Aeropress steel filter
Hey everybody, what are you drinking? I'm Roger In Coffee and welcome to Coffee Cup. Today I’d like to spill the beans on the Aeropress steel filter from Home Revolution.
The Aeropress from Aerobie is one of the cheapest and most effective coffee machines you will ever have the pleasure to use and produces reliable espresso coffee shot after shot. Keeping stocked with paper filters is easy enough, and they are available in the hundreds from your coffee stockist however I wanted to try the alternative steel gauze I saw that disposes of the need for paper.
I washed the filter before first use, but didn't rinse quite as well as I should have and some detergent residue made it into my cup which just destroyed my first impressions. Following a paranoid rinse of everything in warm water I was ready for take two, and my second first impressions were good and the results were everything I was expecting.
The steel gauze performs just as well as the paper filters do. It’s difficult to say for sure but I didn’t detect any difference in the coffee. I’ll keep switching between paper and steel in future weeks so I can confirm or deny this conclusion.
Second impressions on the steel filter were mixed. The Aeropress is really designed for disposable, biodegradable, paper filters that you can pop into the waste along with the puck of grounds in one simple movement. The Aeropress scores high points on hygiene and convenience for how slick this process is.
The steel filter changes that, interrupting your movement with the need to gently remove the filter from the puck before disposing of it and then the filter demands immediate attention to rinse it out and place it on the side for drying.
While paper filters can be rinsed, dried, and reused several times - and you may meet connoisseurs who rinse their paper filters before use - the general practice is to dispose of them.
The steel gauze is incredibly fine and seems like it’s a perfect substitute for paper. One thing is that it feels really delicate and you probably have to be pretty careful when washing it otherwise you could stretch or damage it. Even rinsing under the tap I was super gentle with it because I didn't want to deform it before its first outing. This could be a long term consideration for the steel filter if it takes a lot of punishment and mine already has a small mark on it from where I applied too much pressure.
The steel filter costs about as much as a thousand paper filters, and while it might survive a thousand uses I'm not sure it’ll take that much rinsing and washing unless you really do take care of it. Holding it in the plastic cap for the rinse should let enough water through without putting it in too much trauma.
Taking these downsides - minor as they are - into account, I don’t see myself switching from paper to steel for general home and office use, but I'm definitely pleased with the steel filter.
It might be that the more I use it, the more I like it, but the extra care and cleaning it adds kind of goes against the quick and easy operation of the aeropress.
The Steel filter will be great as a backup, and especially as a travel option it’s the way to go. Carrying one steel filter on the road is hugely preferable to carrying half a dozen paper filters and knowing there is a steel filter available at home means running out of filters is no longer a problem.
Likewise the steel filter could be a good choice for the outdoors - camping, hiking, or fishing trips - where a few grinds might bio-degrade but you don’t want to litter the camp-site with used paper filters that can get dug up by animals.
In conclusion, I’d recommend having a steel filter, even if you don’t use it every day. It’s small enough that it doesn’t take up any space. It can sit at the bottom of your paper stack so you know where it is and you will always have a filter to hand. It’s absolutely perfect if you are on the road, or there is an earthquake and your house floods and ruins your paper filters. At least you can still make a top-notch coffee.
In the twenty-first century we drink well over two billion cups of coffee a day. I'm doing my part, are you?
Aeropress from Aerobie
Stainless steel coffee filter from Home Revolution at Amazon
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0063SL2TQ/ref=pe_385721_37038051_TE_3p_dp_1
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