I’ve been a daily user of the original Aeropress for over a decade now. In fact, I have 3. One for home, work and another in the campervan.
The Aeropress remains one of the most successful coffee gadgets ever produced. Aside from the brewing ability, this is success is in part down to the simplicity of design. However this simplicity makes iteration and further innovation difficult. In other words; a hard act to follow.
Given my enjoyment of camping and the outdoors the Aeropress go, a smaller version designed to fit into a travel mug, seemed an easy buy. But is the Aeropress Go the perfect camping coffee upgrade or a failed attempt at progress?
What is an Aeropress?
An Aeropress is a manual, compact and durable coffee brewer which combines steep and pressure brew mechanisms. The simplicity of parts make the Aeropress more durable than a french press, the brew method results in a rich, smooth coffee and the puck ejection allows for easy cleaning. in short; the Aeropress is fantastic.
The inventor, Alan Adler, intended the user to fill the chamber to the corresponding number on the side depending how many shots of ‘espresso’ you want. But much like when Uno said you couldn’t play a +2 on a +2, most people said: ‘thanks a lot for the brewer Alan, but we’ll take it from here.’ The Aeropress does not make Espresso, but it can make delicious coffee.
With that being said, a very general overview of how to use an Aeropress is: Insert a paper filter into the cap, attach it to the brewing chamber, stand it on a mug and use the plunger to force hot water through a puck of ground coffee. Once all of the water is in the mug, unscrew the cap and force the coffee and filter out into a bin with a satisfying click.
There are hundreds of blog posts and videos about the best grind size, coffee weight, water ratio, irrational hatred of scoops and the inverted vs normal debate – but for most people; 1 scoop of medium ground coffee, water filled to around the top, some stirring and a controlled press makes great tasting coffee.
I’ve gone through many broken French presses and espresso machines in my time and I still have a 10 year old Aeropress going strong. All in all, it’s a great product.
So what’s an Aeropress Go?
The Aeropress Go is a slightly smaller version designed to neatly pack away into the included travel mug. Along with the mug the Go comes with a scoop, folding stirrer, filter paper case and silicone cap. All of the accessories fit nicely inside the plunger and subsequently the cup.
Along with the brew chamber reduction the cup resting flange is also smaller, a design change obviously focused on portability. The downside of this smaller lip however is you are now limited to a smaller number of cups you can use as it now won’t sit on wide mouthed mugs.
The plunger seal has been swapped for silicone from rubber which is a welcome upgrade on the previous iteration which would degrade and become oily over time.
As for the accessories;
- The cup and silicone cap work well together to become a non-slip coaster when brewing. Although the cup itself is well designed and sturdy, you can’t get away from the fact it’s plastic. Coffee just tastes worse out of plastic.
- The scoop has been elongated to better fit into the hollow plunger.
- The folding stirrer is a nice addition but realistically you’re rarely short of something to stir with
- The filter holder is a nice idea but I’m not entirely sure it’s necessary, paper filters can of course just be stored in the cap.
The Verdict: Aeropress Go Vs The Original Aeropress
As with most reviews, I started writing out a side by side comparison. But then I deleted it.
There just isn’t enough difference between the two to justify a comparison table. Yes there has been some accessories added and yes the seal has been upgraded, but realistically the main difference here is size. The original Aeropress brews up to 296ml and the Go 237ml. Approximately a 20% reduction.
The bottom line is; If backpack space is a premium and you don’t mind drinking out of a plastic mug, the Aeropress Go still brews great coffee while adding some niche convenience. But contrary to most other reviews I’ve read, for everyone else I think you’ll just end up brewing into a better mug and missing the 20% of coffee you have lost.
