The short answer
Choose the AeroPress for one to three clean cups in about two minutes, with little technique and easy travel. Choose the Chemex for 30 oz of very clean coffee to serve a group, if you do not mind a slower, more attentive brew.
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Quick picks
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1. Choose this for one or two cups
AeroPress Original
Manual tier · A hand-pressed immersion brewer using a paper or metal filter.
Clean, fast and forgiving - and it travels.
The AeroPress brews up to 10 oz, 1 to 3 cups, by immersion, then presses the coffee through a paper or metal filter. It weighs about 6.5 oz.
Immersion is forgiving: every particle gets the same contact time, so an imperfect grind matters less than it does in pour-over.
It brews in under two minutes and cleans in seconds - the puck ejects into the bin.
It is plastic and effectively unbreakable, so it travels well.
Specification
- Capacity
- 10 oz, 1-3 cups
- Weight
- About 6.5 oz
- Filters
- Paper or metal mesh
What it does well
- Almost impossible to brew a bad cup with
- Forgiving of grinder inconsistency in a way pour-over is not
- Cleans up in about ten seconds
Where it gives ground
- Not espresso, whatever the marketing around it says
- One or two cups at a time
- Plunging takes real hand pressure
Skip it if
Skip it if you brew for a group. It makes one to three cups at a time.
2. Choose this for a group
Chemex Classic 6-Cup
Manual tier · A single-piece borosilicate brewer that uses very thick bonded filters.
30 oz of very clean coffee, served from the brewer.
The Chemex 6-Cup holds 30 oz and brews and serves in one borosilicate vessel.
Its bonded filters are much thicker than ordinary papers, producing an even cleaner cup than the AeroPress's thin filter.
It asks more of you: a controlled pour, a coarser grind, and a slower drawdown.
Glass is fragile, so it stays at home.
Specification
- Capacity
- 30 oz
- Size
- 8.5 in H x 5.125 in diameter
- Material
- Borosilicate glass, wood collar and leather tie
- Filters
- Chemex Bonded (FP-1, FC-100, FS-100, FSU-100)
What it does well
- The thick bonded filter produces the cleanest cup of any common brewer
- Brews and serves in one vessel, which matters when guests are involved
- It looks like an object, not an appliance
Where it gives ground
- The proprietary filters are a permanent running cost
- Slow, and unforgiving if you grind too fine
- Glass, with a wood collar that should not be soaked
Skip it if
Skip it if you want a fast single cup on a weekday. The AeroPress does that in two minutes.
Clean cups by different routes
Both filter through paper, so both avoid the sediment of a French press. The AeroPress gets there by pressing an immersion brew through a thin filter; the Chemex by slow percolation through a very thick one.