At Raj’s Coffee, we love the AeroPress. It’s the most versatile, accessible, portable coffee brewer on the market. It’s still a hit 20 years afters its release, with the annual World AeroPress Championship bringing in astonishingly creative recipes from talented brewers. But you certainly don’t have to be a world-class brewer to make excellent coffee with the AeroPress. Its elegant design gives it endless opportunities to customize your brew.
In this article, you will find some tips for what to pay attention to when deciding on how to tailor the AeroPress to your liking. We also cover four recipes for the AeroPress that we believe produce delicious coffee. Of course, you have to start with good beans! But once you’ve got those, we encourage you to experiment and tinker with the recipes here. After all, the limitless possibilities are part of the beauty of this now-classic brewer.
The Classic Method
Source: Alan Adler
What better place to start than the beginning? What follows is Alan Adler’s original recipe for the AeroPress, which still comes packaged with each new brewer. Note: this copy is derived from Adler’s 2014 “History of AeroPress” talk at CoffeeCon.
- Place a filter inside of the filter cap. Lock the cap into the chamber. Place the chamber on a sturdy mug.
- Put 1 or 2 scoops of fine-ground coffee in chamber. Espresso-grind or fine-drip.
- Shake chamber to level the coffee.
- For espresso-strength concentrate, slowly add hot water to the number on the chamber equal to number of scoops. For American coffee, add water to (2).
- Stir 10 seconds.
- Press gently.
- Add water for American coffee or milk for latte.
- Always brew with 175 F (80 C) water for medium or dark roasts, or 185 F (85 C) for light roasts.
This recipe, we believe, is an excellent starting point for the AeroPress, as it doesn’t require much in terms of equipment. The serving of coffee it makes is good on its own. But like Adler suggests, you can add water or milk to it if you’d like.
While Adler’s method is a great starting point, you may find that you want to experiment with other recipes. Here are some others to try.
The Inverted Method
Source: Raj’s Coffee
Adopted by home brewers and baristas alike, this recipe turns the AeroPress literally on its head. The idea here is that the AeroPress extracts more effectively when the contents of the chamber – the water and coffee grounds – are turned upside down before plunging. There is a wide spectrum of opinions on whether inversion is necessary or for how long you should steep. (Notice that Adler’s recipe includes basically no steep time between stirring and plunging.)
Feel free to start with the same coffee/water ratio, grind size, and water temperature as the classic recipe. Another version of this method can be found on our other post about the AeroPress.
- Slot together together the plunger and chamber of your AeroPress without adding the filter or filter cap.
- Place the AeroPress upside down on your counter. The rubber seal will form a seal to prevent spillage.
- Add coffee grounds to the chamber. Shake to level the grounds.
- Slowly add hot water to the chamber. Fill the chamber as much as possible to make a tall, tasty drink.
- Once the chamber is filled, place a paper filter into the plastic filter cap, and screw it onto the chamber.
- Carefully invert the brewer onto your mug.
- Plunge slowly and evenly to ensure an even extraction of coffee flavors and caffeine.
- Ensure you totally depress the plunger, and wait for the small ‘hiss’ at the end of plunging that represents all of the pressure from within the brewer dissipating.
- Remove the filter cap, and pop out the small puck of coffee remaining.
The Iced Method
Source: James Hoffmann
This recipe adjusts the classic recipe to allow for an iced AeroPress, or, potentially, hot coffee for 2. This recipe is adapted from James Hoffmann and can be found in his book How to Make the Best Coffee at Home (pgs. 118-119).
Note that Hoffmann recommends different water temperature from Adler. (Actually, a lot of brewers do, but we still think you should start with Adler’s recipe before trying other methods.) He also includes an extra 2 1/2 minutes of steep time, which is especially important in making an iced coffee.
- Place a filter inside of the filter cap. Lock the cap into the chamber. Place the chamber on a sturdy mug or carafe filled with 160g of ice.
- Add 22g of coffee grounds to the chamber.
- Slowly add up to 240g water to the chamber. Like with the inverted method, you want to make the chamber as full as possible.
- Place the plunger into the chamber, but do not press down. Keeping the plunger here will create a vacuum and prevent the water from drawing down.
- Wait 4 minutes.
- Gently swirl the mixture by lifting the mug and chamber. Wait another minute.
- Gently press the plunger down until it touches the grounds.
- Pour the mixture over ice and enjoy.
The Espresso Method
Source: Morgan Eckroth
This recipe from coffee brewer and influencer Morgan Eckroth drastically adjusts the brew ratio to make your coffee as strong as an espresso. To brew this way, Eckroth recommends that you use the Fellow Prismo attachment for the AeroPress. This accessory effectively pressurizes the flow of your coffee to mimic the pressure of an espresso machine.
- Set up your tools as you normally would. Place a filter in the filter cap. Lock the cap into the chamber. Place the chamber on a sturdy mug or carafe.
- Add 20g of finely ground coffee to the chamber.
- Slowly add 60g of hot water (200 F) to the chamber.
- Vigorously agitate the mixture for 10 seconds.
- Place the plunger on the top of the chamber to seal the mixture. Wait for 1 minute.
- Quickly press the plunger until it reaches the grounds. The additional force helps to mimic espresso pressure.
- Enjoy on its own, or feel free to pair with water to make a faux-Americano or milk to make a faux-latte.
Conclusion
Without question, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the AeroPress. The brewer’s official website posts several fun recipes to go with ingredients like lemonade. And if you want to go really deep into the weeds, the website for the World AeroPress Championships posts the recipes of its winners. There truly are endless ways to enjoy coffee on this humble brewer. We hope that these four recipes here help jump-start your AeroPress journey!