I’ve been using Aeropress for about ten years and I still consider it one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. To me, this is a much better alternative to the most popular coffee style in Croatia: Turkish coffee. The coffee made with Aeropress tastes less bitter and generally more tasteful which is why I’ve also stopped adding sugar to it. I think adding sugar is so popular because it masks the awful taste of coffee. A ballpark estimate tells me that by switching to Aeropress I’ve not consumed about 40kgs of sugar over the years. This fact alone justifies its 50€ price. But I don’t like the fact that it’s plastic (looks like a metal and glass version is coming out next spring) and how every single cup needs to be prepared individually. I rarely make a single cup of coffee.
Which is why I’ve also bought a V60 coffee maker. In most high-end coffee shops over here you’ll rarely find Aeropress, but you will usually find a V60 coffee. That’s how I first tried it and became interested. My palate is not developed enough for tasting difference between Aeropress and V60, but I like how easy it is to make a cup of coffee with it. I love how easy it is to make multiple cups and I love how aesthetically pleasing it is as an addition to the kitchen.
I adore both of these tools. Firstly, because they are inexpensive and yet they have increased my life quality very measurably. Starting a day with a great cup of coffee is one of my small pleasures in life. Secondly, they don’t demand anything of me. They are available when a great cup of coffee is needed and a great cup of coffee they will deliver. They don’t demand a lot of space, or maintenance, or vendor loyalty. A coffee maker that is marketed much more heavily costs twice as much while producing a vastly inferior coffee from the pods that lock you in to a vendor.
But, the point I’m trying to make is this. You don’t need to become a coffee snob to enjoy a great cup of coffee. You don’t need to measure, you don’t need to boil water at specific temperature, heck, I don’t think you even need to grind your own beans. There’s something very satisfying in being able to make a coffee at home that is better than what you can get in 99% of places out there and I think the tools for getting to that point are extremely simple. You don’t need to spend a fortune.
P.S. The fact that I consider everyone making Turkish coffee ignorant and everyone with a meticulous coffee making practice a coffee snob reminds me of this quote by George Carlin: “Everyone driving slower than you is an idiot and everyone driving faster than you is a maniac.”
