Last Updated on April 25, 2022 by John Moretti
The Hario V60 and the AeroPress are among the most iconic and most widely used coffee brewers globally. Both of these brewers have experienced such success because they are both very good at brewing excellent coffee. However, these two brewers are vastly different. How does the coffee that comes from each of these brewers compare, and how do they compare for brewing coffee?
The Hario V60 is an excellent pour-over coffee brewer that sets the standard for this type of brewer. The AeroPress is an espresso-style brewer that makes small, strong coffees that can be enjoyed straight or as a base for other espresso-based drinks. Both brewers produce fantastic coffee.
Every type of coffee brewer has its own strengths and weaknesses, but not every brewer produces good coffee. The Hario V60 and the AeroPress are two brewers that are known for making excellent brews. Let’s compare these brewers to find out which will suit you best and to discover what the coffee is like from each brewer.
The Hario V60: A Tried And True Pour-Over
Pour-over coffee brewers are known to be finicky and difficult to use. Brewing pour-over coffee can yield fantastic results, but the process can be a real challenge.
The Hario V60 is a well-known icon in the world of pour-over brewing, as this simple brewer made pour-overs more accessible for everyone and made the process significantly easier.
The V60 is so widely used and well-known due to how easy it is to use compared to other pour-over brewers and the excellent coffee that can be produced by this brewer.
The Hario V60 is available in several different varieties, including plastic, glass, ceramic, copper, and composite metal versions. Hario is constantly innovating the V60 and producing versions featuring a drip valve, an immersion brew version, and several various shapes for various uses.
Every V60 is a conical pour-over brewer that requires the use of some form of coffee filter. Hario produces V60 paper filters of various kinds that are specially designed for use in the V60.
Using every variety of the V60 is a joy. The design of this brewer makes it simple to produce great-tasting pour-over brews, and the design of this brewer means that it can be used with any type of vessel that fits under it, as it does not require any specialized carafes or brew collection chambers.
The coffee that is produced by the Hario V60 is entirely dependent on the skill of the person making the coffee. If it is used well, the V60 can extract delicious, complex, rich, deep flavors from ground coffee in a way that almost no other pour-over brewer can.
The Pros And Cons Of The Hario V60
With all of that being said, every coffee brewer has some pros and cons, including the V60.
The pros of the Hario V60 coffee brewer include:
- Produces excellent coffee
- Comes in a variety of models
- Is generally simple to use after some practice
- Very well-made
The cons of the Hario V60 coffee brewer include:
- Can be difficult to use without experience
- Can be expensive to buy
- Is not a very good-looking brewer
- Is not available in every country
The AeroPress: A Modern Marvel
One of the best brewers in the age of modern coffee is the AeroPress. This brewer is a marvel of its time and has sparked a wide range of similar brewers since its inception. The AeroPress is so popular that there is even an annual AeroPress brewing competition held with international contestants.
The AeroPress is a portable, small, easy-to-use coffee brewer that is intended to create a small, strong, espresso-type coffee beverage without the need for an espresso machine, any complicated equipment, or any specialized coffee.
This brewer is a simple tube with a plunger that is used to create pressure within the brew chamber, forcing hot water through ground coffee at relatively high pressure, and filters the liquid through specially designed filters that do not affect the taste of the brew.
The AeroPress can be used to brew small, strong coffees for use as a base to create espresso-based drinks such as the cappuccino or the latte, but it can also be used to brew full mugs of black, filter-style coffee.
Using the AeroPress is as simple as loading ground coffee into the device, adding a filter, pour in hot water, and pressing a plunger. The coffee produced by this brewer can be very good or very average, depending on the technique brew ratio and methods used for brewing.
The Pros And Cons Of The AeroPress
The AeroPress comes with its own set of pros and cons, as does every coffee brewer. The AeroPress is a hit-or-miss kind of brewer, as not every coffee lover enjoys brewing with this device.
The pros of the AeroPress coffee brewer include:
- Small, compact, and easy to use
- Portable
- Well-made
- Available everywhere
- Produces very good coffee if it is used well
- Is not expensive for what it is
- Is very versatile
- Can be used as a base for several other coffee drinks
The cons of the AeroPress coffee brewer include:
- Can be a challenge to use at first
- Can become brittle over time
- Do not make very large amounts of coffee
- Can only be used with specialized AeroPress filters
- Can be very inconsistent
Conclusion
Comparing these two brewers is a challenge, as they are so very dissimilar. The Hario V60 and the AeroPress are two completely different types of brewers that produce very different styles of coffee.
The Hario is for you if you prefer strong, black, easy-to-drink coffee in larger quantities, and the AeroPress is better suited for you if you prefer espresso-style drinks but do not have an espresso machine.
If you are interested in using these coffee brewers, take the time to research each of them to determine which is better for you, and be sure to consider all of the different varieties, as each brewer comes in several different models.
