COLETTI Aspen Stainless Steel Pour Over Coffee Maker, 12 oz, Black, Dishwasher Safe, Portable Coffee

A credible homage
As other reviewers have noted, this is very similar to a Stagg X from Fellow. It works very well, as expected. I chose this as my introduction to flat-bottom, Kalita Wave style pour over brewing, and it does not disappoint. Less expensive than most other options, with the advanced thermal qualities of the double-wall design.Usage tip: Some brewers of this general style occasionally t have problems with the filter paper clogging the outlet holes. There are mechanical ways to address this, like screens cut to fit, or gently lifting up on the edges of the filter if you notice it happening. I have only rarely seen this happen with his brewer, and it has been completely eliminated by just gently placing the filter without pressing it into the bottom , adding the ground coffee, and beginning pouring. Prewetting the filters and pressing them in manually seems to cause this problem to occur more frequently. Letting the weight of the coffee shape and set the filter yields a much more consistent process. Quality filters won’t need pre-rinsing, and the thermal qualities of this brewer make prewarming with water from the kettle unnecessary. If you do wish to pre-rinse, a few whole beans added before the filter is a quick and easy solve.

Great dripper
Pretty nifty dripper for the price. Had some minor issues with the filter sticking at the bottom and restricting the flow like some other drippers tend to do. This was easily mitigated by a 49 mm filter screen. It works like a charm and now one of my favorite drippers at the moment.

Works as good as the Stagg X with small modification
In this review, I’ll be comparing the Coletti Aspen Camping pour over coffee dripper against the Fellow Stagg X to help you determine which one is right for you.Coletti Aspen:The Coletti Aspen Dripper borrows design cues from the popular Fellow Stagg X and is also built from high-quality stainless steel, but instead of being vacuum insulated, it’s double-wall insulated. Coletti also states that the Aspen’s excellent heat retention, ensures consistent brewing temperatures throughout the extraction process.Fellow Stagg X:The Fellow Stagg X Coffee Dripper is sleek and minimalist, yet it’s capable of brewing some of the best tasting and most consistent cups of coffee of any dripper that I’ve brewed with over the years. Its high-quality vacuum insulated stainless construction ensure exceptional durability and optimal heat retention during the brewing process.Coletti Aspen Features:- Simple yet sturdy design- High-quality stainless steel- Double-wall insulation- Support for various types and styles of filtersFellow Stagg X Features:- Sleek design- High-quality stainless steel- Vacuum insulated- Precision-cut filter holes**- Support for various types and styles of filters** My Stagg X filter holes have burrs on them on the side that makes contact with the filter. The Aspen’s filter holes are perfectly smooth and without burrs.Performance:Side by side, the Fellow Stagg X and the Coletti Aspen are virtually identical in all aspects except for the drain holes and the raised areas that help to suspend the filter and keep it off of the holes in the bottom of the dripper. The draw-down of the Fellow Stagg X out of the box is perfect. I’ve had zero issues with clogging. The draw-down of the Coletti Aspen is not good out of the box. This difference is most definitely caused by the poor design of the raised areas on the bottom of the dripper that help keep the filter paper suspended above the holes to help keep the coffee flowing during the brewing process. The Aspen has some raised areas, but they aren’t sufficient enough to keep the filter from clogging the holes, which results in its draw-down being painfully slow. You may already be wondering how this affects the coffee, and I can confirm that it does result in the coffee being over extracted due to the longer brew times.To fix the problem with the Apsen, I used a wire mesh anti-clog screen made for the Stagg X. You can find them online or make one yourself. I can confirm that after I used this hack to help the filter paper stay suspended off of the holes, the draw-down was almost identical to the Stagg X.Regarding the performance of vacuum insulation versus double-wall insulation, I didn’t notice any huge differences between the cups of coffee that I brewed with the drippers (after the modification mentioned above).The Stagg X does have a couple of nice add-ons that come with it (drip catcher and a dosing funnel), but coming from other drippers that didn’t have these luxuries, I could totally get by without them.Regarding extraction performance, I don’t have a refractometer to figure out the differences. What I can tell you is that after using the anti-clog screen in the Apsen, I would be perfectly happy with the Aspen with a filter screen for 1/3 of the price of the Stagg X.Ease of Use:From an ease of use perspective both drippers are easy to use. Both require the same attention and care when rinsing the filter papers to avoid them from losing their shape. Pour too aggressively and you’ll end up with many of the pleats going flat and sticking to the wall of the dripper. I exclusively used Kalitta 185 filter papers in both drippers and didn’t try any of the alternative filter papers or reusable stainless steel options.Cleanup of both dripper is identical. Just rinse them out when you’re done brewing.Summary (TL;DR):If you aren’t cost conscious and just want a dripper that works out of the box, you can’t go wrong with the Stagg X. If you are price conscious and don’t mind using an anti-clog screen, go with the Aspen. After using the anti-clog screen, the Aspen brews an amazingly good cup of coffee at a third of the price of a Stagg X ($20.99 at time of review).

Great pour over coffee maker
Build solid, works great, will last a lifetime. Quick and easy to use.