Great portability, decent espresso for a song, pays for itself very quickly.
Positive Product Points
Very portable, easy to use, and easy to clean up. The kit comes with a huge stack of paper filters, too, and in six months I've barely made a dent in them. This is the coffee maker I use most often now.
Negative Product Points
The Aeropress isn't the prettiest coffee maker, I think the aesthetics could be easily improved. The rubber stopper on the plunger also easily traps water while washing, which is a just minor annoyance since I'm a little bit of a perfectionist.
Detailed Commentary
I saw this product highlighted in a video on BoingBoing, and immediately had to have it. Since getting into coffee, I've sort of gobbled up any new coffee maker that comes my way. I first had just a plain old Mr. Coffee autmatic drip. My boyfriend had an old Moka pot, which I used to make my first "espresso" at home, then I got a nice little 3-cup Bodum press, then for my birthday my boyfriend got me a Mr. Coffee steam espresso maker. It was nice having a steam wand finally, but naturally the espresso made by this thing could hardly be considered such.
I found the nearest vendor through the Aerobie website, a Sur La Table near my workplace, Starbucks. They had the Aeropress there for a little more than MSRP, plus the replacement packs of filters. I took it into work to play with it there at first (plus show it to my coworkers) and it produced the most epic crema I've ever seen on some Ethiopia Sidamo. I pressed the coffee into a small, 12 oz mug, and the crema was fluffy, foamy, and swelled to fill the whole cup at its biggest before settling back down on top of the coffee. The coffee itself had a syrupy consistency, definitely in the league of espresso.
Since then, I've made espresso with a variety of beans (thanks to my partner markout) and I've been pretty much universally pleased with the results. I've still got the lust to upgrade to a big kid espresso machine some day, but for the time being, as a college student with my just-over-minimum-wage Starbucks job, the Aeropress helps me make some fine coffee at home for very little cost.
Buying Experience
Sur La Table is a neat kitchen store, has the feel of an old-timey market. The staff was very nice and helpful.
