It's a mail time in Japan would you believe we've been traveling
for quite a while and I'm desperate for a good coffee we only really can get
drip coffee here in Japan and it's not my favorite I really miss you know the
espresso machine that we traveled with around Australia but when we're away
from home we need a solution now if I'm traveling around Europe to be honest I
prefer a moka pot but not every place we stop has got a stove where we can
actually put a moka pot on - but we can often get access to hot water so
I've gone for an aeropress it arrived today I'm just gonna take it out the box
lets have a little look at it and see what we think and I'll probably make a coffee
with it I might make a sort of follow up with this on one of the vlogs later on
because I have no idea really how to use this thing fresh out of the packaging
comes in this nice sort of octagonal box it says Aeropress rated the best coffee
maker by users or users review whatever that is I've got a bit of Japanese
writing on there obviously we're in Japan I did reach out to Aeropress and
asked him if we could get one in Japan they didn't seem to be able to supply
one here but you can get them on Amazon so that was really useful and the
delivery on this was super quick like 48 hours it was with us now it says here
that it's a 1-2-3 cup coffee and espresso maker now I'm not a big fan as
I say of drip coffee I find it very sour it's just not up to the standards we
have in Australia good espresso shots are always the way to go for Michelle
and I anyway whether or not the Aeropress can make something similar to
that get that richness and not get all the bitter notes that are in drip coffee
I'm hoping so let's get this thing open pretty simple so the first thing it's
the letter T I think that's a little stirrer so it comes with a scoop that's
useful actually there is a funnel you see the nice um fairly soft robust
plastic as well you know that's not going to crack
- easily some bits of paperwork we'll have a look at that you know there's a
whole Aeropress World Games that goes on every year I think people sort of
compete to make the best Aeropress coffee
so this units pretty famous I'm surprised we haven't had one before here
it is it looks I don't know what it looks like really I'm not even sure how
this work okay so it's like a big like a big syringe a little bit more paper in
there I think there's more in the box
okay that's it box empty ahh be careful Stephen got paper filters in
here whole stack of them I think there's about maybe a hundred or so paper
filters I know it says 350 paper filters I don't know if that's just a paper
filter holder which is kind of cool one of the problems Michelle and I have is
we're constantly trying to travel light now I was thinking of getting a portable
coffee grinder as well to keep the coffee really fresh we just haven't got
the space we travel really like so I'm going to go with powder coffee we just
have to buy small packs and use them as quickly as possible while they're fresh
so all these extra bits and pieces probably I wouldn't travel with these
for the time being we'll take them with us but but if they get too bulky we
might have to either post them home or leave them somewhere on the road this is
the piece I think we want this unit and this unit and I think if you're
traveling you could probably just do with taking these components now I'm not
going to do any practice runs but what I am going to do is have a quick read up
to see what I'm supposed to be doing and let's make our first coffee of the
morning because I'm desperate for a good coffee I expect it won't be the best
coffee from this Aeropress at the moment because I'm not used to the amounts of
coffee grain and we're tinker with it and mess with it until we get the
perfect coffee but for now it's just follow the basic instructions and make a
coffee with the with the Aeropress I'll make the coffee for you yeah we're
gonna keep it simple I'm going to follow the basic instructions for the Aeropress
firstly I thought it was only in Japanese but there's an English section
in there and I know there's an inverted way so you can actually take the
Aeropress and work sort of upside down to get a lot of people say it's more
like an espresso shop but we're going to do it the basic
simple way the Aeropress explains making coffee for Michelle this morning so she
can instruct me so it's got like a a little gauze gauze filter on here you
take one of these paper filters pop the paper into there screw that on nice and
tight and pop it over your cup or glass now what are they saying me sure how
much coffee one scoop now we've shopped all over Japan and I
can't find a fine enough grind normally you can get an espresso grind which is a
bit fine the Aeropress says you can use a drip filter coffee which sadly I'm
going to be using for this it's not going to give me the intensity I'd like
but anyway it should give us decent coffee I'm gonna go for a full scoop so
just one scoop are they saying oh yeah use the funnel I use the funnel I won't
make I could see then it wasn't gonna go in proper you know so yeah that funnel
actually is already proving to be useful pop it in there no spray all over the
table and we're gonna give this a little shake just to even out the the grinds
and with CL our coffee we'll use it pretty quick I probably only get smaller
bag so that it stays fresh because as soon as coffee still gone stale it's
lost all its intensity of flavor so let's go through the instructions we've
got to fill it up to number two give it a little stir put the plunger in and
gently push it down okay so I'm gonna pop some boiled but not on the boil
water onto the coffee grinds is that going through already I can see okay
it's a little bit odd and I think that's why the inverted method
is is popular that is dropping through there already which I'm a little bit
surprised give that a stir
how long would you let that sit for just do it straight away
I saw what almost already gone through
what's the point in that honestly that's like drip coffee is there a darker
coffee coming through Nate yeah okay
yeah but I don't want drip coffee when you pushed it through under pressure you
can then lift that up and you get a little pucker coffee which you disposed
of in the in the waste bin we give it a quick rinse and you're ready to go again
did that get darker as I was putting it pushing it through because I'm hoping we
can get the strength of the coffee going through without all that sort of sour
bitterness that you get with drip coffee
okay Michelle thinks we should do an inverted one we've never done this
before quick clean up and I'm going to do an
invert it and we test the two okay it's a bit like rubbing your belly and
patting your head I'm trying to work out how do we do the inverted method I think
what you do is pop this pop the plunger in partially that right okay so we now
I'm hoping the water won't drip through I hope the seal is good enough so I'm
going to take my coffee we go with the same amount of coffee just to just to
compare I suppose I should use that that funnel again and we'll pop it in there
so we've got the coffee now laying on top of the plunger get the filter ready
a lot of people say slightly damp the filter so I am going to do that and
actually damping the filter helps it stay in place as well which is is quite
handy we haven't looked up the inverted method I think you're meant to let it
steep for about 30 seconds or so and I don't know how I'm gonna get the marks
on here so we let's bring it up to the to where we are guessing a little bit
I'm gonna go and then I add water just weary this is going to dribble out the
side but it isn't it's staying there so we're all good so you get your little
stirrer and see by doing this you notice when I did it the way they they
recommend it was dripping through straightaway and that a little bit of
that is because it's a fairly coarse coffee we're using so we let that steep
for not too long maybe about 30 seconds and then I have a little look on youtube
you pop this on seal it nice and tight gotta be a bit risk you know you're
working with hot water here you got to be a bit careful and then the idea is is
to take your cup and you turn it over and now you push it through nice and
quick pushing that
so effectively the hot water has been in contact with the grains a little bit
longer there is no crema but I'm not worried
about that because we we will get a better grind and we will find better
quality coffees as we're traveling but let's have a little look there's some
foam it's not really it's not really crema Michelle we've never had this
coffee either before so we don't know what to expect so that's yours Michelle
this one's rich huh yeah for sure this one's got a richer flavor I like milk in
my coffee and also I mean milk just adds a little creaminess I know a lot of
people if I'm having an espresso shot even then I like a little dash of milk
so I'm going to pop a little splash of milk into that glass and a little splash
of milk into that glass you see any difference in color at all Michelle yeah
okay just give that a little stir through yeah I mean to be honest I used
a little less water in this one but um
it's nice and intense though but it still is really yeah it still is stove
toys still drip style American coffee not that not my favorite coffee but it's
good caffeine there you go Michelle there's yours
it's gonna be a work in progress the ideal thing would be some foamed milk
and a nice shot dropped in and I have seen people make what looks like an
espresso shot with this by using a finer powder sometimes they use two papers
it's all a little bit sort of we know working out but that is more intense
much more intense than the drip the the Japanese drip coffees that we've been
using here
some people would top this up with some hot water to get that americano possibly
my least favorite coffee it gets all sort of tannic and sort of
like um I don't know like you're drinking bark water or something but now
this isn't bad it's not fantastic but then we don't know the coffee that we
don't know that particular coffee brand we've never had it before we're not on
familiar territory here but I think this will be alright what do you think come
over here and say say goodbye so from Michelle and I in Fukuoka Japan
traveling around the world we're going to give the Aeropress a try and if I get
better if we get better at this because you'll be making it again if we get
better at making the coffees we'll share it with you and let you know in the
meantime take care share the love and we'll see you shortly
Cheers as much better is it yeah not the camera off to kill the cameras yeah