AeroPress

I blogged about the AeroPress a while back. Well I've had it for over a month now and figured that a report on it would be worthwhile.

Let's say I like it enough that it's going to be a standard X-mas gift from me this year. It makes a damn good cup of coffee in a short amount of time. Many people who've had coffee I have made with it have noted that it's very smooth, which is true. (This is helped by the fact that I buy French roast beans and grind them fresh just before use.) You get a fair bit of control so it'll take a little bit of experimentation to get the coffee the way you like it---the instructions get you close but you'll need to tweak. This is, of course, fun, but it's not so fantastic when you get a bitter cup of coffee in those early days until you get the feel for it. Unlike a French press, cleanup is a snap.

It makes espresso-like coffee but I can't, for the life of me, get good crema reliably. Sometimes I manage, other times not. It always makes plenty of crema but as this floats on top of the coffee it often seems to get filtered out by the coffee itself as the liquid gets pressed through the grounds.

I think if I really want espresso I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy an espresso maker but for $30 it's pretty darn hard to argue with this little gadget....