Aerobie 80R08 AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Aerobie 80R08 AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker
Customer Review: Great Coffeemaker! Poor-tasting coffee!
Summary: 1 Stars
Wow, finally a voice of reason (see Franz Kaffkeine's review) amongst the throngs of adoring reviewers.
You're spot on Franz - the flavor of the Aerobie is not good and it does require more beans than one should need to make a good cup of coffee.
I've been using the Aerobie for over a month and every single cup I make is an experiment - and one that usually fails. I alter water temp, bean quantity, grind, and steeping times in an attempt to reach Aerobie Nirvana but it never comes. I keep changing these variables with the hope that the resulting coffee won't be so harsh and bitter tasting but even after a month of experimentation, the coffee is just too bitter and lacks flavor.
Since, in a theoretical aspect, the Aerobie is not that far away from a French press, you'd think that there must be a way to brew good coffee with it but I can not find it. My very last attempt will involve using a very coarse ground similar to that used for a French press as I know that a sure way to brew bitter coffee in a French press is to use too fine a grind. We'll see what happens.
One thing I have to compliment the Aerobie on is the excellent full body of the coffee. No grit (like a French press) and almost good to the very last drop (completely unlike a French press).
If you're coming from a low-end dripmaker, you may not notice the lack of flavor but still, you may be "stung" by the bitterness. It's a shame that such a convenient, easy-to-use and easy-to-clean coffeemaker lacks the one critical element: flavor.
If you're having trouble compressing the Aerobie, it means you're simply using too fine a grind and you're slamming into the laws of physics. But if you're using too fine a grind, you're probably experiencing real bad coffee flavor as well. Though the Aerobie recommends a very fine grind, I'm assuming they are referring to brewing espresso. I have found that using a fine grind in the Aerobie is a sure way to brewing horrible-tasting coffee.
I have to admit that, after a month of experimentation, I have brewed some half-decent cups of coffee with the Aerobie but even so, the flavor was always noticeably lacking. The most important tip I can give about using the Aerobie is monitoring water temperature. If you pour water straight off of boiling into the Aerobie, the resulting taste will be very harsh and metallic.
I'd love to give the Aeropress more than one star but if it can't brew good-tasting coffee...
Customer Review: Mine's on Craigslist
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought my AeroPress 2 years ago, went through 1/2 of a filter pack, and stopped using it. Here's why:
1) The AeroPress is the coffee equivalent of the Japanese Tea Ceremony. That's great if you're into ritual and paraphernalia. Not so great if you're half-awake and just need a strong cup of coffee so you can move on to more important things, like breakfast.
You have to grind the coffee to a powder and assemble this thing while remembering to heat water to *just* the right temperature (but not boiling). I can't tell you how many times this sleepyhead forgot some key element in the Rube Goldberg-like sequence of events required to make a single cup of Joe. Good Lord, if I had that much coordination in the morning I wouldn't need coffee!
And then you have all this stuff to wash afterwards, and all these pieces lying around, taking up room in a drawer or on your countertop. Not to mention the fine coffee powder that sticks electrostatically to everything nearby. Throwing a filter, coffee, and water into a coffee machine and pushing the button is so much easier!
2) AeroPress coffee isn't anything special; in fact it tasted rather sour to me. Sure, it's strong, but it better be considering you use the same amount of grind for 1 cup that you would normally use to make 4 cups in the coffeemaker. If it would've tasted 4x better than what Mr. Coffee produces, I wouldn't say a word, but it fell far short.
3) No aroma. To us, the smell of brewing coffee, especially in the morning, is just as important as the taste. The AeroPress produces about as much coffee aroma as instant coffee does. (Which is actually a good thing, because if it smelled heavenly it would be a terrible letdown once you tasted it.)
4) Impractical to make larger quantities, for example when guests come over. Unless they happen to be bodybuilders; then they can press their own coffee while comparing their triceps development.
5) Weird gunk. After a long period of disuse, the rubber plunger on my AeroPress got coated with a tacky substance, like spray-on glue. I am mystified as to what this is; we don't own spray-on glue (let alone use it as air freshener) and nothing else in our kitchen is coated with this substance. It must be the rubber decomposing. Scrubbing it with dishwashing liquid helped remove some of the gunk, but the plunger still has this "sticky" feel to it.
All in all, not too "imPressed" with the AeroPress.
Customer Review: A Gift from the Valar
Summary: 5 Stars
Of the all the technological wonders to grace the human existence, these simple pieces of plastic and rubber have transformed my dull, ordinary life into a more fantastic, fulfilled and caffeinated one. Making coffee in this is as if the Valar themselves reached down and handed us a gilded cup full of this sweet and bitter nectar. The scales have fallen from my eyes and I see the foul lies I have fed by drip coffee makers, stove top moka pots and french press fanatics for once I tasted the brew brought forth from the Aeropress' loins, I wept with joy at finally being able to taste what coffee roasters have long been describing in their precious-sounding, wine-like bean notes (hints of chocolate, cardamon and smoke, with a bright, woodsy finish), but also I wept tears of rage at having wasted half my life to over-cooked, over-steeped, gut-gnawing swill which passes as coffee in the United States. My heart sinks a little when I am away from my Aeropress for long and forced to get coffee at a Starbucks or, worst, Dunkin Donuts, which is why I carry my Aeropress, or "coffee-syringe" as I endearingly call it, in a fleece lined bag when travelling. When staying a friend's houses, I mercilessly subject them to the benefits of my coffee syringe like a man who has found the key to eternal happiness and must tell every living soul the good news lest they be thrown into a fiery pit of despair (don't even think of escaping) where there is much crying and gnashing of teeth.
Like many who have reviewed this fine, life-changing, product, I use the upside-down method; whereas you flip the thing so the plunger is at the bottom of the tube and you pour water through where you'd screw the filter on. A digital thermometer tells me when the water is just right and a cannibalized gold-filter coffee cone replaces the stack of paper-filters (much cleaner tasting and less waste). Two scoops of ground coffee and 3 minutes later, you are drinking the finest, smoothest brew to ever pass your lips, never again to return to your newly antiquated and inefficient method of brewing. As one who used to put milk in the coffee to hide the stomach-burning, acid-inducing taste, I now go sans milk just to see what new gifts of taste my Aeropress has bequeathed on me this morning. Is that chocolate and cardamon I taste? Yes it is, my friend, yes it is.
Go forth and purchase this product and rejoice in it's everlasting wonder. You will fall on your knees and thank the gods for it.
Customer Review: an update to my review
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
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.
Customer Review: A drop in the ocean of reviews but...
Summary: 5 Stars
AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker
My daughter just gave me this AeroPress for dad's day and I thought what a lot of people thought,
".. it can not possibly do what it says it does." I remember thinking that my daughter just had no idea what it takes to make a great shot of espresso...
Obviously, she does. Either that or she'd been reading these reviews.
I took it out the next day and pressed out a 3 shot Americano. It takes a bit of upper body strength to push the air driven water through 3 shots worth of finely ground coffee but when it was finished, from the 1st sip I knew, this was Barista quality espresso. I texted my daughter immediately and told her how wonderful it was and thanked her profusely. The clean up is effortless and even if it were more difficult, I'd still use this puppy over and over (as I have)
I over caffeinated myself the next few days. I've since calmed down and have finally come to the full realization that I have the luxury of a small, portable, top notch espresso maker in my possession.
I buy my own beans green from exclusive coffee ranches around the world, barrel roast and burr grind them to a perfect powder. I have used every espresso maker made to date and this system equals the best of those. I use the same amount of coffee that I did for a $100 Andreja Premium Italian espresso maker so I have no idea where some reviewers came up with the idea you need more coffee. More than drip yes but the same amount as most steam press machines.
The trick to an easier pressing is a good stir before plunging. I'm 58 and reasonably strong. I found out that if you don't follow the directions about paddling the coffee into an evenly suspended solution, you'll have more trouble pressing it through.
You can tailor your roast and amount and of coffee for a lighter brew. You can make a four shot cup of full city or a one shot of second crack light roast and still, this product excels in producing a full bodied cup every time.
My large and quite discerning family from all over the globe has unanimously given the aerobie their highest compliments.
At any price, this would be worth every penny. For under $30, it is a treasure.