First Look Aeropress Go
The Aeropress is, quite literally, its own brewing method and category, something that didn’t exist 20 years ago. Alan Adler introduced the product back in late 2005, and we were fortunate to have one of the late prototype / first shipping versions at CoffeeGeek way back when, which we featured in a first look in 2005. Back then, I described it as “a giant syringe for coffee”, which is still fairly apt to this day.
The Aeropress has become its own phenomenon. There’s an annual Aeropress World Championship that’s been happening for many years now, and there’s even a movie made about the Aeropress and its cultural impact. Of course, the longest, and biggest thread in CoffeeGeek’s history (3,450 posts and counting), is about the Aeropress, and Mr. Adler is in there constantly, answering consumer questions about his brewing device.
For the longest time, not much changed about the Aeropress, other than aesthetics. The initial version was more of a clear plastic (which changed colours with age), and more recent versions of the Aeropress where made with smoked translucent plastic, and different numbering stencils on the device. But the dimensions and structure has remained the same since launch. It’s nicely suited for travel, though you do need to still have a cup, a grinder, and a way to make hot water. Instagram is chock full of photos of people Aeropressing on airplanes, on the top of mountains, on sandy beaches. While it wasn’t designed for travel, it handled travel very well.
Mr. Adler was aware of this, and decided that his next Aeropress device would be more matched to the travel aspect people loved about the original Aeropress. And now that product will soon be available: the Aeropress Go (it will ship mid-November, 2019)
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Out of the Box
The Aeropress Go is boxed in a similar hexagonal style box that the original Aeropress is… but smaller. The outside of the box has lots of details about the product, and still says it makes espresso (we’ll leave that discussion out of this First Look) as well as coffee, and new for the Aeropress as a claim, “Cold Brew”.
Opening it up, you see everything’s compact because it was designed that way. Everything is stuffed inside of a 450ml (15fl.oz) travel cup made out of tough, ribbed, BPA free plastic, and a silicone sleeve style lid.
Removing the product from the box, you see on the bottom is proudly etched “Made in the USA”. It ships with a box of paper filters and a fold out instruction manual.
It comes with the ribbed coffee cup, the silicone lid, a nifty little paper filter case (holds just a few filters), a coffee scoop, and a folding stir stick. All these things either fit inside the Aeropress Go or stack nicely when you pack it up to… go. Here’s some step by step photos showing how the Aeropress Go goes from all packed up, to all unpacked.
Aeropress Go Design
Can I say I’m amazed this is all made in the USA and still has a MSRP of $35. That should be a warning shot across the bow of any other artisan, small products coffee device manufacturer in the US and Canada.
The fit of everything is quite good. The silicone red cover isn’t very tight, but it isn’t very loose either – it’s designed to easily slip on and stay in place while travelling. It also serves as base for the mug when you’re pressing down on the Aeropress. I also noticed the little plastic filter holder slots nicely on top of the Aeropress Go’s black filter assembly part when storing it for travel.
As mentioned above, the entire device is BPA free plastics, so is considered very food grade safe. The ribbed brewing cup holds up to 450ml of liquid (15oz), and has a nice feel to it. The ribs should help keep it from burning your hands while drinking.
I noticed that the rubber piston on this new Aeropress Go is removable, which is a nice feature if you just want to clean that portion of the brewer. To be honest, it kind of cleans itself every time you use it, with the plunger cleaning the insides on every press. Just the plunger itself stays dirty after use.
The design of the filter assembly holder in the bottom of the brewer is different from the original Aeropress. As you will see in the photos below, it has a more radial design to the holes, instead of a grid pattern. How this works on extraction we’ll leave up to forum comments and any future review we do of this device.
It looks a lot more compact than the original Aeropress, but not as much as you’d guess. We measured both the Aeropress and the Aeropress Go for max water volume (inverted) and the Aeropress original could hold up to 300ml of water; the Aeropress Go maxes out at 245ml, which is only 55ml less, or less than 2fl.oz smaller in max liquid volume.
Good news on the filter front – the dimensions of the filter is exactly the same as the original Aeropress, meaning all your aftermarket devices and permanent filters should work with this new brewer.
Looking at the size and design of this product, everything is more compact, and that includes the lip that the Aeropress Go uses to sit on a mug: it isn’t as wide and “platformy” as the original Aeropress. I tried it with a few of my favourite mugs, and it worked with most, but was a bit floppy on my widest mugs. Bear this in mind when using.
I know some folks liked that certain portable hand grinders would fit right inside the original Aeropress’s plunger (like the Porlex Mini Grinder; this may not work for the new Aeropress Go. When I get a chance to try a few, I’ll report back in the forum comments.
Here’s more looks at the Aeropress Go, its components, and some comparisons with the original Aeropress.
Using the Aeropress Go
So… it works basically just like an Aeropress, but get used to brewing a bit less liquid coffee brew. Where we could max out the original Aeropress with almost 300ml of water (about 275ml when you have 18-21g of coffee in there), the Aeropress go maxes out at 245ml (or about 210ml with 16-18g of coffee in there). Of course, you could brew stronger coffee and just dilute it with hot water.
The stir stick is interesting; it has an L shape to it which helps dislodge any ground coffee stuck at the edges of the brewing piston. Works as advertised!
I did have concerns about the smaller profile “lip” that the Aeropress Go uses to sit on top of your brewing receptacle. It’s not much bigger in dimensions (width, length) than the Aeropress Go 450ml plastic ribbed cup. Thankfully, both are designed well to work with each other because there was no floppy, looseness that could lead to hot water disasters if you’re plunging down hard and the Go slips and dislodges from the cup. In a full review, we’ll test this aspect more.
I do like how everything packs up together, but almost wish there was also some kind of storage element for preground coffee. Now, we’re not fans — at all — of preground coffee here at CoffeeGeek, but if you are travelling for the day, and fresh grind your coffee in the morning before heading out, that’s one less thing to pack when you’re out and about with the Aeropress Go. Putting the coffee in a zip lock, then stuffed inside the Aeropress Go’s plunger, is the way to go, but if there was some kind of sealable tube that slotted into the plunger for preground, that would have upped this devices’ “game” even more so.
This is not an ultralight device for backpacking and extreme adventuring — the entire device with filter holder, scoop, stirrer, lid and cup weigh in at 328g, or .72lb — but it could be, if you’re super fit and don’t mind dedicating 3/4 a lb (not including coffee, grinder, or water heater weight) to your backpacking weight allowance. But it is very suited for travel and well buit for it.
First Look Conclusion
Well there you have it; after 15 years, finally the second product from the (now) Aeropress “line of products”. It’s about time! I still can’t believe this has a MSRP of under $35, when it’s made in the USA. The brewer is well made, is nicely compact (compared to the original) without sacrificing much in brew volume, and on top of packing much smaller and more secure, you now need one less thing while travelling with an Aeropress: the mug.
The Aeropress Go is available for pre-order now, and will start shipping in mid November, 2019.
