Back in 2010 following the 2010 Cafe Culture exhibition I was given an Aeropress plunger to test. At the show I had been made some Aeropress coffee by an expert and had to admit I was very impressed, the process was reasonably simple and rapid and the coffee was smooth without a trace of bitterness.

The Aeropress arrived in its characteristic long hexagonal box. The kit included the Aeropress body and plunger, a small pile of filters, a coffee scoop, a stirrer, a funnel and a comprehensive instruction book. Of course if you are an expert and can control six Aeropresses at once you can buy a special stand for the convenience of serving six customers at once and showing off a bit!

The Aeropress is quite simple and rather like a large syringe. The required amount of coffee is placed in the body above a special micro-filter, the water (not boiling) is poured in and the mixture agitated for about 5-10 seconds. The plunger is then used to press a column of air down onto the coffee mixture to push the brewed coffee through the filter into the cup. It’s a bit like one of the old style espresso presses often seen in Italian coffee bars. The results are very good producing very smooth tasty coffee. I would probably favour a coarse grind for suitable coffee; but that is just my preference and I am sure any filter ground coffee will produce equally spectacular results.

I am not sure if it is dishwasher proof but it seems to have been ok so far. So easy to use and easy to clean and produces fabulous coffee.

In short, I loved it, and I now use it every day to make my first coffee fix of the morning. A fabulous concept and a good value gift for any coffee buff on their birthday or at Christmas.