Any Aeropress users?

[Ken Barth]

Just to close the loop on this. Thank you everyone for your information and help with tips, etc. I finished my research, made my decision, and purchases. Ordered the Aeropress, the Fellows Prismo attachment, a 1z k-plus manual grinder, and signed up for a bean subscription for regular and espresso beans from Intelligentsia. Stuff should be here later this week.

 

[k walsh]

Just to close the loop on this. Thank you everyone for your information and help with tips, etc. I finished my research, made my decision, and purchases. Ordered the Aeropress, the Fellows Prismo attachment, a 1z k-plus manual grinder, and signed up for a bean subscription for regular and espresso beans from Intelligentsia. Stuff should be here later this week.

Hi,
I use the Fellows Pismo with my Aeropress. I still use a paper filter with the Pismo. We did a number of blind tastings and found that the paper filter removed the bitterness. We use the Aeropress every day for two of us. Great to have when we lose power here in the Canadian maritimes.

 

[MartinB]

The grinder is going to make the most difference in your coffee, once you start with good FRESH beans.

You need to buy a grinder, you need to buy a good grinder. A GOOD grinder. Expect to spend several hundred dollars. My favorite hand grinder was $330......I gave another $250 hand grinder to my son because it didnt taste as good as my favorite one. The price isnt indicative of anything, but the fact is that different grinders actually taste different.

My advice....would be to get a $8 plastic hario v60 funnel, filters, a pour kettle, a small scale..... And you will be well on your way to making excellent coffee.

Aeropress......is extremely fiddly. Extremely. You want to know why there's a thousand different aeropress recipes out there? Because its FIDDLY, and very seldom are people satisfied with the results. Note, I'm not saying you can't make decent coffee with it,..... But it is far from the simplest, most reliable way to make good coffee. It's just " another " way to make coffee, of which there are many. I have one, dont use it. I have a clever dripper.....use it now and then....but not much. Hario v60 gets lions share 7 days a week... Don't need complicated procedures, recipes you have to time, and half a dozen parts to wash after making a cup of coffee.........

Look for a decent local roaster near you to buy some fresh roasted beans from. FRESH is the key. There's nothing wrong with mail ordering but it will take several days to get it....at best. By 2weeks...coffee loses half its flavor.....even by 1 week its much different than 1-2 days off roast. I roast my own weekly....because staying in fresh coffee any other way is a hassle. When I first got into it I drove by a local roaster it was just a mile or two out of my way on my way home from work........ But having to go by there once a week...or not have coffee tomorrow morning.. got to be real hassle. Ive used coffee subscription services to have new things to try occassionally for variety....but bulk of my coffee i drink i roast. I keep several beans on hand and decide on spur of moment what I'm going to roast next , how im going to roast it, and how much. I have a strong preference for only washed coffees, and of that I prefer Central Americans for everyday coffee.

 

[Anne M.]

My taste buds are not close to well enough developed for all of the above
I drink black coffee, no sugar, and am equally happy with filter coffee, french press, aeropress and coffee from an ecpensive top of the range barista whatever
But that is just me

 

[Rich G]

@Ken Barth, how's that Aeropress working out for ya?? Enjoying your cup? Getting coffee right to start the day is ALMOST as important as getting dinner right on the grill!

R

 

[Ken Barth]

@Ken Barth, how's that Aeropress working out for ya?? Enjoying your cup? Getting coffee right to start the day is ALMOST as important as getting dinner right on the grill!

R

It's working great, but.... I thought it was bigger than it is, I don't remember seeing anywhere that stated what the full capacity is and I made an assumption that the 1, 2, 3, 4 on the side referenced the number of cups so I thought this would make 4 6oz cups. I normally make my coffee in a large pint glass, put in 12oz coffee and 4oz espresso. This does not make 12oz of coffee in one session through the aeropress, maybe 10oz (I haven't formally measured). I've been getting around this by adding enough coffee for 12oz, filling to the top with hot water, pressing the water through, and then topping off my glass with a little more hot water. The coffee is REALLY much better than through the Keurig machine though that's due primarily to me grinding my own beans.

 

[Rich G]

It's working great, but.... I thought it was bigger than it is, I don't remember seeing anywhere that stated what the full capacity is and I made an assumption that the 1, 2, 3, 4 on the side referenced the number of cups so I thought this would make 4 6oz cups. I normally make my coffee in a large pint glass, put in 12oz coffee and 4oz espresso. This does not make 12oz of coffee in one session through the aeropress, maybe 10oz (I haven't formally measured). I've been getting around this by adding enough coffee for 12oz, filling to the top with hot water, pressing the water through, and then topping off my glass with a little more hot water. The coffee is REALLY much better than through the Keurig machine though that's due primarily to me grinding my own beans.

You solved the capacity issue the same way as I did. More grounds, create a relatively concentrated brew, then top off. I think that even if you put fresh ground beans in a Keurig, the coffee would still be sub-standard (to my liking, anyway......I know TONS of people who swear by their Keurig....different strokes). If you want to take that first step down the slippery slope of roasting your own beans, let me know!

R

 

[JayHeyl]

This does not make 12oz of coffee in one session through the aeropress, maybe 10oz (I haven't formally measured). I've been getting around this by adding enough coffee for 12oz, filling to the top with hot water, pressing the water through, and then topping off my glass with a little more hot water.

You're doing a kind-of Americano. I used to use the Aeropress every day at work to make my one cup of coffee. I never really measured by volume but I'd guess it was 10-12 oz. I don't recall my formula but I didn't fill the Aeropress to capacity. I'd thin out what was extracted by the Aeropress with about an equal amount of water. In my insulated travel mug that one cup would stay warm all morning.

 

[MartinB]

. The coffee is REALLY much better than through the Keurig machine though that's due primarily to me grinding my own beans.

It would be difficult, if not impossible... Not to be better than Keurig the absolute worst coffee possible.

I have a keurig....because its fast...and sometimes fast outweighs everything else. If I use an ez- carafe cup, filled with my own coffee...... It makes a decent enough 16 oz cup. That cuts down on the fast aspect though

 

[JayHeyl]

It would be difficult, if not impossible... Not to be better than Keurig the absolute worst coffee possible.

You've obviously not had some of the coffee I've had if you think Keurig is the absolute worst coffee possible. Virtually any percolator will make worse coffee. Many drip coffee makers, without significant manual intervention, will make far worse coffee. My Keurig makes better coffee than you get at about 90% of the restaurants in America. I'm not saying Keurig is the best, far from it, but it's better than a LOT of the alternatives, at about 25% the level of effort.

 

[MartinB]

You've obviously not had some of the coffee I've had if you think Keurig is the absolute worst coffee possible. Virtually any percolator will make worse coffee. Many drip coffee makers, without significant manual intervention, will make far worse coffee. My Keurig makes better coffee than you get at about 90% of the restaurants in America. I'm not saying Keurig is the best, far from it, but it's better than a LOT of the alternatives, at about 25% the level of effort.

Wife likes percolator.........i know. Its what parents and grandparents drank so it reminds her of that.

The problem with keurig is the coffee is old old.... The water isn't hot enough either.

When I use my own fresh coffee in my own easy carafe cup it's passable

 

[JayHeyl]

The Keurig coffee is fundamentally the same as any store bought pre-ground coffee in terms of age because they have the same problem in that regard. You can partially solve this by buying direct from Peets. I'm sure they're K-cups are a bit older than their bag whole bean coffee, but I'm also pretty sure they put more emphasis on turning over stock in a reasonable fashion. They have a reputation to maintain. I've been buying the Kirkland Pacific Bold K-cups. They turn it over pretty quickly so it's likely fresher than you'd get at most stores.

My Keurig has a water temperature setting. Whether it actually does anything, I don't know. What I do know is it's way better than instant and it's vastly less work than a French press or even an Aeropress. Both of those are certainly capable of making better coffee, but they're also a lot more work and more mess to clean up.

 

[Anne M.]

I grew up drinking filter coffee.
Initially with a melitta filter holder and filter, and then pouring water by hand.
Later on, with an electric little filter coffee maker. So you didn't have to boil water and pour.
You still had the filter etc though.
I just gotta laugh about the effort it takes to clean an aeropress, French press etc.
It really is no effort at all!
At least in my opinion.
Yes, instant coffee may be easier, but you can't really call that coffee!

 

[JohnShepherd]

The Keurig coffee is fundamentally the same as any store bought pre-ground coffee in terms of age because they have the same problem in that regard. You can partially solve this by buying direct from Peets. I'm sure they're K-cups are a bit older than their bag whole bean coffee, but I'm also pretty sure they put more emphasis on turning over stock in a reasonable fashion. They have a reputation to maintain. I've been buying the Kirkland Pacific Bold K-cups. They turn it over pretty quickly so it's likely fresher than you'd get at most stores.

My Keurig has a water temperature setting. Whether it actually does anything, I don't know. What I do know is it's way better than instant and it's vastly less work than a French press or even an Aeropress. Both of those are certainly capable of making better coffee, but they're also a lot more work and more mess to clean up.

Better yet, you can buy a reusable k-cup adapter. Use your own freshly ground coffee from any source.

My wife was the sole coffee drinker in our house. After a staying at a BnB that had a Nespresso machine, she mentioned she'd like one for Christmas, though she was concerned about the pod waste. When I was in Target looking at them, I noticed a DeLonghi EC155 espresso machine next to it for less $, no pods, plus a milk steamer! So I bought her that. She didn't like it - too much learning curve. Me, I like to experiment and refine. So we got her a Keurig with a reusable adapter, and I kept the DeLonghi and started drinking coffee. Now I make myself a cappuccino every morning. I get my beans locally (Vigilante Coffee of Hyattsville, MD - Tin Lizzie Espresso Blend - they do mail order), and grind them witha Baratza Encore. It's maybe not as good as a cappuccino made by Vigilante's barista, but unless I could drink mine and theirs side by side, my unsophisticated palette doesn't detect a big difference

Oh, and my wife (the coffee drinker) is content using large bags of Dunkin' beans from the grocery store which take months to go through.

 

[JayHeyl]

I just gotta laugh about the effort it takes to clean an aeropress, French press etc.
It really is no effort at all!
At least in my opinion.
Yes, instant coffee may be easier, but you can't really call that coffee!

The Aeropress isn't that bad to clean up, but I've always thought the French press quite the mess. Coffee grounds stuck to the glass, stuck to the screen, stuck between the screen and the frame. A good cleaning means taking it apart and rinsing a lot of grounds down the drain, which I never feel good about. It's the messiest method I've ever used. Very good coffee if you know what you're doing, but a right mess to clean up.

There's no comparison in clean up even between the Aeropress and the standard Keurig K-cup. Pop out the spent K-cup, toss it in the garbage. Done. Even the Aeropress is more work than that. French press clean up isn't even in the same area code.

I agree about instant. It's not really coffee. Though for some reason my father preferred his Taster's Choice to any properly made coffee. No accounting for taste I guess.

Better yet, you can buy a reusable k-cup adapter. Use your own freshly ground coffee from any source.

Except now you've taken the two clear advantages of the Keurig -- ease of use and ease of clean up -- and rendered them moot. Now you're back to grinding the beans and loading the ground coffee into the reusable adapter and you have to clean the adapter afterwards. If I'm going to do all that I might as well use the Aeropress.

 

[Anne M.]

I suppose living in the country side makes all the difference.
Put water in bowl. Clean all coffee out of french press or aeropress or whatever.
Take bowl. Empty bowl at garden plant (or pot plant or whatever).
Easy peasy...
Which brings me to new subject:
Keep coffee grounds and grow mushrooms!

 

[Rick Poch]

The Aeropress isn't that bad to clean up, but I've always thought the French press quite the mess. Coffee grounds stuck to the glass, stuck to the screen, stuck between the screen and the frame. A good cleaning means taking it apart and rinsing a lot of grounds down the drain, which I never feel good about. It's the messiest method I've ever used. Very good coffee if you know what you're doing, but a right mess to clean up.

There's no comparison in clean up even between the Aeropress and the standard Keurig K-cup. Pop out the spent K-cup, toss it in the garbage. Done. Even the Aeropress is more work than that. French press clean up isn't even in the same area code.

I agree about instant. It's not really coffee. Though for some reason my father preferred his Taster's Choice to any properly made coffee. No accounting for taste I guess.


Except now you've taken the two clear advantages of the Keurig -- ease of use and ease of clean up -- and rendered them moot. Now you're back to grinding the beans and loading the ground coffee into the reusable adapter and you have to clean the adapter afterwards. If I'm going to do all that I might as well use the Aeropress.

I used to use a press, a lot, but pretty much quit using it when I got a Chemex, though I have a travel press that I use when going out of town.
I found a method for cleaning the press that isn't too bad.
Take out the plunger, immediately after making the coffee. Wipe the grinds off the plunger into the trash with a paper towel, take apart the screen/frame and rinse.
Put a paper towel over the sink drain, add a little water to the spent grounds, swish them around, then pour the whole thing quickly into the paper towel. Almost all of the grounds end up in the paper towel. Ball it up an toss into the trash. Clean the beaker and press components and you're done.

 

[Bob Correll]

I used a burr grinder and Aeropress for a couple of years for the clean less bitter taste.
When I realized I simply preferred a light roast, the grinder and press got stored away.
I only drink 2 cups a day, both before breakfast, and a Keurig style maker with K cups works fine for me. Costco's Kirkland breakfast blend is one favorite.

 

[JayHeyl]

Costco's Kirkland breakfast blend is one favorite.

I didn't care for the breakfast blend. Not enough flavor for my taste. Have you tried their medium roast? Looks like they're calling it "Summit Roast" now. I've been curious but didn't want to end up with 120 of another coffee I don't really like. They should have a variety pack.

I also wish they'd mention the source. Pacific Bold you can guess has some Malaysian and/or Indonesian coffees in it, but "Breakfast Blend" and "Summit Roast" really don't give much of a clue.