This just dropped for the aeropress crew …
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What do people think about Aeropress? Thinking of asking kids for one for Father’s Day. Any good?
For the record, I hate all of you with your shiny works of art. ECM, that was a new one to me. I only had Rocket and Expobar on my main radar. Good to add to the list of N+1 items.
Sell me on why I should upgrade from my simpleton Gaggia, please!
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I think they’re excellent.
For all the money I’ve spent over the years on various coffee machines, and I do love my espresso machine, imho the aeropress is one of the cheapest ways to make coffee and makes an excellent beverage.
I also usually use it when I’m traveling as I think they’re easier to clean afterward than say a french press. They’re almost self cleaning and you need very little water to rinse one off after getting rid of the “puck”.
When I’m at home I do a bit of several different methods because I enjoy it but I do think the aeropress is second only to my fancy machine in quality of what it can produce.
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I had (technically still do have) that exact same machine and grinder. If you want to spend some money, I’ll be glad to tell you how much I enjoy the machine I moved to after the Gaggia. 
I enjoy my machine every day, or miss it if I’m away from home. The way I see it unless you’re running a business there is no way to justify spending the amount of money a Rocket, Profitec, ECM, Expobar etc cost. But I have one because it was something I really wanted and enjoy doing, a lot like the bicycles. I could spend significantly less and still be a cyclist but they’re both something I enjoy and activities I’m willing to spend on.
A more powerful machine will be faster than the Gaggia, those take a bit to recover between shots where a more powerful machine will do that faster or above a certain price point they’re ready to pull again immediately. Example that PID is quite useful on a Gaggia, I thought it made a big difference for me in my consistency with the Gaggia. My new machine has one as well but I never mess with it all, it’s powerful enough that once it’s warm I know it’s ready and as long as I’m consistent in what I do, it’s consistent with the espresso.
Along those same lines most more expensive machines will steam milk better than a Gaggia they’re just a lot more powerful. But I’ve read before that steaming milk well cost more than making good espresso.
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Yeah, steaming with this, specifically keeping the temp and volume of steam I need, is a continual effort in patience. It’s finding that sweet spot of doing it quickly as it’s ramping up to keep it from hitting the “ready temp” where it then nosedives in temp and volume where I have to wait for the temp to ramp back up. If I had known that I would have gotten both the steam and water PID controller.
Aeropress is fun and great for camping which I relegated mine to. Can produce nice cups for sure.
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I like it. I have one at the office. I don’t use it super often but when I do it always do a nice coffee. Better than the machine at work.
I would recommend. It’s not expensive. I would also recommend the metal filter instead of the paper one…
I had the same question when upgrading from rancilo silvia. At the end it was a lot of money, but worth the upgrade. I can now be done with the coffee in less than 2 minutes since is a dual boiler. Use to take much longer…
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I’ve never tried the metal filter, I’m stingy with the paper ones and rinse them off after I use them. They dry up decently and are surprisingly durable. But I’m still using the ones that came with the press 
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So as I’m getting my bike and kit ready for an event yesterday morning, out in a pasture, I see I’ve somehow gotten a text about a DHL delivery. I was able to find just enough of a signal to tell the driver he could leave my Niche Zero at my door and still make the rider’s meeting. Couple of days early, can’t beat that.
It’s a very attractive machine, and I love how quiet it is, especially that it it’s even quieter as it finishes, compared to my Baratza machines that are much faster but go into a high pitched scream when empty.
It’s just me here today so I’ve ground one too coarse, one too fine and the last one was what I’m looking for. But that’s three coffees in for me so I’ll have to at least wait till this afternoon to use it some more.
Anybody have suggestions for a good burr grinder for drip coffee? The brewer we use is the Breville BDC450 Precision Brewer Coffee Maker with Thermal Carafe [Link goes to Amazon], and I’d like to have a burr grinder that I can dial into the exact amount of coffee for my wife and I, and then have the ability for the grinder to reproduce this - ideally by weight, but time is probably close enough. My wife makes the coffee in the morning (I have morning dog walking), and weighing out coffee is not her thing. But if our grinder had a pre-programmed morning grind, she would use that.
I have an older 270 but I believe the Baratza 270W will allow you to do by weight. On my older one I can only use time for that.
I use the espresso machine at home but I’ll make a thermos of French Press or something similar to take with me to work. I usually just measure that out the night before and put the beans in whichever grinder I’m using so I don’t have that step in the morning.
We use the same coffee maker and use the Breville Smart Grinder Pro. I like the grinder quite a bit and would recommend it. The timing varies quite a bit depending on the bean so I weigh daily out 105g daily for a full 12 cup brew. For example my favorite local blend ends just shy of the full 12 cup grind and my wife’s favorite Costa Rica beans end 15 seconds earlier - same weight and grind size for both. Pretty sure you’ll run into that with any grinder. Though if you use the same beans always you could get it dialed in as there are 12 grind time settings and I think you can program a specific time for a setting also.
The filter is mainly about the oils you get vs the ones it filters out with the paper. I bet you already knew that though.
Thanks for the recommendation. How well, or not, does it do with keeping all of the grinds in the grind container? That’s the other thing I don’t like about the Baratza we have now - grinds get everywhere.
Keeps pretty much all of them in the container. I do not notice any grinding to outside the container at all - will not grind if container is not put correctly in place as there is a button that needs to be depressed for grinder to go.
The only bummer about it is the container is plastic so there is static to deal with, but not very much. My routine is to grind, open and knock lid into kitchen sink to keep any mess down and then dump ground beans into filter basket. I end up cleaning the area around my grinder and coffee pot every week or so with a quick wipe down.
I’m looking to upgrade from my old Black and Decker Grind and Brew.
Are there any good grind and brew machines yall could recommend for everyday coffee? I’m just looking to being able to make decent coffee from good beans without a lot of fuss during the workday.
I’m good with going out to the local coffee shop for when I want a super good cup, it’s a good excuse to get out and on my bike.
It does not have a grinder but I have a technivorm moccamaster and it is amazing for drip. Have the one with the stainless server w/o the heat plate.
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I got the metal one and love how easy it makes everything. Now i know you get a hundred or so paper filters in the pack when you buy it, but not having to remember to pack filters as well is just a convenience thing at this point.
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