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Comment by guelo | Hacker News Reader

I used an Aeropress for a while but now I'm back on a glass French press. Its easier to deal with, glass feels cleaner and more durable, and the coffee is delicious.

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I switched back to a French press as well. For half the amount of beans I can get twice the amount of coffee out of the French press.

Have you tried the inverted method for Aeropress? Pretty similar to french press, and you use about half the coffee of the 'normal' Aerorpess method. It also tastes better, IMO.

I don't get the inversion thing... Obviously you invert it after inserting the plunger (right?)... What does inverting it so for you?

1) attach filter holder & filter. 2) pour through a bit of hot water to wash it all. 3) take off the filter & filter holder. 4) put plunger in about 1 inch 5) turn it upside down, so it's sitting on the plunger. 6) put the ground coffee inside, so it's resting on the plunger rubber head. 7) pour hot water in 8) let it brew as long as you like - thus the french press type taste using larger grounds, etc. 9) attach filter & holder 10) turn upside down and place as normal onto a cup (you need to be fast!), and press as normal

This way, you get a longer brew time, but still get the benefits of finer paper filtering, easy cleaning, etc.

I often use this method for columbian light roasted coffees, I feel it works better for some reason. You can use less coffee, and a much coarser grind. For some coffees, and for "espresso"-ish things, it doesn't work so great though.

That's what's cool - you can tweak so much with how long you brew, temperature, grind, etc.

Interesting... I have, independently developed a similar method (I didn't realize there was such a large AeroPress hacking community out there).

I add water and ground as normal, stir for a little while, then top off the water and put the plunger in place. Depending on the coffee, I then wait 0-90 seconds before depressing the plunger. The plunger seal holds the water in place with no problem.

I tend to wait the longest with South/Central Americans, and don't wait at all for Africans. Most Indonesians are somewhere around 30 seconds.

Funny - I hadn't really connected the dots, but that's pretty much how I do the different continents too. I guess we're doing something right then! :-)

And a quarter the quality!

Why? Just because you use less coffee? That's not a good measure of coffee quality. Good beans, good grind, clean water are. I actually prefer the coffee from a french press, having grown accostumed to it over the years. If you use a coarse grind, there's little grit and residue, and all the tasty oils are still in there.

Same here. The main factors were that brewing with the Aeropress is fussy (all the stirring and timing and inverting), but more importantly, it doesn't make very much coffee (I like to drink somewhere between 12-16 oz). French press makes as much as you want and you just dump in the water and coffee, wait, and press.

The Aeropress cleanup is a breeze though, and it makes a nice clean cup. I'm not a fan of the sludge and mess of the french press.

I can never work out the amount of coffee to put in the French press so that the plunger still goes down all the way and the coffee is a good strength. So if you go with a 7g scoop per cup in a (say) 8 cup press, then there is more coffee grounds than there is space for the plunger to go down all the way. Any tips?

I like both Aeropress and French press results, but I find them both to make too little coffee while being hard to clean and operate. Standard drip coffee machine still does better on those metrics.

Meanwhile in all cases having fresh roasted and evenly ground beans makes a big difference.

Where is the difficulty in cleaning the aeropress? I wash mine once a week, otherwise I just rinse it off. I also prefer to make coffee by the cup - it's much tastier than making a pot and leaving it to stand.

Buy a bigger french press, and use a thermos if you need storage?

French glass press is also known as a cafetiere.

I had to google French glass press.

Cafetiere is what they're called in the UK - you'll hardly ever hear them called "French Press" here.

Also Moka Pots are often called "stove top coffee makers", and vacuum pots are often called "Cona"s.

(Also, Espresso is often called "Expresso", Tasimo or Nestle pod machines are often called "Espresso machines", and Instant is often called "Coffee"...)

Cafetiere can also mean a moka pot.

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