The cafetiere left too much sludge in the bottom for my wife’s tastes – fine powder got through the steel mesh.

The filter machine was convenient, and kept the coffee hot for a while, but the coffee wasn’t great.

The Aeropress makes *much* better tasting coffee (very noticeably better to me, and I’m no coffee snob – we use pre-ground coffee), and there is no silt at all left in the coffee so my wife is happy! It’s pretty quick and easy, too. It takes a minute or two at most to make (assuming your water heated and ready).

I bought an Aeropress in 2005. Haven’t used a drip brewer or moka pot since. I use it multiple times per day and I love it. LOVE IT!

It takes some experimenting to find your best way to make coffee. i.e. I found I have to dip the plunger in hot water for a minute so it expands and creates a vacuum as I plunge.

For $30 this thing is fantastic.

I have an Aeropress, and I actually have gotten rid of the paddle – I use the other end of the scoop to stir the grounds. And I use the funnel to hold my extra filters. (So it’s supposed to be a funnel, huh – I haven’t looked at the instructions in years.)

So the whole thing stores nicely in 2 pieces: Funnel full of filters, and 3-piece chamber with scoop inside.

Making coffee is simple: Turn on electric kettle with a cup’s worth of water. In the time it takes that to get hot, I’ve got everything set up. Add water, press, add more water. If it takes more than two minutes total I’d be amazed.

Cleanup is: Dump grounds. Rinse plastic filter and scoop. Wipe off plunger. Put away. That’s if I’m not being lazy and just tossing it all in the dishwasher.

It’s not so good for multiple people, or lingering over cup after cup of coffee in the morning. If I tended toward either of those I’d probably pick up a French press.

One pound of bulk coffee – ground at absolutely the COARSEST setting, using the machine while you are still at the grocery store (i.e. you don’t need a grinder).

Put the entire pound of grounds in a huge metal or glass container and add five cups of cool water. Stir to make sure the grounds are thoroughly wetted. Wait five minutes. Add four more cups of cool water. (So the formula is 1lb grounds to 9 cups of H2O.)

Let soak for ten to twelve hours on the counter, no refrigeration necessary.

Dump this mess into a metal mesh sieve that is suspended over another bowl or pot. Wait about five minutes then take the resultant liquid and slowly pour that through a funnel that has been stuffed/lined with your choice of a tightly-woven cotton, linen or bamboo cloth. I have used dinner napkins, clean white rags, etc.

Take the approximately seven cups of filtered coffee concentrate that you will get and store it in a tightly-covered glass jug or bottle in the refrigerator. It lasts about a week.

Your results:

Bad news – about a ten minute clean-up of containers and the “filter”. Yes, once again, I acknowledge you WILLl have a mess on your counter.

Great news – for me, THE BEST tasting low-acid and low-bitter, week’s worth of coffee. Drink straight for a shot of espresso. Add milk and heat for a latte. Add ice and milk. Pour some on ice cream. Make tiramisu. Put it in a thermos and go camping for the weekend. You don’t need very much, because you probably will be diluting it with either the milk or water.

No cost except for the coffee itself. Look around your kitchen. You probably already have the bowls, the glass jug/bottle and the funnel. Reusable cloth filters have been around long before paper ones were invented. I am not a cheapskate, I just love the taste and the week-long convenience.

Disclaimer – keep it pushed back on the counter away from toddlers and don’t be surprised if you see the occasional fruit fly….

Back to the AeroPress, we have also considered but not actually tried using it to dry hop beer or other kinds of infusions. It could be a multi-tasker as long as it’s washed out well in between uses.

I don’t like French Presses because they are really, really fussy to clean. You always have to take apart the confounded screen to get all the grinds out, and then it never goes back together easily. I have a gravity filter, but I’m uncoordinated in the morning and more than once I’ve knocked it over and spilled boiling water and grounds all over the kitchen floor. I also have a stovetop percolator, again it’s fussy to clean.

If you get one of the inexpensive stick frothers (about $2 from Ikea) you can have a great cappuccino…fast.

I love the mellow taste of percolator coffee, but it’s really hard to find good quality vintage percolators where I live, so I bought a new Betty Crocker one, which cost $50 and lasted about 3 months. What a waste of money and resources.

So I’m back to my French press–I should never have left her in the first place.