AeroPress Original Coffee and Espresso-style Maker, Barista Level Portable Coffee Maker with Chamber, Plunger, & Filters, Quick Coffee and Espresso Maker

Wow! This is fabulous! Great espresso= great cappuccino. It is fast and easy,that's what I NEED.BACKGROUND:So I bought a small espresso maker with a milk steamer attachment 2 years ago and it is worthless. It takes too long, you have to stand there and manage your maker the whole time and you get one cup. We drink a 10 pot in a blink of Columbian coffee so it is just not worth the effort for one cappuccino,no matter if it's yummy,it's a rarity. Lucky it was a cheap machine relatively speaking. I am not lazy, I have major health problems and I have to put my "good time" to its best use, I have few treats and cappuccino is one of them, it makes me happy. But I cannot drive at the moment and it is costly to buy cappuccino or two, it's a budget killer. This press is 4-8 cappuccino's, cost wise. Add a hot frother and if you skip your fancy coffees for a couple weeks (for normal people who buy a lot of them), you can have them everyday.This is Fast, easy,accurate, consistent and makes great espresso.1. Follow directions once and it is simple to remember,even for people who never made press coffee before,like me.Place filter,add espresso, shake or tap a bit, place on cup,pour boiling water into it,stir,place plunger in and push down slowly until completely empty. 2 minutes after you do it once, probably less than that.I use a cheap, large, electric kettle to have enough boiling water on hand to make several cups.2. Taste- I am very particular about coffee. I buy the same brand pot repeatedly for $40, the same Columbian coffee for years and years, the same 1 1/4 cups for a 10 pot of strong coffee. I tried other pots and Coffee and always end up back with my favorites, and drink it black so I want my espresso to always taste the same, I want my cappuccino to taste the same every time. I am not flexible with coffee. This taste is consistently the same every single cup,depending on the brand, which is the main thing the changes the taste. The amount of water will certainly changes the taste but fill to #1,2,or 3, the same every time and is is consistently delicious. A coffee press? Who knew? I always thought it would be similar to instant coffee Yuk!!! But it tastes like coffee house espresso. I am shocked, still...25 cups later, I am still happy, not a single bad cup.3. Easy to clean,simple parts. No tiny, intricate parts that make life difficult, just a plunger, an outer chamber, a filter chamber. There are other pieces but they are not necessary, they are preference based- scoop (perfect amount of grounds in my opinion), leveler (not needed), piece to place over the chamber when pouring coffee/water to avoid spills (not needed), filter storage tower (filters are small and stick together so the tower isn't needed because you still end up taking out a stack of filters and pulling them apparent).My only request would be that they make an additional chamber for the plunger with a wider edge so you can place it on a big wide short cappuccino cup (soup bowl looking kind) and one that has a narrower chamber edge for little espresso cups. However, it's really not needed, I make the max amount and press it into a regular coffee cup and then pour it into a cappuccino or espresso cup depending on what I am making. But these attachments would be a great replacement for the the filter storage, leveled, and even the shield/ funnel thing which I don't use either.Best money spent since my last regular coffee maker!

I've owned two "prosumer" home espresso machines, but sold or gave them both away. They take up to much counter space, are expensive, and are fussy in the way of complex technology made cheaply. I've replaced them with a combination of this Aeropress and a "Bellmann Cappuccino" Moka-style pot. We've come to like the coffee from the Aeropress so much, that I only use the Bellmann pot for it's steam wand, using it to perfectly froth milk for latte's that are better than ones made by any coffee house barista.Make no mistake - the Aeropress doesn't make real espresso. But it does make perfect strong coffee for Americano's and latte's, which are the two my family drinks anyway. The coffee that the Aeropress produces is a delicious and as wonderful as the most favorable reviews imply. It can be as strong as you like it, without those coffee extractives from higher temperature extraction methods that cause the stomach distress and aftertaste. This coffee is strong and incredibly SMOOOOOTH.The Aeropress is calibrated in "shots". Grind one scoup of beans for each shot. Dump in the ground coffee. Add 175 degree water to the 1 or 2 or 3 mark, depending upon the number of shots you are making. Stir for ten seconds. Then press slowly with the plunger. I find no difficulty in pressing. No instability. No unreaonable effort.Now, pair this with the Bellmann Cappuccino, and you can make great latte. The Bellmann is not sold by Amazon, but you can buy it from Fantes.com. The Bellmann is a quality stainless steel Moka-pot that incorporates a steam want to let you perfectly froth milk. You can also use the Bellmann for making traditional Italian style Moka-pot espresso -- but with the Aeropress, I don't bother. My wife says my latte's are better than any she can buy in town. (She likes vanilla latte, and I make my own vanilla syrup with 1-1/2 C sugar, 1/2 C brown sugar, 1 C water, 1 Tablespoon real vanilla extract. This is a superior syrup because all commercial syrups are made from inferior corn syrup sweetener, which is used because it is cheaper than cane sugar.) The latte recipe is 1 to 2 shots of Aeropress "espresso", 8 ounces of 2% milk perfectly frothed using the Bellman steam wand, and 1/2 oz. to 1-1/2 oz. vanilla syrup depending upon desired sweetness. Vary the proportions to suit your own taste preference. 1 shot of coffee, and 1 oz of syrup is a good start.I have the Bellmann pot with the added pressure gauge. I recommend the pressure gauged model. The guage is a handy guide, and a nice reassurance of safety, but not mandatory if your budget is really tight, and especially if you are only going to use it to froth milk. Without the guage, simply heat until the steam just starts to bleed from the pressure relief valve, which on my unit happens at about 2.5 atmospheres, and which is well below the 3.5 atmosphere bottom of the red zone on the guage.The Aeropress and Bellman combo is not fast latte production, but we are a family of two, so we don't need high rates of production. Yes, this is a bit of a "fussy" approach in its own right, but at least it is low-tech fussy, and I now enjoy the journey as much as the destination.Even if you have a tight budget, the Aeropress is unbeatable as a economical way to make the best coffee you ever tasted. Plus, I think it is the best at any price. The Aeropress in combination with the Bellmann Cappuccino will let you make unsurpassable lattes, as well as passable espresso.I disagree with the folks that complain about the price. Being the owner of a manufacturing company, I can tell you that everything costs 3 to 5 times as much to produce as you would estimate. If you think it is so over-priced, just try to make one yourself in the garage. This is a well designed product and the manufacturer deserves to make a decent profit.I do agree with the suggestion to re-use the filters. When making breakfast for a big crew, I've used one filter a dozen times with perfect result.For less than $30, you should have no hesitation about buying the Aeropress. I also strongly recommend the Bellmann Cappuccino.