Customer Reviews

Aerobie 80R08 AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker

5 star:		(820)
4 star:		(137)
3 star:		(44)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

I have owned the AeroPress for over two years and, judging by the number of filters I have used so far, I have brewed about 600 cups of coffee with it. It has become an essential part of my daily routine. It is fast, easy, and the grounds just pop out into the trash or compost. But all this has already been covered in these reviews. Here are a few additional points worth considering:

-It can brew a few cups of coffee in just a few minutes and make each cup as weak or as strong as my guest wants.

-If you are expecting the coffee to taste like espresso or like French-pressed coffee, remember that the AeroPress uses a paper filter. It filters out much of the oil that would otherwise be present. I prefer my coffee this way but others may not. Think of it as the best drip coffee maker in the world.

-Unlike an espresso machine or a French press, you can grind the coffee in a basic blade grinder because a consistent grind isn't necessary. In a French press, your coffee will have too much silt and the bottom of your cup will be sludge.

-With a little practice, you'll soon be able to customize your coffee exactly how you like it. Adjust acidity with water temperature and steep time. Adjust strength with the grind and the coffee-to-water ratio.

-When I lost a piece of my AeroPress, Aerobie sent me a replacement for just a couple of dollars. They were easy to contact, helpful, and friendly. This is a great product made by an excellent little company.

This is the first time I've decided to review a product online. If you found this helpful, click the little box below. And if there is anything else you'd like to know, please click "comment" and ask me.

I did many hours of research into coffee makers before deciding on an Aeropress. I learned that several factors influence the coffee you end up with: the temperature of the water, the way the water mixes with the coffee, and how the coffee is extracted from the grounds. I found it difficult to find knowledgeable reviews of the various coffee machines, so I decided to take control of my coffee preparation. The aeropress allows you to control how hot the water is and how long you let it mix with the coffee.

The whole coffee making process is explained in the products instructions.

1. Insert a filter and some coffee into the unit. A coffee scoop and some filters are included with the aeropress, they recommend 1 scoop of coffee per cup.

2. Heat the right amount of water. Markers are printed on the side of the Aeropress to show the recommended amount of water for between 1 and 4 (the maximum) espresso shots. The manufacturers recommend water between 75 and 80 degrees. I don't know if this is correct, because I don't have a thermometer in the kitchen, and in any case, I'm not going to stick a thermometer in water to get it to a precise temperature. I boil water in my kettle and let the water sit for a set time before use. Alternatively, you could microwave the water for a set time. A bit of experimentation and you'll find how hot you like the water. I agree with Aeropress that boiling hot water extracts unpleasant flavors.

3. Mix the water with the grounds. The grounds are immersed in water, much like in a french press, but the manufacturers recommend letting the water sit for no more than about 10 seconds. I find that this is about right, but you can experiment and decide for yourself.

4. Insert the plunger and push the water out of the Aeropress. You press the plunger down so that it extracts the water from the grounds over about 20 seconds. The Aeropress needs to be on a strong and stable container, such as a mug, for this part of the process. Pressing the plunger requires a bit of strength if you are making more than one espresso shot. You'll need to press down for about 20 seconds.

5. Drink up, or dilute the espresso shot(s) for American coffee or mix them for cappuccino, or whatever.

I am very happy with the Aeropress. It makes great tasting coffee. It's easy to clean and inexpensive. In my opinion the aeropress is superior to french press or manual drip percolator coffee. It is not as convenient as a machine but I'm willing to spend the effort for good coffee.

***Update 3/15/11*** It's been over 4 years, and I still use this coffee maker every single day. I'm STILL on my first packet of filters, and still in love. I rinse the filters out and reuse once or twice per filter. And no, I haven't flipped it over. Yet.

As a certified coffee snob, I thought it didn't get better than french press. Fugetaboudit! The Aeropress renders a sweet, flavorful, impeccable Americano every time that will change your expectations forever. I have a drip coffee machine, a french press and a Krups espresso maker, and they are all officially retired thanks to the Aeropress.

I can't say enough about the results, but note that the Aerobie is more time-consuming to use than either french press or drip coffee makers, more comparable to espresso makers. Well worth it, mind you, but NOT as quick and painless as the manufacturer would have you believe. This product makes espresso by forcing air through the grounds using a syringe-type plunger. You must put in a filter, add the grounds, measure out the precise amount of water, add water and stir. You then have to place the Aeropress on top of a cup to use it, exert a pretty good amount of force, and then, if you're making two or more cups, divy the espresso up into other containers and add water or milk, if you want. So far I haven't done it, but I think it would be really easy to push too hard, flip over the cup, and spray espresso everywhere.

Still, greatest coffee ever, no competition. If you want the best, you gotta put in the time.

Wow! Best cup of coffee I ever had. And so simple! The design is brilliant. I'm impressed with the quality of construction, ease of use, ease of cleanup, and the great taste. This is the end of all other methods of coffee production.

I fill the plunger to the appropriate mark with hot tap water and place it in the microwave for 20 seconds (the experimentally determined time to reach 175). While the water is heating I place a filter sheet in the cap, place it on the chamber, and add 1 scoop of coffee. With the chamber on top of my cup, I add the now hot water, stir, and press. Cleanup consists of ejecting the used coffee into the composting pot and rinsing the end of the plunger. Then I'm ready to enjoy a perfect cup of coffee.

Coffee is one of those things that are highly subjective, coffee snobs and everyday coffee drinkers cannot even agree on what is "good" coffee. It comes down to preference and the Aeropress is great at making a clean cup but still retain some flavor. It cannot make Espresso and it cannot make french pressed coffee. It is regular filtered coffee, whether you hand pour it, machine brew it or push it through a tube, it is plain old filtered coffee. Because of the filter, it cannot make the other kinds of coffee, it can only adjust the strength of the brew.

That being said, the Aeropress is a great filter coffee maker because it gives the user more control than most other systems. You control the temperature, the brew time, the grind and the proportions. Just like a french press, you have full control of all of these things. This allows you to brew coffee in different strengths, although I still recommend using the standard rules of coffee brewing. The point is to extract the exact amount of flavor out of the grinds and everyone has their own opinion of what that means. The standard method is to use 1 table spoon of grinds per 2oz of water, water should be 190F, I prefer a medium grind to avoid extracting bitter/acidic flavors. Timing is the strange part about the Aeropress, with a hand pour method, a slow steady flow works best which takes about 3 to 4 minutes to complete. But with the Aeropress, the water is pushed through instead, so it seems to take about 15 - 30 seconds. I am not sure if this is a good thing or not, it's such a small window for error that I cannot tell whether I am doing it right or not. With other brewing methods, it is much slower so you can watch the grinds and the coffee come out and adjust as you brew. But with the Aeropress, it all happens at once and you get what you get. Still, it is consistent and probably good enough for most.

I must emphasize that the Aeropress does not make espresso or french press. Espresso is a mythical drink and to claim that an aeropress can make it is an insult. You probably cannot make decent espresso for less than $600.00. I know that's snob talk, but seriously, true espresso is amazingly hard to attain, which means you probably wouldn't even know what it tastes like. So to claim that this thing can make it, probably means you don't know what you're talking about. Oh it can make a strong shot of something that tastes like the espresso at starbucks... I'll leave it at that. As for french press, the filter used in the Aeropress is way too fine to let the oils and flavors through. It will filter out all the floral flavors, the honey flavors and all the really really good stuff in your coffee. This is why the aeropress is so consistent, if you filter out some of the oils and flavors, then many different coffees will taste alike. This is not a bad thing, it is what you want in a clean cup, no earthy, nutty, dirty flavors in every cup (not everyone likes these flavors).

What I don't like about the Aeropress is the mess. Everything is plastic which the coffee oils easily cling to. If it is not cleaned thoroughly after every use, grinds will start sticking to it and the parts get oily (which adds stale yucky flavors to your next cup), yuck. And for you bulk coffee buyers out there, the beans are especially oily on the outside. This means the inside of the bean is all dried out and you have no flavor in it. It also means that when you grind it, it will get really staticky and fly all over the place. Do yourselves a favor and shop for beans the way you would an orange, look for a bag that feels heavier than it looks, this means the beans are juicier on the inside. Good beans will grind much better, the oils won't stick to your gear and clean up will be much much much easier. Except for the Aeropress though, because the oils get extracted inside it. Now if they made a pyrex version of the Aeropress, that'd be mighty impressive.

Anyway, Aeropress is good. It's a quick/dirty way to a good, consistent cup of coffee. Requires more maintenance than preferable. The tube is not very big, so it will only make one mug of coffee at a time, heavy drinkers will not like this. Complaints about it requiring more grinds than other makers are not true, follow the standard brewing rules and all makers use the same amount of coffee (just because more stuff comes out does not mean it is making "more" coffee, just diluted/over brewed coffee). Now I'd be amazed if anyone read this review all the way through.

As others have said, the Aeropress makes great coffee and espresso. The Aeropress lacks the style and design of the $3,000 automated Italian machines. In fact, it looks a lot like a bong or a chemistry set. It operates like no other coffee maker you have seen before. Who would have thought someone could come up with a new way to make coffee?

The Aeropress is a completely manual system, which explains its low price. You espress the coffee manually by pressing on a plastic pipe that sends hot water through the coffee grounds, sort of like an upside down french press. It is very easy to use, and could easily be packed for travel.

Pros:
Cheap
Great coffee
Great espresso
Takes up very little space
No electronics to break
No high-dollar bean mill required. A regular blade grinder will do.
Right water temperature produces coffee with very low acid.

Cons:
You will go through a lot of beans because the coffee tastes so good
It takes practice to make crema
You need an instant-read thermometer to heat the water to 165 to 175 degrees
You will have to heat and steam milk manually if you like milk-based espresso drinks
No cool-looking Gaggia or Saeco espresso machine sitting in your kitchen
No excuse to upgrade your blade grinder to a mill

Below is my original review but I've returned to upgrade my opinion and offer some suggestions. Unfortunately Amazon won't let me change the star rating without deleting and starting over but, after using the Aeropress for about a month I'd give it five stars.

Here's why I changed my mind: originally I only gave the press four stars because of the large amount of coffee required to make a cup of coffee using the manufacturer's directions. They must get kickbacks from coffee companies or something, because they say to use two scoops of grounds per cup of coffee -- YIKES! That's fine if you're using cheap coffee, but when you buy fair trade organic it can really run up your coffee bill. And what's the point of having a gourmet coffeemaker if you don't use gourmet coffee?

I've been experimenting with the Aeropress and have found that I can make an excellent cup of coffee with only one scoop of grounds by not focusing on "smooth" coffee. I like acidity in my coffee -- my preference is for balance over smoothness. So I heat the water to near boiling and fill the Aeropress to the 4-cup line, stir the grounds into the water and allow to set for a couple of minutes before pressing. This allows much more coffee flavor to come through, and I no longer get the paper taste that I got when I made coffee according to directions. When I press I do so fairly quickly, and actually get a lovely espresso crema. This only fills my cup to about 2/3, so I add hot water for the rest.

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Aeropress makes a very good cup of coffee. I'd like to add a few comments.

The instructions say to only heat the water to 175 degrees because that reduces the amount of acidity and makes the coffee smoother. That may be true, but I thought it was a bit too smooth. I like a bit of acidity in my coffee, so after the first trial cup I began to heat the water to almost boiling, which yielded a brew more to my taste. (Also the coffee stays hotter longer that way.)

This method uses a lot of coffee if you go by the directions -- they recommend two scoops of grounds per cup! Their scoops are a little smaller than a normal coffee scoop, and I've found that 1-1/2 Aeropress scoops make a good cup. This turns out to be about the same that my French press uses, but the Aeropress coffee has no grounds in it, so I"m giving away the French press.

Update after a year 6/22/08:

I've had the Aeropress for over a year, and am happy as a clam.

If you want the best coffee ever:

1. order beans from one of the sites that roast your beans after you order, not before. Choose high-rated beans if you're not sure what you want. (one recent winner: Kenyan Peaberry from Atomic Cafe). As soon as they arrive (I never can wait):

2. Start boiling water and set up filter in Aeropress.

3. Grind beans fine (almost to espresso fineness, but not quite) in most any $15 grinder--you don't need a burr grinder with Aeropress. I use just under 1/4 cup (just covers my grinder's blades--and with this small amount, only 10-15 seconds of pulse grinding does the trick). And load ground coffee into Aeropress (I use the supplied funnel).

4. Pour boiling or near-boiling water into large mug (about 1 1/2 cups). Insert instant read thermometer and add water or just stir until temperature drops to 175F-180F.

5. Pour 175F water into Aeropress (placed on 2nd mug (a sturdy mug on a sturdy surface).

6. Immediately stir with any spoon for 5 seconds, but don't let spoon scrape filter at bottom, and wait just 3-5 seconds before using plunger.

7. Plunge (with a good deal of weight over cup) for 10 to 25 seconds, pausing every few seconds if too much resistance. Push until grounds are compressed/squeezed (it is actually easy at the end).

8. Enjoy an exceptional (but not perfect) double espresso in your mug--as is; or add hot water (only 1/2 cup (my preference--very strong) to 1 cup--med. to med-strong) to make a perfect coffee (americano).

9. Savor.

10. Clean up by rinsing off and air drying filter for reuse 5 to 30 times (until ripped or frayed). Pop the coffee puck into garbage or compost. Rinsing Aeropress is enough, no need to wash unit.

Note: I originally preferred 185F to 190F because I was so used to the bite of acid and bitters. Go with what you prefer, but 175F is best IMO--most flavors and complexity.

The combination of the freshest very strong coffee and very low acid/bitterness is euphoric.

As mentioned, Aeropress espresso is excellent, but not quite perfect; and that is because the crema from Aeropress is too airy and dissipates quickly; in other words, it looks like crema, but it's really a stretch to call it that (as I did previously). Also, when making espresso, I nudge up the temperature to 180F to get the slightest hint of bitters. It is still smooth and strong. That said, if you don't take your espresso straight (I do), but make it as the base for your lattes, cappuccinos, etc., then Aeropress is pretty much perfect for those too.
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Preliminary review: I just used the aeropress for the second time and am very happy with it. I've read the reviews here and at [...] and as effusive as they were, I had one over-riding concern: would the coffee be too bland and not strong enough (with a slight bitter kick) for my taste? I like coffee black and strong; always have and always will. , Good espresso is heavenly. Therefore all the reviews about how "smooth" the aeropress coffee is made me wary. I like a touch of bitterness and distrusted the c.170 degree recommended water temperature.

Anyways, the espresso came out nice and thick, very full-bodied and rich. There also was a very nice combination of enough acid with a heavy, rich taste experience. The complexity of some good beans came through, and perhaps were even enhanced over my good french press. I'm delighted.

I'll come back and expand when I've used this a bit more, but as for now I highly recommend the aeropress and can assure those who may have similar concern that a hand-press won't deliver "real espresso": It does. One more word: There is real crema if one firmly pumps down an inch or two of air on top of the grounds. The quality of the crema is just so-so, (light, with no distinction) but it's there. A professional espresso machine works at about 130psi (9-10 bars/atmospheres) to get the crema everyone loves; and that is one thing, and as far as I can tell, the only thing, out of reach for the aeropress.

At the end of the day, the AeroPress makes a great cup of coffee. My preferred cup is a cafe americano, and the AeroPress makes me a cafe americano better than Starbucks and only matched by my fairly expensive home espresso machine (and the machine requires more prep and cleanup). I don't regret buying the Aeropress.

However, there are two drawbacks which I think the potential buyer should be aware of:

1. The AeroPress uses -a lot- of coffee grounds. The press may be cheap, but the scoop is twice the size of a standard espresso scoop. You'll be running through your coffee supplies twice as fast as before, and that can get expensive. I buy green coffee in bulk and roast and grind at home, so I don't care too much, but for those slightly less crazed than I who buy their coffee "like normal people" you'll see the difference in your monthly coffee bill.

Further, most of the "smoothness" of the coffee the Aeropress produces is directly a result of this "twice as much coffee grounds" issue. If I put twice as much coffee in my French press and steeped it for half the time I'd get very similar results as the Aeropress. If you already have a French press try using half as much water and pressing down the filter after only 30 seconds before you buy the Aeropress. The only advantage the AeroPress really has here is that it's designed to use this much coffee, while other coffee machines are more frugal.

2. I'm not thrilled with the price. The device feels well constructed (the plastic isn't flimsy), but it's still just plastic. The whole device could not have cost more than $2 to manufacture (and probably half that). I'm all for invention and technological progress, but the markup here feels unreasonable. I can get a good glass and steel French press for the same price. This issue #2 is why I did not give the AreoPress 5 stars. It's a very good coffee maker, but it's not a great value.

As for the issue of "push-down pressure" that other reviewers have mentioned, this is purely a function of how course the grind is you're using. A fine espresso grind will require a lot of pressure. A coarse French press grind can be pushed down with just one finger. If you're having trouble pushing the press down, trying using a slightly coarser grind - I think you'll find the problem goes away. As you move away from the recommended "very find" grind though you may wish to increase a brew time a few seconds to compensate for the loss of grind-surface area exposure. I find that the recommended 10 seconds is right for espresso and very fine grinds but 20-25 seconds works best for the coarsest grinds.

For reasons beyond the scope of this review, the Aeropress does not make espresso. However, it does make incredible coffee with ease.

The Aeropress' inability to make espresso is also the reason that it makes exceptionally good coffee: The oils and acids in coffee are trapped in the grounds that remain in the bottom of the Aeropress, instead of your cup. As a result, the Aeropress produces very low acid coffee that is smooth, clean and easy to drink black.

The Aeropress makes coffee that is roughly four times the strength of an automatic drip machine, so it is perfect for making iced coffee and iced mochas. Because of the increased concentration, I brew directly into a tall glass containing cocoa powder and Equal. Brew into glass, stir, fill with ice and milk, stir again, drink. The concentration of the Aeropress coffee offsets the dilution from the ice, and allows you to have a fresh-brewed iced mocha, instead of making one with stale, cold coffee. Beware, once you make fresh coffee mochas, you will never be able to go back.

For best results, buy good coffee beans and grind them immediately before brewing. If (with freshly ground, high quality coffee beans) your Aeropress coffee tastes flat, increase the temperature of the water to 190 F, and be sure to use good tasting water. If your Aeropress coffee tastes bitter, you are brewing it too long and the coffee is getting over-extracted. If the brewed coffee is too strong (Dad), simply dilute it per the included instructions.

The Aeropress makes great coffee, is fast and easy to use, is easy to clean and is made in the United States. On top of all that, it is a great value. I cannot recommend the Aeropress more highly - but it still doesn't make espresso.