If you walked into a kitchen in the 90s or early 2000s, including my own, you almost certainly saw a Bodum French Press sitting on the counter. For decades, it was the default "fancy" way to make coffee at home. It was simple, and it looks nice.
But if you look at my coffee bar today, the French Press is gathering dust in the back of a cabinet. In its place is an ugly, gray plastic tube that looks like a science experiment gone wrong.
It’s the AeroPress. And in the battle of Aeropress vs French Press, the plastic tube wins every single time. Here is why.
The French Press is a metal mesh filter brewer. This means oils and fine coffee particles ("fines") pass right through into your cup. Some people love this, they call it "rich" or "full-bodied." I call it sludge. The last sip of a French Press is almost always a mouthful of grit.
The AeroPress uses a paper filter (or a very fine metal one). It produces a cup that is incredibly clean, sweet, and articulate, but because it uses pressure, it still has more body than a standard pour-over. It’s the perfect middle ground: you get the richness without the mud.
This is where the AeroPress leaves the French Press in the dust: Portability.
I have broken at least three glass French Press beakers in my life. One shattered in the sink, one fell off the counter, and one broke because I looked at it wrong. They are fragile, heavy, and awkward to pack.
The AeroPress is made of indestructible, BPA-free plastic. You can throw it in a backpack, shove it in a suitcase, or toss it in the back of a car for a camping trip. It creates its own pressure, so you don't need a fancy gooseneck kettle, just hot water from a hotel pot or a campfire boiler works fine. It is the only brewer I trust when I leave the house.
This is honestly the main reason I switched. Cleaning a French Press is a nightmare. You have to scoop out wet, hot grounds that stick to the glass, rinse it out without clogging your sink, and then disassemble the mesh filter to scrub out the old oils trapped inside. This is also usually when you end up shattering the glass.
The AeroPress? You unscrew the cap, push the plunger, and the puck of coffee "pops" right into the trash (or compost) with a satisfying sound. You rinse the rubber seal, and you are done. The whole process takes 10 seconds. When you are rushing to work in the morning, that difference is everything.
Check out the AeroPress on Amazon
Regardless of which side of the Aeropress vs French Press debate you fall on, neither will taste good if you use a bad grinder.
For immersion brewing (which both of these are), you need particle consistency. If you have "boulders" and "dust," your cup will be sour and bitter at the same time. I use the Fellow Ode 2 Grinder. Its flat burrs are perfect for the medium-fine grind the AeroPress loves and the coarse grind the French Press demands.
I still keep a Bodum French Press around for when I have 4 people over and need to make a lot of coffee at once. But for my daily cup? It’s the AeroPress. It’s faster, cleaner, and it won't break when I drop it.
Whichever method you choose, make sure you are using fresh beans. I rely on Trade Coffee to keep my rotation interesting. The AeroPress is particularly good at highlighting the fruity, complex notes of the light roasts that Trade sends me.
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