Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Well, despite the legions of disciples besotted by this product, I didn't like the Aeropress. I bought one with the highest of hopes for a quick, smooth single-serve cup of coffee, with minimal cleanup. What I got was a month of tweaking coffee amounts, steep and press times, and water temperatures, none of which yielded a decent cup. The vaunted silky smoothness of the Aeropress cup landed on my taste buds as an utter absence of flavor. Desperate attempts to extract some sort of taste usually yielded a bitter cup. Furthermore, the amount of pressure required to press this little bugger is not trivial. I'm a 52-year old man, have a decent pair of guns for forearms, and found the effort to plunge the "syringe" an annoyance. And lordy, a HALF a cup of beans to brew two puny shots of concentrate? Come on. Good coffee costs big bucks. I may have a reasonably refined coffee palate, but that doesn't mean I'm going to crack open my 401k to pay for my habit. I finally gave up and went back to my Chemex. A bit more of a hassle to use, but that first robust, smooth cup was enough to remind me what the brown stuff is *supposed* to taste like. And I used exactly half as much beans to get that cup. Sure the Aeropress is inexpensive, but after about two years of doubling up on the amount of coffee you need to make one cup, you've wasted enough money to buy an entry-level espresso machine. Or 10 Chemexes. Sorry, but for me, the Aeropress just plain simply didn't work. Advocates will say I didn't experiment enough. Maybe so. But life is too short to waste a month of mornings producing a swill that leaves you poorly equipped to face the rigors of the day! The one star I do give it is for its ingenious design, quick prep and easy cleanup. It's just what happens in between the prep and the cleanup that the problem!