Dollars and Sense: Drip Brew Vs. AeroPress (Part 2)

Earlier I wrote a comparison of the cost-per-cup of drip-brew versus AeroPress.

During the holidays I made coffee in my 12-cup GE Drip-Brew coffeemaker. I used one 30 ml (2 TBSP) coffee measure of beans (ground for drip - i.e., halfway between espresso and French press) for every two 5-oz. cups of coffee = 30 ml beans per 10 oz. cup of coffee = 3 ml beans per 1 oz. coffee.

(I also did the same with my Hamilton Beach Brewmaster, but the coffee tasted slightly bitter; I suspect the HB heats the water to a higher temperature.)

Translating this to the 38 ml AeroPress scoop should give about 12.7 oz. coffee per AeroPress scoop. I made an 11 oz. cup with 1 AeroPress scoop of ground coffee (halfway between espresso and drip), stirring and letting the coffee "brew" for 1 minute, rather than the usual 10-20 sec. recommended, in order to extract more coffee flavor. It wasn't bad, and almost brings the AeroPress cost down to the price of using the drip-brew coffeemaker.

Maybe I'll look for a Melitta 1-4 cup cone for a truer "drip" brew.