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Comment by kashyapc | Hacker News Reader

I used to swear by my French Press. Some two years ago I casually said to my sibling that I wanted to try AeroPress to see what the fuss is all about. One day it showed up as a present in my mailbox.

I opened it, ridiculing it, thinking I'll give it a single try, toss it in the closet and get back to my French Press.

Fast forward two years: Almost every weekday morning I start with a full AeroPress. And each morning I used to shake my head with the same surprise as I ground the beans[+]: "I still can't believe this plastic thing can produce such good coffee." It's the French Press now that's gathering dust in the closet.

To my brain, AeroPress == French Press minus the "fine sludge".

[+] FWIW, I use "Mano Mano" by the Belgian coffee roaster, Café Liégeois (not associated with them, just a happy user)—https://cafe-liegeois.com/en/cafes/mano-mano-puissant

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AeroPress doesn't really scale for company, though. I remember trying to make several cups in a row for family and by the time cup #3 was finished, cup #1 was cold.

I do still whip out my AeroPress from time to time if I'm making a really fruity coffee, because I feel like the AP method is better at extracting those flavors. But for my usual morning cup for myself and my significant other, French Press is king.

> To my brain, AeroPress == French Press minus the "fine sludge".

I haven't really noticed "the sludge" in my FP since I invested in a Barata Encore canonical burr grinder. It's able to grind the beans coarsely and evenly enough that you don't get the sludge (which is usually the unevenly-ground fines that slip past the mesh filter). Additionally, paper filters trap the coffee bean fines, but they also trap the oil, which is desirable in your coffee.

But I will concede that the AP is probably the most affordable option for a good cup of coffee. You can pair it with a cheap blade grinder and still get a decent cup out of it, while poorly-ground coffee in a FP can make for a "sludgy" cup.

Curious: I have an Encore and I still get a bit of fine sludge. I'm grinding on about 21. What setting are you using?

21 for a French Press? That's way too fine. Barzata's own site suggests at least 28:

https://baratza.com/grinding-tips/

I personally have it around 32-33. I don't remember if I got that from their manual or from somewhere online, but I haven't noticed any degradation in flavor from the larger grind. The whole point of investing in a quality burr grinder is being able to get a proper coarse grind; make use of it!

EDIT: A separate Reddit post (though by no means authoritative) agrees with my recommendation of above 30 for FP:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Coffee/comments/1k0uhb/is_there_a_c...

Yeah, I assumed that a quality burr grinder is more important for fine grinds than coarse; I guess that's probably not true. I'll give it a shot, thanks.

I've only been using the french press more now because my home office is upstairs, and the Clever Dripper stays in the kitchen. With the press I can bring it up with me and save 4 whole minutes in my 'commute' :-)

To clarify, a good burr grinder is also good for fines. You can set the Encore somewhere between 2-6 and make your own Turkish coffee grind using whatever beans you've got lying around, rather than paying for a can of pre-ground Turkish coffee that's probably been on the shelf for months already.

I hear you, on not scaling it for a family. I make it for one or two people at most (a full AeroPress can be shared for two, unless you're a Real Guzzler).

I mulled about the burr grinder in the past, but then I already had the Bosch blade grinder[+]. It does the job spectacularly well for most use cases. I live in a small apartment; and minimize 'nice-to-have' devices. (And given the predicament we're immersed in, I feel even more disinclined to buy more 'things' that I don't really need. One day, I might get the burr grinder as a 'reward' for all the discipline I show in most aspects, or some other justification that I can coax myself with. :-))

As for coarseness, I'm living with a "workaround": 12 pulses (manual on-and-off; yeah, annoying) with the blade grinder to get the right coarseness for French Press, which is now a "weekend delight".

[+] https://www.bosch-home.com/ne/product-list/coffee-machines/c...

If you're gonna go for the pulse method with a blade grinder, the recommendation is that you should also shake the grinder between pulses. See below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS8igZyhNFw

Oh, thanks for bothering to give that pointer; didn't know that.

I'm the same way, it's been 5 years of using it daily and I still look forward to using my Aero Press every morning. If you haven't yet, please do yourself a favor and try the "reverse Aeropress" method. It makes a slightly stronger amount of coffee, about half a mug's worth.

I think you mean inverted method? I would not recommend it though. The risk of spills is too high (it will fall over at some point), and there are simpler ways to brew with more consistent (and IMO better) results.

Here is a technique I have developed after many years of almost daily brewing. I call it the "30-30-30" (anyone get the reference?), but each step has a lot of room for variance, no timer necessary.

* Mount the AeroPress on a 3dl mug and add ~17g of medium-coarse freshly ground coffee.

* Add 20-30g of hot water to let it "bloom", which releases CO2 and other gases trapped in the beans from the roasting process. Leave it for 15-30 seconds until most bubbles have popped (if any). Very fresh beans should bloom longer.

* Pour water up to just above the 4 mark. I like to spin the AeroPress while pouring to stir it, but you can also pour in circles like a pour-over. Try to make it foamy by having the water break just before it hits.

* Let it drip for ~30s (or until the water level is just above the 3 mark).

* Slowly plunge for another 20-30s.

That's it! The water temperature should be between 85 and 95 °C; any hotter will burn the grounds and lower temperatures won't be able to extract as much flavour.

In my experience that is way too much water

Ah, didn't know the "reverse AeroPress" method makes a stronger cup. And indeed haven't yet tried it yet; although I've seen it online. I keep meaning to try it, but when I wake up about 7, my bleary-eyed self goes, "nope, you're more likely to mess up with the inverse method; normal way it is". I'll try it sometime in the afternoon.

Thanks for the reminder.

I actually enjoy the bits of coffee bean in french press coffee. Same as with turkish coffee which I also enjoy. Kind of like the coffee equivalent to a “rustic” bread. It’s not something I use every day, but when I do I look forward to it.

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