As an extreme espresso geek, I love my aeropress when I don’t have time to fire up my Rancilio Silvia for my usual shot. And when the opportunity arrives, I never turn down some actual french press coffee either. Keurig? Meh. I resort to that when I truly need caffeine and there are no other options.
I will ask if this is something our waitress/owner can do.
If you are near Greensburg, PA try Anatolia!
I’m staying in a hotel this week and the only coffee in the room is a Keurig, so I had to get dressed and head out into mid-teen cold this morning to find some place with coffee.
You should have packed a couple of packets of Taster’s Choice. 
Just looked up what a Keurig is ('twas as I thought), as the Nespresso is the more popular version of pod-coffee in the UK.
So…I frequently use a French press (or “cafetiėre” as they’re known here, which I know just means “coffee pot” but it’s the way Brits abbreviate the French “cafetiere à piston”), and while there’s a bit of grit, it’s really very minimal if you use the right grind. Too fine and some will creep up into what you’re drinking. Very easy to get good results, basically.
I have a KitchenAid Artisan Espresso machine and burr grinder; I’m not one of those obsessive KitchenAid devotees, I was dead lucky and got it nearly-new on eBay. The point is that with a little practice - honestly not much - you can make pro-quality coffee at home. Burr grinder, pressure, the right temperature: decent coffee. Regardless of the manufacturer!
We had a drip machine when I was growing up; can’t really fault it, but I drink a lot of espresso these days and that ain’t gonna happen with drip! If I want something drip-esque to drink, then the cafetière and a kettle is fine by me, and more convenient. Though…am I right in thinking that the electric kettle is quite a rare beast over there?
I’ve an old Moka pot in my van too; really good way to approximate a punchy Americano type brew without my home espresso set-up.
My two-penn’orth on Aeropress though: hands down the worst coffee I’ve ever had. I used to work for a store that sold them and I managed to get a free one, and immediately felt guilty about what I’d told customers about how great they were. If I hadn’t been there for the brewing process, I honestly wouldn’t have known if it was bad coffee or bad tea…or the result of wringing out a pair of damp gloves for that matter. After far more perseverence than it deserved, I gave it to a charity shop. Awful, awful coffee.
Most things will give you a decent brew, given the right raw ingredients…and those are a matter of taste. Experiment!
That’s quite the opposite of most experiences I’ve read on the Aeropress and my own at that. I have been very happy with mine, especially after I realized the grind profile for an Aeropress is closer to espresso than french press. That made a considerable difference for me.
This for me too. I use my espresso setting when I grind for my Aeropress, and I’m not disappointed.
I am familiar with Cafe Bustelo. It’s a very inexpensive blend roasted dark to eliminate acidity and, probably also for consistency since the actual blend may actually vary slightly due to availability and to mask the lower quality of inexpensive beans processed inexpensively. It is also ground for espresso (#6 on this chart). Espresso ground coffee is prepared under pressure with a very short contact time (18-23 secs). Using coarser grounds with the brewing process would result in under-extraction because the surface area is smaller and the water won’t sufficiently permeate the grounds leaving behind flavor. The french press method utilizes a coarser grind (#2 on the chart) and a longer contact time (3-4 minutes) which allows the grounds to sufficiently release its flavor. Using finer grounds with this method results in over-extraction – even shortening the brew time to under 2 minutes wouldn’t solve that problem if your coffee is espresso ground. Chefguy points out that the finer grind should result in sediment as the undissolved solids pass through a filter mesh designed for larger solids. He’s right; there should be notable sediment in your preparation.
Suffice to say, taste is subjective and if you like it, that’s all that matters. But I can’t accept the notion that preparing a very inexpensive pre-ground, dark roasted espresso by french press is upping one’s coffee game. I would further suggest that nuking said coffee after it gets cold is actually taking your game and flushing it. But that’s just me.
Out of curiosity, do you drink it black or doctored up?
I drink it black and strong. I don’t like all the fancy smantzy coffees in the local walmart. My brother told me about using bustelo camping out. He uses a pot and makes it over camp fire, actually boiling it. When he takes it off the fire he throws a pinch of salt in the pot. He claims it settles the grounds. His camp fire coffee is good. It is hard to hate coffee out in the open over a camp fire, it seems. But I do like bustelo and it is cheaper. High price does not equal high quality, it my little world.
P.S. I don’t have problem with sediment.
Oh, And I don’t nuke it, as stated I pour all at once into a Yeti cup.
I know, but you suggested it.
I was saying that as an alternative. I would never, no, dear me, ever nuke my coffee. Get real, people nuke coffee all the time. It is not a sin. It is okay to use a modern convienance. The whole point is, Keurigs are crap. Expensive, unsatisfactory and trash producing crap. But people do what you like, it is okay with me.
I’m late to this discussion and didn’t read the whole thread. Just wanted to say before you summarily dismiss the convenience of the Keurig machine, keep in mind that the ratio of coffee grounds to water is everything. I don’t know how the Keurig machines work that have a reservoir of water and let you choose the cup size. I have the kind where you pour in a cup of water and a cup of coffee comes out. For a standard size Keurig pod, don’t make a cup of coffee any bigger than 6 oz.
Also, not all Keurig pods are created equal. IMHO the best are the Gevalia Columbian. I’ve tried many, many different kinds and most are crap (to my taste). I’m having coffee from a Chock Full O’ Nuts pod right now, and it’s pretty decent.
Also, I bought a Keurig brand machine when they first came out. It stopped working after about a year. I read all kinds of stuff online, but couldn’t figure out how to fix it. Bought another Keurig brand machine, and the same thing happened. Then I bought a Mr. Coffee brand Keurig-type coffeemaker, and it’s been going strong for years.
No, Keurig coffee isn’t as good as freshly roasted, freshly ground pour over made with Alpine spring water (collected outside your doorstep) and brewed by the loving hands of your mom/your SO/that hunk (or babe) you met last night. But try my suggestions and see if it will just do in a pinch.
Carry on.
You can remove your drone now.
I believe that sentence should have read “No, Keurig coffee isn’t as good as pretty much any other method.” I may be mistaken though and if you’re only looking for a caffeine transportation method I guess it does the job, albeit with more cost, less taste, and plenty of landfill.
I’m pretty sure that if you took your coffee beans, stored them in a damp place until moldy, covered them in vegetable oil, set them on fire for 3-4 minutes, ground them by hitting them with a rolling pin, and poured some hot tap water through them, you could probably produce coffee worse than the stuff a keurig machine makes, but it’d be a close call. That stuff is vile. It does not, in fact, “do in a pinch” if you actually like coffee. If all you want is a way to create a ton of trash and spend a lot of money while ingesting caffeine, then I suppose it suffices however.
Adding my humble opinions to the pile:
Obviously grinding your own beans is the way to go. Burr grinders are superior, but electric ones are large, loud, and expensive. A hand grinder is an option, but they can also get kinda expensive (I just saw one on Amazon for $80, WTF?) and if you are making a lot of coffee, it can get kinda…grindy. But for 2-3 cups, no biggie. Also, if space is an issue, hand grinders are way smaller.
Aeropress is acceptable. Some folks will tell you aeropress coffee has less caffeine because of less contact time between the water and the beans. I don’t know that this is true. I find the aeropress with its many, many parts to be sortof annoying to wash, clean, and store, but it’s easy to dispose of the grounds. Aeropress does the best job of making beans I don’t like into palatable coffee, but I don’t like it as much as a french press when using beans I DO like.
French Press is my preferred method. It takes slightly longer than an aeropress, but most of it hands-off time, as compared to the Aeropress where you’re either pouring, stirring, or pressing for the entire time, so from an easy of use perspective, it’s a wash. There are only like 4 parts, and you can store the thing assembled, unlike the aeropress, which tells you not to do that. Easier to clean and dry, but disposing of grounds is slightly more work. If you have a garbage disposal though, you can just tap the grounds out of carafe into the compost (or trash, I suppose) and rinse the small remainder down the drain for the disposal to take care of. Otherwise, you’ll need to use some sort of straining approach.
i’ve had enough of this keurig slander. It’s perfectly cromulant coffee and makes cleanup much easier than your fancy french press or even drip machine. Only instant (which is also fine for non snobs) is less of a cleanup.
AGAIN, you can considerably improve the output from a Keurig if you simply use your own fresh-griund, high-quality coffee in a reusable filter pod. Use the most coffee you can fit In it, set it to a small cup size, and set the machine coffee strength setting to strong. If your machine let’s you set the water heat, use the hottest setting. The coffee will come out much, much better than drip, and approaching French press quality.
I don’t understand what’s so hard about cleaning a French press. The only thing easier is to have a maid or butler for the job. Washing up dishes is just a fact of life. Any coffee maker requires general cleaning. I hate my keurig. It made terrible, luke warm swill for, I don’t, 10 times the price. Not me.
I recently noted our local Walmart offering Keurig machines for $102. !!! That had better come with a blowjob is all I can say. I can only imagine what they must be going for elsewhere. Our standard Mr. Coffee drip maker came with the condo we’re renting, and I’m enjoying a nice pot of coffee it just made. Seriously, that’s all you need.