The AeroPress® is a relatively new apparatus for making coffee, invented in 2005. You could say that it represents a whole new way of making coffee (as the manufacturers do) but since it has features in common with almost every other way I can think of, that might be pushing it (it's like a filter... espresso... press). The coffee it makes is something like espresso, but considerably less bitter than normal espresso relative to its strength. Perhaps that's why I don't like it quite as much, but serious coffee people also say that it loses more of the volatile oils than other methods. Once you dilute it with hot water, though, it makes a truly excellent cup of Americano-style coffee, and it makes it astonishingly fast.

The AeroPress itself consists of just three plastic parts, plus a filter which is either disposable and made of paper, or washable and made of metal. The main chamber, marked with numbers on the side indicating the amount of water corresponding to 1-4 espresso shots, is designed to sit on top of a cup. The filter cap screws into that, holding the filter in place. There is a special spoon to measure coffee into the chamber, and a special stirrer that is just short enough not to disturb the filter at the bottom, but neither one seems essential. There is also a funnel that I use for tipping in coffee fresh from the grinder. You pour in hot water - they recommend it should only be about 80° - and stir it for about ten seconds. Then you wet the rubber at the bottom of the plunger, insert it into the top of the main shaft, and press. It takes twenty or thirty seconds to push it all the way down.

I find that once the coffee is all squeezed out, the cap is cool enough to remove immediately, which is good because the manufacturers are quite stern about not leaving the coffee in there. Once the cap is off, you can push the plunger down the rest of the way to make the coffee fall out with a satisfying plop. Since the rubber seal of the plunger clears everything out of the main chamber on the way down, there is no cleaning to do except to wipe off any grounds sticking to the plunger, and rinse off the paper filter if you want to reuse it.

We've only had one for a couple of weeks, so I can't testify to its longevity, but the plastic seems remarkably sturdy, and online reviews I've read seem to bear this out. I would take it camping without a second thought. It hasn't completely replaced our main cafetière, just because it's handy being able to make four cups at once, but I'm not at all sure we're actually saving ourselves any time or effort by using the big press, and it certainly doesn't make such good coffee.

A modern advance on the French press coffee maker


" The coffee it makes is something like espresso, but considerably less bitter than normal espresso relative to its strength."
Oolong


Oolong's writeup (currently above this) gives an excellent outline of how to use the Aeropress. I want to expand on it with a little history and a couple of suggestions for how to get the best out of it.

The equipment was designed by California engineer and inventor Alan Adler; disappointed with the control over his coffee from other devices, and wanting something simple and reliable, he set out designing a new piece of equipment, the first prototype being made in his garage, as is tradition.

As Oolong has mentioned, making coffee with this is simply a matter of adding coffee grounds to it, adding close-to-boiling water, stirring or swirling before leaving to stand for a moment and then pressing the plunger to extract the coffee into a cup. In this way it has elements of French-press style infusion, filter pourover and an element of espresso. That said, the pressure developed does not allow for a true espresso shot, but with care one can get something approaching espresso strength if not body.

Hacking the Aeropress

Various tricks can be employed to overcome limitations of the system or improve the brew. The best-known involves the "inverted method", in which the maker is inverted, the grounds being poured in on top of the plunger. Boiling water is then added, the filter and cap are carefully attached and the whole thing is gently and carefully swirled to distribute the water and coffee. Finally a cup is inverted over the whole, and it's all turned right side up before finally plunging. It should go without saying that there are dangers o this method as you're now handling a delicate piece of equipment that could open up spilling boiling water over you, your clothes, the kitchen and possibly the cat. This would be a Bad Thing. Be very careful to hold all the components together as you urn it over. You have been warned.

The above method overcomes one of the weaknesses of the Aeropress, namely that once you've added water and inserted the plunger, some of the coffee is going to start to drip into the cup. This can result in a slightly weaker brew, but brewing inverted maximises the contact time of the water with the grounds. Other mechanics are available to gt around this, notably several replacement components for the paper filter, each of which prevents coffee flow until the plunger is depressed. These metal filters are not expensive, and many people swear by them, but I'm cash-strapped enough that I don't buy one.

Finally, you can tweak the outcome by extending the infusion time. I've moved up from the recommended two minutes to approaching four. Infusion methods are pretty forgiving, and your coffee will be stronger, sweeter and a little more full of body.

Finally, a word on longevity. I have had my 'press for a month, dropped it twice on a tile floor from waist height and it has survived. I've a friend who's taken his on several backpacking camping trips, where it's bound to get some rough handling. He's had his for over a year and says it's still going strong. Lastly, it's very portable, takes up little space and needs only hot water and coffee to work. I'm going to take mine on the trip to Seattle for Thanksgiving and give it a whirl on the train. I'm not alone in supporting this method, eiher. In a recent poll, 2.47% of respondents here are using Aeropress; a couple of people are also considering swiching.






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