The best french press & manual brewers in the UK
French press, V60, Chemex, AeroPress — the cheapest route to great coffee.
Manual brewers are the entry point to specialty coffee. A £25 AeroPress or a £30 French press, paired with fresh beans and a hand grinder, will beat any £200 pod machine on taste. No electronics to break, either.
Manual brewers at a glance
| Best for | One or two cup drinkers, anyone starting out with specialty beans, campers and travellers. |
|---|---|
| Watch out for | You need a decent grinder. Pre-ground coffee goes stale in days, a hand grinder starts at £40 and lasts forever. |
| Typical price | £15 – £90 |
| Cost per cup | £0.12–£0.20 per cup |
The category in brief
The French press was patented in 1929 in Italy (ironically), commercialised by Bodum in Denmark from 1974 (the Chambord). The V60 dripper was designed by Hario in Japan in 2004, born from Japanese pour-over culture. The AeroPress was invented in California in 2005 by Alan Adler (also inventor of the Aerobie flying disc); the annual World AeroPress Championship started in 2008 and now runs in 60+ countries. The Chemex was designed by German chemist Peter Schlumbohm in 1941 and sits in the Museum of Modern Art. Manual brewing is the oldest category on this site and — thanks to the specialty-coffee wave of the 2010s — currently the most vibrant.
Our picks
AeroPress Original
The best £34 you will spend on coffee. Full stop.
Best for: Solo drinkers, campers, travellers, specialty coffee beginners.
Bodum Chambord 8-cup French Press
The archetypal French press. Nothing you buy will replace it.
Best for: Two-cup mornings, weekend brews, anyone starting with specialty beans.
What actually matters when buying manual brewers
The specs that make a difference to the coffee in your cup. Everything else is marketing.
Brewing method (immersion vs percolation)
Immersion (French press, AeroPress): coffee steeps in water for a fixed time, then separates. Full extraction, full body, some sediment. Percolation (V60, Chemex): water passes through coffee grounds via gravity. Cleaner cup, brighter flavours, no sediment. Neither is better; they produce different cups. Own one of each and switch by mood.
Filter type
Metal mesh (French press): full body, cafestol oils, sediment. Paper (V60, Chemex, AeroPress): removes oils and micro-particles, cleaner cup. Metal reusable (AeroPress alternatives): body between metal and paper. Cloth filters exist (Nel drip) but rare in the UK.
Grind size
French press: coarse (like sea salt). V60: medium-fine (like table salt). AeroPress: fine to medium depending on recipe. Chemex: medium. Getting grind right matters more than any other variable at this price. A £65 hand grinder is essential.
Water quality
More important than at any other brewing method because there's less coffee-to-water ratio hiding it. UK tap water is often chalky enough to affect the taste (Kent, Essex, most of southern England). Filter through a Brita jug or use bottled Waitrose Essential Still (£0.50/1.5 L) for noticeable improvement.
Capacity
AeroPress: 1–2 cups per brew. French press: 3-cup (350 ml), 8-cup (1 L). V60: 1–2 cups per brew, though 03 size makes 3–4. Chemex: 3-cup or 6-cup. Match the brewer to your household — a single AeroPress doesn't serve a family of four.
How much should you spend
Four price bands, four different levels of what you're buying. Pick by what you can afford to sacrifice, not what you'd like to have.
| Budget | What you get |
|---|---|
| Under £30 | Basic French press (Bodum Chambord 3-cup £22), moka pot (Bialetti Moka Express £20). Full working setup with beans and hand grinder for under £100. |
| £30–£50 | AeroPress Original (£34), Bodum Chambord 8-cup (£32), V60 with server (£28). Standard entry into serious manual brewing. |
| £50–£100 | Chemex 6-cup (£45), Kalita Wave, Espro Press P5 (better filter, cleaner cup). Nicer materials and better filtration; not a taste leap over the basics. |
| £100+ | Fellow Stagg X pour-over, Espro Press P7 (double-walled thermal). Luxury items that make the process nicer without making the coffee much better. |
What we'd avoid in this category
Not every manual brewers machine on the UK market is worth your money. These are the sub-categories we'd walk past:
- Cold-brew makers marketed as a separate product. Any French press makes cold brew (12 hours steeping in fridge, plunge, decant). Don't pay £40 for a dedicated cold-brew jug.
- "AeroPress-compatible" clone brewers on Amazon. They work but the tolerances are looser; the seal breaks earlier. £34 for the real thing is worth it.
- Chemex-branded paper filters at £16/100 when Hario cone filters at £6/100 fit the Chemex fine.
- Manual brewers with built-in grinders. Not really a category, but avoid any French press or dripper sold as a "grind & brew" set — the grinder is always a blade grinder.
- Ceramic V60s in kitchens with hard water. They discolour permanently; plastic or glass V60s wipe clean.
The £100 setup that beats any pod machine
For £100 total you can buy a coffee setup that most drinkers will rate as better than any £200–£400 machine on this site. The kit: AeroPress Original (£34) or Bodum Chambord 8-cup (£32) plus Timemore C2 Max hand grinder (£65). Add a 250 g bag of specialty beans from Rave Coffee, Union or Assembly (£8–£14) and you have everything needed for excellent coffee daily. No electronics to fail, no descaling, no maintenance beyond washing up, and the setup fits in a shoebox or on a top shelf. This is genuinely the highest quality-per-pound entry point in the UK coffee market — better cup than a £150 Delonghi Dedica, better cup than a £129 Nespresso Vertuo, roughly matched only by a proper filter machine (Moccamaster £219). If you're new to specialty coffee, start here.
Common questions
AeroPress or French press: which one?
AeroPress for cleaner cup, faster brew (90 seconds), portable. French press for fuller body, larger volumes (up to 8 cups), zero paper filters. Own both if you can — they cost £66 combined and produce genuinely different coffee.
Do I really need a hand grinder for a £34 AeroPress?
Yes. Pre-ground coffee starts losing aromatics within 15 minutes of grinding, and by the time supermarket ground coffee reaches you it's weeks past optimal. A £65 Timemore C2 Max transforms every method. Blade grinders don't count — they chop unevenly.
What beans work best for French press?
Medium to dark roasts. Rave Signature Blend, Union Revelation, Grumpy Mule. Light-roasted specialty beans work but produce a very different (bright, fruit-forward) cup that some drinkers prefer, others find sour. Try both to find your preference.
How long should I steep a French press?
Four minutes total. Add coarse-ground coffee, pour hot water (just off the boil, 94°C), stir once at one minute, let steep another 3 minutes, plunge slowly. Decant immediately — leaving coffee on the grounds after plunging over-extracts.
Are manual brewers OK for camping?
AeroPress and moka pot are ideal — no glass, unbreakable, no electricity needed. French press with stainless-steel beaker (Bodum Columbia) also works. Skip Chemex and V60 (glass, fragile) for anything more adventurous than a cottage weekend.
Continue reading
The full pillar guide
Six families of coffee machine, cost per cup, how to pick.
Espresso machines
Manual and semi-automatic machines for pulling real espresso at home.
Bean-to-cup machines
One button, whole beans in, latte out. The lazy way to fresh coffee.
Capsule machines
Nespresso, Dolce Gusto and the like — pods, one button, done.
Filter coffee machines
Batch brewing for families and slow mornings. Underrated in the UK.