My coffee journey
So the Aeropress Go came into my life. It is great, you can quickly get a nice coffee. Initially meant for traveling and usage during camping, it quickly got adopted into the household. And as such it got used more and more. In such an extent that it was doing double shifts in the weekends. This is a bit of a hassle as you have to clean and reload the Aeropress and you do require some steeping time for a nicer coffee. So about a year later I got Annick the regular Aeropress. Two presses means you can make two coffees the same time, woohoo!
Of course we also used the press during holidays or during traveling. It is convenient you can make your own coffee anywhere you want. And it also gives you a nice little break with a satisfying reward if you make it yourself, instead of getting a brew at the petrol station. And let’s be honest, it just tastes better too! In addition with the Jetboil you can get amazing coffees in about 6 minutes.
As mentioned earlier, the Aeropress is such a great little device. For the people reading this who don’t know how it works as follows: it is like a large syringe in which you add a filter at the bottom, coffee grounds and hot water. You let the coffee steep for a bit and then press the liquid gold out into a cup. Result a fresh brew, jummy! And on that road what do we find, a rabbit hole.
So the Aeropress has all these different options to use it. Upside down, regular with the piston on, with the piston off, stirring the coffee, long brew, fine coffee and so on. Depending on the recipe and technique you can get strong coffee or, what I would consider a normal coffee. I would say the last is something like an americano or if you would go to a machine and press coffee. So by peeking in the hole and trying to learn more in order to get the best coffees, I find all these fun little pieces of information. For an example, from what I’ve seen and read you cannot make an espresso with the Aeropress, as the unit doesn’t allow the pressures required (it only goes in the range of 1-2 bars).
So I started looking at different techniques and recipes online in order to improve my coffees. Not saying that they were lacking before, but I felt the need to advance my knowledge on the matter. I was probably bored or miserable and diving headfirst into something that interest me is what I mostly do in these periods. So I ended up on Youtube and a bloke called James Hoffman. He makes nice content and gives a clear explanation on the subjects he talks about. Which by the way is all concerning coffee in one way or another.
Let’s not get carried away and let me summarise all I’ve learned by just peeking. So requirements for nice coffee from the Aeropress:
- Fresh coffee. So not older then 6 months from the time it has been roasted. In the supermarket I would choose the beans with the sell by date furthest away.
- Freshly ground coffee, not to coarse, rather a little more on the fine side. Which requires a grinder*.
- A proper scale* to measure accurately.
So here are some things you might try at home if you have an Aeropress or using one from some one else. For recipes I can recommend the ones from James Hoffman most. I use it all the time as it is just an easy workflow, for a quick and by my standard an excellent coffee.
For a normal coffee, for me 13 grams is a good go to point paired with 200 grams of boiling hot water. If I can get all the grounds properly wet I usually do not stir the mix, but if I do a quick poor some grounds tend to stick and then I do stir. After adding the water, push in the piston a little so some water drops though (and reverse for a mm). This allows the rest of the water to stay in de press during the wait and not fall through due to gravity. Let it steep for 2 minutes, give the whole unit a gentle swirl and leave again for 30 seconds. And voila, delicious coffee!
For a strong coffee, say for a cappuccino style I would use 18 grams and 90 grams of boiling water and let it steep for about 1 min and 30 sec. I would stir just after adding water to make sure all the grounds are wettend, and at the end before pressing down. I would either use the upside down technique; put the piston in the empty syringe at level 4 and let it stand on the piston with the filter left of, add grounds etc. Or by using the Aeropress Flow Control cap which only allows liquid passing through when the pressure is a little higher than atmosphere.
*So somewhere up there you may have noticed Asterix. Maybe after reading this far you can imagine the rabbit hole. A hole filled with options, could it be, the start of a new hobby?