Aeropress falls short of expectations.

Dry_bean.

Took an Aeropress with Coava disk away with me on my recent trip and must admit after using it a number of times daily over a period of week I am totally underwhelmed by the coffee it produces, it's simply not to my taste, as I've stated frequently in the past my brew of choice is espresso and the Aeropress doesn't even come close.
I suspect that on our next trip my trusty ibrik will be accompanying me and my brew will be Turkish.

Koffee_Kosmo

Greek/Turkish coffee when prepaired with love can be every bit as nice as espresso Said from the mouth of a 40 year veteran drinker of the style KK

Brett H

Good to know DB.  I have seriously been considering one of these over the Plunger for work.  Sounds like I won't see much difference between the two.

Dry_bean.

on 1340759023:

Good to know DB.  I have seriously been considering one of these over the Plunger for work.  Sounds like I won't see much difference between the two.

Six of one half a dozen of the other Brett, the Aeropress is a little cleaner (less grounds in the brew) other than that very little difference.

Kelsey

My wife's a bit of a whizz on the aeropress. She won't touch the machine but she kicked off her experimentation with the inverted brewing method. It's not espresso, but it's a very nice brew all the same.

lemoo

i think the problem lays with the people that invented the aeropress they are trying to pass the end product off as a shot of espresso or equivalent, which its not it does however make a good long black for me like kelsey said, have you tried the inverted method? try this (with use of a timer for controlled brew time): 1) preheat cup and disk 2) start timer 3) fill aeropress half full with hot water by 20 secs 4) agitate grounds 5) fill aeropress full with hot water by 40 secs 6) cap aeropress and place on cup 7) start pushing down at 1:10 and aim to finish at about 1:55 This is my daily aeropress routine at work. I get heaps of comments about why the hell am I timing the coffee? but it does produce a good cuppa

UNM

biggest diff between aeropress and plunger is ease of cleanup. second biggest is fragility. Try dropping both from a height of 1.5 metres. the coffee I make is a lot stronger than plunger, but then diluted down to make a long black. I don't time exactly, don't do inverted (tried it though) and grind slightly coarser than espresso, but much finer than for plunger. some beans I like in the aeropress, others less so.

Dry_bean.

Sorry people, put simply, the Aeropress does not produce coffee that suits my taste, nor do I enjoy plunger coffee. I'm far from new to brewing coffee, been enjoying the stuff for over 55 years so have a bit of an idea of what I like and dislike, oh, and in that time have never dropped and broken a plunger. When I get back home the Aeropress is destined to join all of my other discarded coffee stuff in the never to see the light of day again cupboard.

RichardM

on 1340783959:

Sorry people, put simply, the Aeropress does not produce coffee that suits my taste, nor do I enjoy plunger coffee. I'm far from new to brewing coffee, been enjoying the stuff for over 55 years so have a bit of an idea of what I like and dislike, oh, and in that time have never dropped and broken a plunger. When I get back home the Aeropress is destined to join all of my other discarded coffee stuff in the never to see the light of day again cupboard.

I must have "in between" tastebuds. I hate general plunger coffee, but find the aeropress acceptable.

Dry_bean.

Guess what it boils down to is we're all individuals and as such have individual tastes, there is no right or wrong, only perceptions.

Lacehim

on 1340783959:

When I get back home the Aeropress is destined to join all of my other discarded coffee stuff in the never to see the light of day again cupboard.

???  What else do you have in your cupboard DB?  Sounds like time for a clear out! Sadly I haven't got an aeropress.  Not a fan of plunger because of all the bits, but I do enjoy a syphon brew now and again.

JamesM

AeroPress isn't much chop for espresso-shot style coffee. It brews brilliant filter, black coffee however. It's very much like Syphon or clever dripper, which are both immersion style brewing methods. immersion (steep) time is important, as well as grind coarseness and weight, water temp and weight, press time. Try my recipe: 14-16gm medium ground coffee (just go 15gm) 200gm water at 92C

[li]Invert your aeropress (search if unsure), pre heat it, soak filter paper in the cap.[/li] [li]Put the aeropress on scales and tip in your desired grinds amount (15gm is good). zero scales[/li] [li]Add hot water and start your timer, aim for 60-70 seconds of steeping, once 200gm is poured in, stir it and rest the cap on top of the chamber. you can take it off the scales now too.[/li] [li]After the 60-70sec of steeping, stir, lid on, flip it over and press for 20-25 sec in to your serving jug or cup[/li] [li]Enjoy[/li]

You should get a nice clean cup, easily comparable to other filter brewing methods. I did a video here: [embed=425,349]

Brett H

Great video James!  I laughed when I realized that you'd wrangled your kids with ABC2 and Octonaughts to buy you  some quiet time to make a cuppa. 

askthecoffeeguy

I dont mind aeropress for a filter coffee and I find plunger coffee perfectly acceptable as well - I'm off to Bali in a weeks time for six weeks with the family and I expect I'll be making my own filter and plunger coffee a lot while I'm there!

JamesM

Brett, you got me! It's a shame the video has the background noise. It's rare to find any quiet time unless it's after 8pm. coffeeguy, perfect opportunity to put together a travel coffee kit. I'm also visiting Asia (somewhere) in Feb, and Melbourne in May for the WBC and expo. I plan to take along the trusty aeropress and porlex grinder. I wonder if I could brew on the plane? just add hot water!

askthecoffeeguy

I've got a handheld solid brass turkish Hon coffee grinder at home and an Atomic stovetop - but the might be a bit too heavy for my hand luggage !

beanflying

Aeropress for me too is not my preferred brew. Travel light and take a sock brewer and a grinder instead For me the Aeropress is found wanting for both clarity and depth of flavour over other manual brew methods. Each to there own but mine sits on the shelf unloved and unused. Could also be I have to many other toys to choose from too  ::)

JamesM

Everyone has their fave methods and gear At the end of the day, it's the result in the cup that matters. If you travel and brew, if you can do it with the least gear, with quick clean up and a great cup, it's a win! If I'm going somewhere with a larger bag (or suitcase) I'd probably take my clever dripper. If I'm travelling light, Aeropress in messenger bag. The porlex hand grinder fits right inside it. Hard to beat for me. These days I find my aeropress brewing easily matching syphon / ccd or other immersion brewers for result in the cup. Super easy and fast clean up is a plus! I did see someone on my twitter with a photo of a really neat 'coil' type pour-over brewer. Picture a v60 that is a metal coil that packs down flat. Pretty awesome, could fit that, and a filter paper, inside the pages of a book! Gotta admit, coffee on the go interests me at the moment. For a giggle, I set up a neat thingo that saves any photos posted on instagram and tagged with "aeropress" in to my evernote account. Every day I look in there and there is some awesome stuff. Like this: [attachimg=1] Brew however you like, whenever you like, and enjoy it

Koffee_Kosmo

That my Crema friends - is really cool  :thumb: