KOFFI ® DISC - Metal Filter for AeroPress - Reusable - Stainless Steel Ultra Fine Mesh Disk - for Better Tasting Coffee

Where do I start? I will start with the couple of negatives, then move onto the positives. Negatives. 1. The fitting of the disk into the device is very tight, you worry about twisting so hard might break the plastic, but it does twist and is very secure. In fact more secure than the paper disk which has the habit of not always fully engaging, leading to a mess. With the disc there is no doubt. 2' Once the coffee is made and you need to discard the grounds. Normally the whole lot is placed over the bin and ejected paper and all. Now you have to carefully lift the disc off, being careful not to lose it in the bin. Practice will improve this manoeuvre. 3. Cleaning. The disc rinsed under the tap, but a few smaller grounds get caught under the metal ring and gauze. You just need to make sure to get them all out. Positives. 1.I was not expecting this level of improvement of flavour, the quality of taste, the fullness, rounded deep flavours, the aroma, the sheer quality of taste is unbelievable. The aerppress made a good coffee using paper filter into the upper reaches of the best coffee I've ever tasted. This is as good as coffee made in the hideously expensive machine the owner of a local Italian restaurant went to Italy to bring home. I am going to get some of his blend to check the difference. 2. No longer having to try and get one paper disc and checking and rechecking it is secured properly. 3. Convenience, the metal disc can be stored fitted and ready for use when cleaned and dried properly. 4. Did I mention the flavour? Wow! I can't believe this is the same coffee, The taste is so different, deeper, more earthy. In fact i may even switch down to a more gentle blend as I am used to the paper filter altering the depth of flavour so much. I think that covers my initial thoughts on the filter. I am very impressed. I am delighted to have the metal filter now, it drives all thoughts of a posh expensive machine out of my thinking. It now provides the standard by which other coffee will be measured.

Does it work? Yes. Is it good value? Depends how many paper filters you get through. Does it make the coffee taste better? Not sure. Firstly the filter fits fine. It's a little harder to twist the cap on the press on but I'm not getting any issues with leaks, etc so no problems there. In terms of value for money I think this would depend on how many paper filters you get through. I could buy almost two years worth of filters for what the metal disc costs so it needs to last at least that long to offer the same value. Time will tell! Now the important bit - taste. I tried a blind taste test on a friend, invert method, same coffee grind, same temperature and he could not taste any difference. He repeated the test for me and again I could not taste any significant difference. It was certainly no worse though and a little added bonus seems to be the presence of more crema when using the disc. It's not a massive amount but certainly more than the almost none I get when using paper filters. In short it makes coffee just as good, is easy to clean, gives a little crema and as long as it lasts two years is good value for money.

I wouldn't describe myself as a coffee connoisseur but I'm the sort of person who much prefers to make a pot of tea with leaves rather than use tea bags - after all, who really wants a bit of soggy paper in their hot drink. I use the so-called 'inverted method' and buy beans some of the time and like ground Rwandan from Waitrose at the moment. I've got a couple of Bialetti stove-top machines too, but I'm enjoying my Aeropress for when I want a longer drink than an espresso. So, I thought, this thing is right up my street. I wanted to like it and it makes better sense than using paper each time, but the thing is that rather than making the coffee taste better, I could taste a metallic taint in the coffee which was unpleasant, to the extent that I actually chucked a few cups of coffee away when trying it out rather than drink it. Maybe it's like when you get a new kettle, they taste nasty at first - but I've cleaned it with washing-up detergent in case it had grease on it, and tried the 'new kettle' trick of boiling with bicarbonate of soda - no difference. I did a blind taste-test with my wife, one with the paper and one with the metal filter, and she detected the metal filter straight away and wanted to drink the paper one. Rather disappointing! On the plus side, it appears well made from high quality materials and it works - in that it filters the coffee and is reusable - but unless this taint goes away, it's no good to me. Edit: ok, to be fair I've been using this for a couple of weeks and I no longer notice any metallic taste. As far as convenience goes, the metal one works better for making the coffee but the paper ones have the edge when it comes to cleaning up afterwards.

Good filter's

Useless. Not fine enough so unlike the aeropress filters which allows the coffee to brew in the press, it just drains straight this so coffee is weak and cup overfills. Back to filter papers!