9 ms·

If I'm staying in an Airbnb and want to be able to make something like an espresso, are these any good? I'm not really a fan of plunger coffee, which seems like

• stephen_g 5y ago
  With good coffee, (preferably freshly ground, but you do what you have to) and a bit of technique, yeah, they can make quite good coffee. It's stronger than pour over or french press, but still probably only a third to a half as strong as espresso. I've never had an aeropress so it's hard for me to compare quality etc., but when I've had coffee with friends who use them, the aeropress does seem bit more cumbersome and messy than the mokka pot.
  • kzrdude 5y ago
    However for people who already like aeropress, they are kind of popular to being for camping/hiking. But sharing coffee with more than one person takes time.
  • yetihehe 5y ago
    For me, aeropress is much less cumbersome than mokka pot and much easier to clean. Both make good coffee, but since I've found one specific coffee brand that I like (one of the cheaper ones), no other coffee tastes as good for me, but I'll drink anything that's available.
  • lukaslalinsky 5y ago
    With aeropress, the brewing is more manual (you control how hot is the water, how long you keep it brewing, etc), which has its pros and cons. So you can make really good coffee, or really bad coffee. But one thing where aeropress shines is cleaning. I'd use my moka pot more often, purely for consistency without effort, if it was as easy to clean as aeropress.
• limecat 5y ago
  Whenever I go camping I always take a small moka pot with me. If you use good quality coffee then it never fails to deliver a very decent cup. It's not going to be equal to a coffee shop espresso, but it gets you 80% there. And you may be able to pick one up for 20 bucks. The only part that needs replacing every now and then is the rubber ring that seals the pot when you screw it together. Other than that they're virtually indestructible. At home I have the large De'Longhi, but if that can't be used there is always a moka pot on standby.
• deleted 5y ago
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• carabiner 5y ago
  Dirty secret about coffee brewing... it's 90% the quality of the beans. If you use stale Starbucks beans, you will never have good coffee. If you use ones from a local roaster that are fresh, and grind them at brew time, you'll have amazing coffee even if you just throw the grounds in a pot (cowboy coffee, Turkish coffee, or Ethiopian brewing are all valid methods that are unfiltered). Before you go crazy testing Aeropress vs. v60 vs. chemex... Just try whatever brewing method you use with beans from a local roaster.
  • thom 5y ago
    If I use Starbucks beans I get something that tastes like coffee. If I use fancy beans from coffee hipsters I get something that tastes like manure. Not a fan.
    • jitl 5y ago
      Were those beans stale?
    • zhdc1 5y ago
      Then something isn't right. You're probably buying lighter roasts, which are in vogue but are more difficult to brew.
      • thom 5y ago
        They must be spectacularly difficult to brew, because they taste just as bad when I have them at coffee shops. I basically can't order coffee in most places now because these flavours have taken over. I'd love to be able to live vicariously through someone else's palate and understand the appeal.
        • vegai_ 5y ago
          Real coffee does taste "bad" if you're not used to it. What you're enjoying is bland coffee. If that's enough for you, there's no imperative to go for the better stuff. There's no reason to claim that the better stuff is not better, that's just pointless anti-elitism. As a kid, I certainly enjoyed a McDonalds burger over a rare tenderloin. The tenderloin obviously was better though.
• unmole 5y ago
  Try a South Indian coffee filter?
• _jstreet 5y ago
  I love the aeropress for ease of use, would definitely recommend. I've only used a moka pot a few times (one provided at an airBnB actually), and I'm interested in getting one, but haven't yet. I think there's less temperature control with a Moka pot, and I'd say cleanup is more effort than a simple aeropress puck.
• bananaowl 5y ago
  I love my aeropress. Light weight. Super easy to clean by just giving it a rinse. And most importantly, makes a very good clean cup of coffee no matter what. I like the moka as well. But it's harder to master. It will play different on different stoves. The original is in aluminum, so won't work on induction. But when you get the nack it will make you steaming darkness.
• irjustin 5y ago
  I'll swear by the Aeropress esp for travel since it's plastic and lightweight. You can get the metal filters to be eco & travel friendly. In my personal order of importance for good coffee: 1. Beans 2. Water Temp 3. Method 4. Grind A distant 5 is process and by process I mean exact steps, timing etc. If you follow the world champion steps[0], even loosely, it will significantly up your coffee game. While you don't need a fancy grinder at all, I def covet the EK43. Also much love for a V60 for travel as well. [0] https://aeropress.com/pages/wac-recipes https://aeropress.com/pages/wac-recipes
  • tigen 5y ago
    Yeah for home use, futzing with the stove and rubber gasketed contraptions seems pointless. Pourover works well. I used to use aeropress but the rubber plunger degrades and builds up grime, I also find pourover more fun to use. Having a source of hot water ready to go makes it even easier.
    • irjustin 5y ago
      A good electric kettle with temp control is a must to get past the "futzing"
• hardwaregeek 5y ago
  There's a great video with coffee expert James Hoffmann on making coffee in a moka pot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpyBYuu-wJI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpyBYuu-wJI However a moka pot generally doesn't make espresso as much as strong coffee. If you want something that makes espresso, check out the 9bar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcZMGx15QBU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcZMGx15QBU Of course you'll want a good hand grinder for either, but especially espresso. You can't get anything close to espresso with pre-ground or a cheap grinder.
• bebna 5y ago
  There are mobile solutions for Espressos. - Presses, like Picopresso, where you need to use your own muscles to create the espresso. If you got any pains in your hands or wrists there are a no go. - Stovepots like Moka pots, but who create enough pressure, like 9Barista, expensive, needs to cool down between making shots - Aeropress alikes, like Cafflano Kompresso, who are cheaper and lighter than the rest, but it depends on your control how the resulting espresso tastes. Aeropress is for coffee. If coffee is good enough I recommend Espro P1 or P0, they filter is its money worth and they allow for making a mug of coffee on the go and keep it warm. I was able to make multiple on the go with just a small box of ground coffee and an insulation can with hot water. Personally I got a P1, and the lid can be hard to open, without also screwing open the middle part, but one gets used to it.
• zhdc1 5y ago
  It depends on whether you're ok with something that resembles espresso, or if you actually want espresso. Espresso is nothing more than hot water pushed through coffee grounds at 7-9+ PSI or pressure. There are several travel brewers, such as the Flair NEO, that aren't particularly expensive and will brew perfectly fine espresso. The issue, though, is that the main determinant for espresso isn't how you make it, but the quality and grind of the coffee bean. Are you willing to purchase a burr grinder and take it with you on vacation? If yes, and if you want actual espresso, then this is the best route to go. From experience, a Moka pot will give you something slightly (but only slightly) closer to espresso than a french press. However, I've consistently gotten much better results with a french press. As far as going with an Aeropress over a french press, the former should give a cleaner result, but my best guess not ever having used one is that the final result will take about the same, without some of the finer coffee grounds getting into the cup (which can mostly be prevented on a french press if you do it right).
  • Lio 5y ago
    > 7-9+ PSI I think there's a small typo there, 9 bar would be more regular for espresso. I agree otherwise. I treat moka or aeropress coffee as its own thing; it's not espresso and that's OK. I see a lot of people talk about "grind" as important. Really it's just a way of varying pressure and to keep it roughly in that 9 bar zone. The only magic in a good bur grinder is its consistency. You can look at what you're getting out and bump the pressure up or down slightly compared to your last shot. So as the beans dry out with age, you can increase the extraction so you don't get a flat, sour shot with no crema. If you put in a new bag of beans you can make the grind courser so that pressure is reduced and you` don't over extract. I love a morning espresso but I'm less keen on all the connoisseurship around it.
    • zhdc1 5y ago
      > I think there's a small typo there, 9 bar would be more regular for espresso. Yep, my mistake : )
    • 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
      The only magic in a good bur grinder is its consistency. You can look at what you're getting out and bump the pressure up or down slightly compared to your last shot. It's not just consistency. It's grind size distribution. The cost of a high end burr grinder is crazy and I don't understand what's going on but you can do simple comparative tests. I have a 2 different burr sets for my grinder with different cutter geometries and the mechanical properties of the grinds and the puck are different. Never mind the taste. The way the water pours through the puck and what's happening inside the basket as you pull the shot is different. You can easily tell by the amount of channeling I get and the integrity of the puck after the shot. The espresso also tastes different BTW. I've also done blind taste testing with my grinder pitted against 3 other grinders. Having only tasted the coffee from 1 of these, I matched the coffee to the grinders only based on the theoretical properties of the burr sets.
• sails 5y ago
  Prefer aeropress over moka pot - quicker and easier to clean, requires less attention, better consistency, and prefer the fresher taste of aeropress. Only need a kettle instead of stove so generally quicker (US: whats a kettle).
  • 271828182846 5y ago
    interesting - is that a french press but with a smaller pored filter so you need more force and get more creamy consistency? having said that the design is remarkably ugly. almost like some medical device - or maybe even like a bathmate? :D
    • KingMob 5y ago
      Heh, yeah, the design is like the cylinder version of a cuisinart top. But it works quite well for small amounts of coffee, and is very portable. Compared to a french press, the filter is much finer, and the rubber end seals way better. Unfortunately, because the volume is small, I would have to use it multiple times, which was such a pain, I eventually stopped using it in favor of a V60 pourover.
    • twobitshifter 5y ago
      It’s designed by the maker of the aerobie frisbee
• herodoturtle 5y ago
  Lots of folks recommending the Aeropress here for travel - I strongly agree. I'd also add, you can get a ceramic bur grinder called the "Porlex mini hand grider" [0] which fits inside the Aeropress' cylinder. It's a super compact way to travel with a press and a grinder! [0] https://www.amazon.com/Porlex-Mini-Stainless-Coffee-Grinder/dp/B0044ZA066 https://www.amazon.com/Porlex-Mini-Stainless-Coffee-Grinder/...
  • 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
    The Porlex is really terrible. They aren't that cheap anymore and are still ceramic. If you want to go the cheap and compact route, get the Rhinowares. Otherwise spend a bit more money and get the 1Zpresso Q2. I think this is the cheapest grinder with 34mm stainless steel burrs you can get that fits inside the Aeropress plunger. You'll thank yourself later for getting the stainless steel burrs.
    • herodoturtle 5y ago
      I've had the complete opposite experience. Not that I want to pick a fight, but I'm sharing this more for other readers' reference. I've had my Porlex for a little over 5 years now, use it around twice daily, and have had zero issues. A quick Google search of ceramic vs steel burs also seems to indicate the ceramic offers better longevity. Why else do you say Porlex is terrible, aside from being ceramic? Its build quality is excellent. Well worth the price.
      • ValentineC 5y ago
        > A quick Google search of ceramic vs steel burs also seems to indicate the ceramic offers better longevity. I have a theory that people who start with a Hario Skerton or its clones (all of which have ceramic burrs) tend to be turned off manual grinding because of how bad the grinding experience is. Steel burrs supposedly cut better and faster. Admittedly, I've tried my friend's Porlex Tall, and it wasn't unpleasant to use.
      • 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
• hef19898 5y ago
  Those Moka coffee pots are the next best thing to a full blown Barista grade Espresso maker. And thus the overall best option cost wise, you can get the classic Bialettis, 4-6 cups, for around 30 bucks. For the difference to a Barista machine you can get a lot of top grade coffee to brew. We use only those, in all sizes. And being really portable you can take them everywhere. Camping, vacation,... you name it. They only thing you struggle to get, even with the dedicated ones marketed as such, is the crema a barista machine will produce.
  • YetAnotherNick 5y ago
    No, they are so inconsistent in my experience. There had been times in which the coffee tasted so good it would beat any premium cafe. But on repeating the same with same beans, same grind setting, same water and same setting it then taste like rubber. I suspect it is due to random channeling pattern in coffee. If the water passes more through the area in which fine particles are there, it tastes bitter.
  • MrDresden 5y ago
    I love my Bialettis (own 3 of different sizes) as well as my espresso machine. A moka pot will never be able to give coffee anywhere close to propper espresso. That's not me being subjective. The moka can not create the pressure needed to extract the oils in the same way as a propper espresso machine. Not to mention that the water to oil ratio is way off compared to an espresso. And a fine enough grind level would simply fall through into the water tank. A moka pot is one device on the coffee spectrum. It doesnt need to compete or be like any other equipment. It is it's own thing.
• bergie 5y ago
  I've been pretty happy with my Nanopresso for that purpose: https://www.wacaco.com/pages/nanopresso https://www.wacaco.com/pages/nanopresso Produces a consistent cup of espresso with crema and all. You can also buy the "barista kit" to pull double shots.
• septimus111 5y ago
  Moka pots make great coffee but I found it really hard to get the brewing right - the most important factor was the grind size. If I change it even slightly, I get much worse results and unlike Aeropress there are fewer other variables to adjust. So to answer your question I would say yes if you're also travelling with your own grinder.