Aeropress XL Coffee Press

First thing is first. I am a coffee snob. I have edited this review a few times. After a few years, I have come to the conclusion that this is a really good product. I'm leaving the review intact because it kind of shows the evolution and the learning curve that exists with this product. Typically, I find that most "bad" coffee is simply stale coffee. When I grind my own beans, I find that after a few days, they start losing their flavor. And after a week, they have started to pick up a card-board like flavor. I taste tested this product in a couple of ways. I just had a buddy over, and we had a coffee taste-test party. I typically prepare my coffee one of two ways. I either use the do-it-yourself coffee pod that you can get from Keurig or, if I have company, I will use a french press. For the purpose of this taste test, we did it both ways, And then we made some with this contraption in two different ways. I used a fine grind (just shy of an espresso grind) for one, and we used my preferred coarser grind for the other. In all, we tasted four different cups of coffee. 1. French Press 2. Keurig Machine 3. Aeropress with fine grind 4. Aeropress with coarse grind We used my favorite coffee bean for this test. I was going to use a commercial bean (Illy). I will explain why we ended up not using Illy at the end of my review. The bean we used was a freshly roasted grade 1 Ethiopian Yrgacheffe. I made sure I made a couple of cups of coffee using the Aeropress before we began this test to make sure I had gotten the hang of it. My conclusion based on these two cups of coffee was that 1) I needed to add a little bit of water (Americano) to the Aeropressed coffee to achieve my desired strength and 2) I needed to use a more robust bean in order to achieve any kind of flavor (hence the reason I didn't use the Illy beans). Now don't get me wrong. Illy makes a good coffee bean, and I usually get my cans of Illy coffee still relatively fresh. They are, in my opinion, one of the best mass produced coffee beans on the market. I brewed one cup of coffee in each of the four methods. I then poured a small amount into an espresso mug and labeled them 1, 2, 3, and 4. I wrote down what each one was on a separate piece of paper so that it would be a blind taste test. My buddy did the same for me. And then we sat down and tasted them. My preferences, in order: 1. The french press. I had actually never done a bind taste test with the french press before, but there may have been some bias here because I could immediately tell that it was french pressed. It had all of the vaguely sweet, earthy tones that I love so much about Ethiopian Yrgacheffe coffee. It was pure bliss. Ten out of ten. 2. The Keurig. There is a pretty big gap in flavor between the french press and the Keurig, but the Keurig still retained much of the flavors that I love about Ethiopian Yrgacheffe. They were just more faint. Eight out of ten. 3. Aeropress Course Grind. I will submit that the result was a very strong yet mellow coffee, but it was missing all of the character. The earthy tones were missing. It tasted like a generic cup of coffee. It was good, but it was nothing to write home about. Six out of ten. 4. Aeropress Fine Grind. Definitely over-extracted. Very bitter. I stirred for about 10 seconds, so it did not steep too long. To be truthful, most espressos taste over extracted to me, so this was not a surprise. It's the reason why I prefer a coarser grind. This cup of coffee tasted like someone put cardboard shavings into the grounds prior to pressing. I would not call this undrinkable, but if someone served it to me in a restaurant, I'd ask for water instead. Three out of ten. I'm not yet concluding that this was a waste of money. I think there is a high likelihood that the paper filter could be the reason why there was a serious lack of flavor using this contraption, so I'm going to try to order a metal filter for it. I can't think of any other reason, logically speaking, why the coffee would have turned out so bad other than the fact that it uses a paper filter. The only time I ever use a paper filter is on the rare occasions where I use a pre-made Keurig pod, and I typically don't like the flavor of them. I always figured that it was because the grounds were stale, but I have not ruled the paper out as a possible culprit. If I find out that the metal filter changes the flavor for the better, I will come back and update my review. However, at this point, I have to recommend a french press if someone wants a good cup of coffee. It's not any harder to use, and it's just as easy to clean. EDIT I purchased one of the wire mesh screens to see if that would improve the flavor of the coffee. It did make a significant difference; however, I still don't think that the cup of coffee I made was as good as a traditional french press. The one big disadvantage with a french press is that there is sediment at the bottom of your cup. This turns a lot of people off, and I will submit that it takes some getting used to. However, there is nothing on this planet that I have yet discovered that compares with the flavor of a french pressed bean that has been freshly roasted. I used a medium-course grind, and I steep for about twice as long as the 10 seconds recommended by the instruction manual. I make sure not to push out the very last of the water because that's likely where all of the overextracted bitterness lies. The end result was a good cup of very strong coffee. I'll even go so far as to say that when using the wire mesh screen instead of the paper, what comes out is good enough to drink without adding water. It's still not as good as the french press, though. I submit that it's about equal to the Keurig machine, though the flavors are much different. The Keurig machine is far easier to use. Plus, the cost of this thing with the additional $10 I had to spend on the wire mesh screen costs almost as much as a low-end Keurig. Therefore, I can't give it more than three stars. ANOTHER UPDATE: I'm providing another update an adding another star. The reason why is because once I learned that you cannot let your coffee steep for the ten seconds that the instruction manual recommends, I was able to produce some pretty good cups of coffee. It's still not as good as a french press, though. Plus, the price tag once you factor in $30 for the kit and another $10 for a metal screen is very steep. One can almost buy a Keurig machine for that price, and my french press, which makes better coffee, cost less than $15 even after I upgraded to a polycarbonate carafe. YET ANOTHER UPDATE: A couple of years have gone by, and I am finding myself using this more and more. Over time, I have gotten better at making a good cup of coffee with it. In fact, I got to the point where I was using this more than any of my other machines. Now, I have gotten to the point where a cup of coffee made with this is nearly as good or possibly even just as good as one that I French press. A big bonus for a lot of folks is that there is no sediment on the bottom of my cup. So, yes. I have gradually moved on and decided that this is an excellent product. I've increased my star total to 5 because it deserves it. The learning curve is difficult, but the eventual results are quite good.