn’t the nicest to drink from. That’s just personal preference though. Got no other quibbles about it and if you travel a lot, I think it is worth it.
I brew with the inverted method and a fine grind. I have both paper and metal filters and are happy with either.
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You can make at least two cups of coffee with it, depending on how strong you like it. That’s why it has a gradation of 1–4.
AeroPress is far less fussy and results in much less grit and grounds than a French Press, overall resulting in a far smoother coffee.
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I would highly recommend checking out James Hoffman’s recent excellent series on Aeropress brewing. Always love his ability to convey complex and nuanced information in understandable ways and condense it all into simple and accessible methods applicable for most people.
I’ve been using the Fellow Pismo attachhments for a while. It’s not perfect-- it needs a replacemt valve. Normally, this is a 3 buck semi consumable part, but it’s been backordered for months now.
I have one and the problem with it is this: The sides get grooves worn into it from the coffee grinds over the years. When that happens, you can’t build up the pressure as air just escapes through the grooves.
I tried to order a replacement, which they were happy to do but, the size is just large/awkward enough that it’s not costs efficient to ship it. It’s almost the same price as buying a new one.
So it’s great and I like it and if anyone has an extra tube part they could send to me, that’d be great.
