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I was skeptical but we've now used the AeroPress long enough for me to order a refill package of the filters. Very easy to use, especially if you have "instant hot" and coffee ground to the correct espresso grain. Fast and clean.
I use these filters with the AeroPress to make coffee and espresso. It seems to make smoother coffee than my coffee maker. Medium ground coffee seems to work best with these filters. If the coffee is too fine, it tends to clog the filter, and the press won't work right.
A note on making coffee with really fresh coffee grounds such as those from beans you've just roasted: It foams up like a freshly poured beer. Whatever grind you use, none of the grit will wind up on your teeth because the economical paper filters keep them out of your cup. The disclaimer: I do not work for Aerobie. So you'll not be able to fill the receptacle up to the "4" mark. It's not. I have another Aeropress in my office where I work (as a highly paid professional, of course), and my little windowless cubicle -- I mean my spacious corner office with panoramic view has no running water. Now, I have a very good espresso machine, and one day, after having used the Aeropress for several months, I wanted to experience another cup of espresso. I found that I'm able to clean it almost as well using a damp paper towel.
And it's made in the United States, something that's apparently a value for the company. And when you drain the last drop of coffee from your cup, there are no grounds forming a reverse alluvial fan left behind. If you don't have a thermometer, you'll have to buy one. Whatever kind of coffee you've been drinking, it'll be better if you make it with the Aeropress. I used a plastic cone and paper filters back then, a system which has basic flaws overcome by the Aeropress. This just does not happen with coffee brewed in an Aeropress. Okay, the coffee does not, as in a French press, brew for four minutes; it brews for less than a minute, counting stirring and plunging time. Arrives right at your doorstep.
I had grown to prefer the simplicity of the forgiving Aeropress. I like this temperature because when you pour it into the Aeropress plunger, it cools off to just the right temperature of 175. You get distracted, the coffee in your cup cools off. I'm tempted to heave a huge sigh right along in here. So.
Say what. Free shipping. It's perhaps enough to notice, but if that coffee was made in an Aeropress, don't bet a large amount of money on a taste test, unless you're a professional taster, that you could tell reheated refrigerated coffee a few days old from a brand-new cup.The measure that comes with the Aeropress holds three tablespoons which the Aeropress website recommends for a five-ounce cup of coffee. What are you waiting for. This can be a disadvantage to people who tell fortunes by reading coffee grounds.
You won't USE them anymore, but you can sure keep 'em if you want to.How serious am I about a good cup of coffee. Pour a hot cup from the carafe a couple of hours after you brewed it, and it's just like a freshly brewed cup. is a semiautomatic. I cannot taste the paper in coffee made in the Aeropress.If you grind your own coffee, you don't have to get an expensive grinder because the Aeropress is not very particular about the fineness or coarseness of the grind. There are no rough edges. Do this twice and you've made a quart of coffee in perhaps three minutes.
I experimented for a few minutes and discovered that in my microwave, water poured to the "3" level on the plunger thingy was brought to the right temperature in one minute on high. I have no commercial connection with Aerobie. I can taste the paper in coffee made in those drip makers of various kinds. Nuke that neglected cold cup of coffee sitting in front of you, and it's all but indistinguishable from a freshly brewed cup. Or after a few hours in the carafe, the coffee, while it may still be hot enough, has become bitter. My machine (did I mention it's a good one).
Fill it to the "3" mark. You nuke it for a few seconds. Too fine, and the pump can't force the water through in 23 seconds, and the coffee will be extremely strong and without crema, that thick foam that's the hallmark of a correctly brewed espresso. Anybody do that. And you don't get crema that time either. Do I have to think of everything.
A word about the filters. Bear in mind that telephones and bowling balls are plastic, and nobody thinks of those two items as flimsy. The whole operation takes maybe 15 seconds. People thought I was very strange because, after all, "I don't see the difference between vacuum packed and coffee beans." But I could tell the difference. One really endearing feature of the Aeropress is that it's a snap to clean. Your mileage may vary.There might be easier ways to make coffee, but I know of none better.A note about Amazon.
Think about that for a moment. You could probably pound the beans with a meat tenderizer and come up with a grind that would work okay in the Aeropress. I save the rinse for later.Now, the word "plastic" has the connotation of "cheap" or "flimsy" for some people. It's now hot enough to drink, but it just doesn't taste right. I'm not all that fond of it myself. It's thick and strong. So I had to experiment with the grind and the amount to the tune of three tossed shots of espresso before I got one right. Espresso is finicky.
Well, you can keep your $350 espresso maker and your electric drip coffee maker, your French press, and your ibrik. Once you get past getting water to the right temperature, I can't think of a way you can make a bad cup of coffee with the Aeropress.And, by the way, I discovered that the correct amount of coffee grounds to use for a cup of espresso in my machine turned out to be the same as one Aeropress coffee measuring scoop.Making a pot of coffee. You're done. Even more remarkable is that coffee stored for a day or more in the refrigerator can be reheated without an objectionable loss in quality.
Sometimes I swipe the remaining grounds off the plunger with the stirring paddle before I rinse it. The coffee that comes out of the south end of the Aeropress is, certainly from a tactile and visual point of view, free from grounds. There are people who do like the tactile sensation of coffee grounds on their teeth such as coffee brewed in a French press or made in an ibrik. I do confess, however, to owning two (2) Aerobie Aeropresses. Well, for one thing, there are no grounds still brewing in the coffee you've got waiting for you in your stylish thermal carafe or in the cup you're savoring right at the moment, and that means that the coffee doesn't get bitter.
In 1968 when America was brewing coffee in percolators, I saw Michael Caine grind coffee beans in the opening scene of "The Ipcress File" and went right out and searched for coffee beans and a grinder. So for all of you who want to buy American, here's your chance: invented in America by an American and made in America.The Aeropress requires that the user have the ability and the patience to bring water to the right temperature, 175 degrees Fahrenheit. Too coarse, and the pump forces the water through too fast, and you get a weak cup of coffee. I have the kind you can stick into a slab of meat or dunk into an Aeropress. It works just fine, and it's not very expensive. That short time makes for a cup of coffee that's low in caffeine but with a robust coffee flavor. Fine is better. The Aeropress is made of what appears to me to be very high quality plastic.
I roast my own beans. You remove the little black filter basket at the bottom of the press, push the grounds into the kitchen wastebasket, rinse off the rubber plunger (look at the photos to see what I mean by "plunger"), rinse the basket. All the intensity of espresso's fullness of flavor, but without the bitterness. Or if you're not up to measuring the water, just stick your thermometer into the whistle on your teakettle and soon after you hear the water making that noise like it's about to boil (somewhere around 165 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit), it'll be at 180 degrees. The solution.
Okay, now for the part you've been waiting for, the review:I'll make this really simple: throw away all your other coffee makers and use the Aeropress. How hard is that. Best coffee you ever made in your life. Since brewing coffee in the Aeropress takes less than a minute, once you've got your water at the right temperature, you can brew up a whole lot of coffee really fast. Did I mention espresso is finicky. It was quite good, but I discovered that not only is espresso finicky, so am I. Coarse will work. Buy it here.
You can even make coffee with half the amount of water into an espresso cup, and, trust me on this, it is delicious. That means that it makes coffee with the same amount of pressure and at the correct temperature every time, but I have to put in the right amount of grounds and those grounds better be ground exactly right. Under five dollars as I recall at my local hardware store.How bothersome is it to bring water to the correct temperature. Under $[.].
He took me up on it. I am not a coffee snob, but I have very sensitive taste. Guess what. Such a simple concept, but such wonderful coffee. Enjoy. Be sure to buy several packages of filters because you are going to need them -- the coffee is that good made this way.
He said, "Thanks for the tip." Anyhow, I love my AreoPress.
And he had to admit "his was only a tiny bit better" (speaking as a loyal employee, of course).
I can spot Columbian coffee (by taste), blended coffees, stale [old] grounds, and so forth.
I am on fairly friendly terms with a local StarBucks store manager, so I challenged him to a coffee taste test -- his versus mine.
I can instantly spot local water versus properly filtered water versus Ozarka (for example, which has a "bottom of a wood bucket" taste to me).
Two weeks later, he asked me (in a whisper) what coffee I had used.
I told him "Eight O'Clock from Wal-Mart -- freshly gound, of course).
But they are all better made with an AeroPress.
(42club)
These are the correct replacement filters for the AeroPress coffee maker, which I use at least once a day. They profit, they sell more coffee makers, I get a good product at a fair price. They work exactly as advertised.The manufacturer claims I can wash and reuse the filters, but I don't. They go away with the coffee grounds.Thanks to the AeroPress people for not overcharging for the filters (and even at $0.01 each, I'm sure they make a little profit). exactly how capitalism is supposed to work. :)
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