Small coffee shop in Alba, Italy
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Aeropress! I actually just bought my brother one because he saw me making coffee one morning and gave me the 🤨 look. I told him to taste it and he exclaimed "damn, that is excellent coffee!" since he's used to pre-made stuff and Keurig pods.
Yeah, aeropress really is the easiest to make, clean and maintain.
I have had mine and use it all the time for about 15 years now. Still works great. I just rinse the stuff off and leave it in the dish dry rack.
Yep. I love other methods too but aeropress seems to be the easiest method to get a consistently good cup of coffee. It's not the best but that's not what you're looking for everyday.
It’s a very forgiving method, unlike the moka pot. If you use a scale, and keep all numbers reasonable, the result will be reasonably good too. Finer details don’t really matter very much unless you’re highly trained in tasting finer flavor notes. Most people can’t tell if the temperature, particle size or extraction time was a little bit off.
Moka pot is a very different beast. It’s very easy to go from delicious coffee to bitter rat poison in a few seconds if you’re not paying attention.
I personally find the Moka pot to be more consistent for me personally, as long as you keep the temperature from getting to high and take it off the heat before the bubbly too hot water comes out it's bang on. With an Aeropress I could never figure out how to make it well consistently.
The Aeropress is dead simple: I haven't found much of a difference, taste wise, when using 14 to 18.5 grams of beans. I usually stick with 18.5g at a relatively coarse grind size (65 on my DF64 if that means anything to you, it goes from 100 which is really coarse to 1 which is extremely fine, like for Turkish Coffee, well below espresso, which is usually in the 12-15 range), grind my beans fresh, and use boiling water since I largely drink medium or light roasts. I let it brew for 2.5 minutes and it's damn good every time. I've even let it brew for like 7 minutes when I forgot to set a timer, thinking it was going to be disgusting swill and it was only a bit bolder than what I was used to. It's pretty hard to mess up an Aeropress brew IMO.
If you keep on using your moka pot that way, you can get great coffee every time. You just need to keep an eye on it. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to screw it up, whereas with the areropress screwing it up requires borderline criminal negligence. As long as you weigh the grinds and water, AP produces very consistent results for me. If you happen to be an experienced taster, you can probably notice if the grind size, temperature or extraction time is a little bit off.
I’ve tried a bunch of side-by-side comparisons and I can tell you that I’m not quite that experienced, so I don’t need to worry about the finer details that much. As long as both weights are within a reasonable range, the coffee ends up being really good every time.
I have yet to use a Moka Pot, but I have used it's hardcore big brother, the 9Barista Espresso "machine". I don't use it often because it's a bit of a pain in the ass, it takes like 10 minutes to make a single shot of espresso since there's no moving parts (except for the valves) and you have to heat up a huge chunk of steel on a stove. My brother looked it over and said it's essentially a reverse Whiskey still.
That thing can easily go from "this is pretty good" to "OMG WTF happened?!?" pretty quickly since it's damn near impossible to standardize all the variables (temperature, brewing time, grind size, bean type, water quality, etc..). I've had it for like 2 years now and it's pretty rare for me to have a good cup of espresso from one roaster to the next. I use Trade Coffee, so my coffee roasters are different with every bag I get.
Oh, you have one of those. I think I’ve seen a review of it on YT. Seems like the type of machine that requires some skill to operate successfully.
Yeah it's more of a novelty. I had a lot of money to blow at the time, and it was during the COVID lockdown so I splurged. I blame James Hoffman for me buying it 🤣 It's a pain in the ass to use effectively and to get a consistent shot of espresso out of. I don't use it often because it takes like 10 minutes of prep and brewing to make something I'll drink in 30 seconds.
YEP.
I've tried multiple different recipes for pour overs and they always come out too acidic or "off". I can't seem to get it to brew long enough while pouring the water, it seems too delicate and easy to screw up. It's pretty hard to screw up an Aeropress brew.
I even bought one for my parents house when I stay there and visit.
v60 easier to clean and maintain
I disagree, the Aeropress makes a nice puck of coffee which can easily be ejected out. The only thing you have to clean off is the oil (if you want, I never use soap and water, just water to give it a quick rinse). With a v60 the coffee grounds can get stuck in the mesh if you're not using a paper filter, and if you are, it's about the same cleanup, just wash off the oils and let it dry.
aeropress with normal paper filter, pick up the grounds and dispose, only the cone to wash, done. aeropress pop the grounds, scoop remainders on the plunger, wash the 3 pieces. no argument on the ease of brewing though, aeropress gets you 90% of the way there with almost no skill required
I just bang it out on the trash can after I eject the puck.
I find it harder to make good coffee. It can definitely make great coffee but you need technique.
Agreed, I don't think I've ever made a good cup using a v60 and multiple different recipes that was comparable to a cup I made with the Aeropress.
That's why I have my coffee shop to which I go for coffee.
I like to have my coffee when I wake up, in my own house, and not pay 3x the price for it 😉
I dug my aeropress out of storage not too long ago after like 5 years. it was one of my first coffee tools and I thought I moved on when I got better stuff. I gotta say it's combination of convenience and taste is still unparalleled. It still works great and immediately went back into normal rotation lol
I agree, I've tried other methods (so far only pour over and French Press) and the Aeropress is by far the hardest to screw up. I'm usually adamant on my 2 minutes 30 seconds brewing time (I set a timer) but there have been times that I've forgotten to set it and let it brew for like 5-10 minutes and it still tastes largely the same. I still haven't made a pour over that was as good as an Aeropress brew. French Press is close, but it leaves a bunch of ground coffee in the bottom of the cup.