Anyone who has stood in a festival coffee queue at half past eight in the morning, watching their children ricochet around in the mud while the barista in the van takes an age over a flat white, will understand the appeal of making your own – and that’s before even thinking about the cost.
The AeroPress Clear Colour bundle pairs the company’s see-through coffee maker with their stainless steel travel mug, and the idea is simple: brew at your tent, fill your mug, and get on with the day.
The AeroPress itself has been around long enough to have built up a following that borders on evangelical. It works by combining full immersion brewing with a bit of gentle pressure as you push the plunger down, producing a cup that sits somewhere between a French press and an espresso but without the bitterness of either. The paper micro-filter catches the oils and fine sediment that make cheaper methods taste harsh, so the result is noticeably cleaner and smoother than anything you’d get from a cafetière. The whole brew takes under two minutes, which is about as long as it takes to remember where you left your shoes.
The Clear version of the AeroPress is made from Tritan plastic, which is shatterproof and lets you watch the brew as it happens. It comes in several colours including a clear blue, and the translucent body is genuinely useful outdoors since you can see exactly what’s going on without lifting the lid. It’s lighter than the original and just as tough. There are no moving parts beyond the plunger seal, nothing to break, and nothing that needs charging.
The mug that comes with the bundle is a double-wall vacuum insulated 18/8 stainless steel travel mug with a splash-resistant slider lid, available in blue to match the brewer. The key detail for camping and festival use is that the AeroPress brews directly into it. The mug’s wide, stable base supports the weight of the brewer as you press, so you’re not trying to balance anything awkward on a wobbly camping table. Once you’ve pressed, you lift off the brewer, pop on the lid, and you’re walking. No decanting, no second vessel, no extra washing up.
The mug holds 12oz (350ml) and keeps drinks hot for hours, which on a festival morning where you brewed at seven but only got a chance to sit down at ten means your coffee is still worth drinking. The slider lid is splash-resistant rather than fully leakproof, so it’s not ideal if you’re shoving it unsecured into a bag, but as a carry-around mug it works well and opens easily with one hand.
There are a couple of things worth knowing before you buy. The AeroPress brews one to two cups at a time, so if both adults on the campsite need coffee simultaneously you’re doing two rounds, which takes around four minutes in total and is still considerably faster than the festival queue. The mug, at 12oz, is on the smaller side if you’re used to a large morning coffee. And the lid, while practical, is not the kind you’d trust on its side in a bag of clean clothes.
None of that is a serious objection. At £69.99 for the bundle you’re saving around £15 on buying the two pieces separately, and as a self-contained kit for a summer of camping trips and festivals it covers everything it needs to. The matching blue colourway is a small thing but a nice one, and the fact that the whole setup packs into a rucksack side pocket without complaint is the real point. You leave behind the cafetière you’d regret breaking and the pod machine that needs a plug socket and you take this instead.
AeroPress Clear Colour Coffee Maker + Travel Mug Bundle, £69.99, aeropress.co.uk.
