The Ultimate AeroPress Technique (Episode #3)

Thanks I love my aeropress

I'd add three suggestions: 1. Preheat the cup you intend to drink from using the very hot water 2. Always drink from glass, preferably a GOOD double-wall ( J.A Henckels ) glass mug, not the cheap Chinese knock-offs on Amazon ( porcelain china is an acceptable alternative, but coffee gets cold quickly in porcelain ) 3. NEVER drink coffee from stoneware or styrofoam, both of which leave an unpalatable taste on your tongue. I've been doing AeroPress for years. In my estimation, the standard AeroPress technique makes a more flavorful, consistent cup of coffee than any other method, and that includes pour over.

Which one taste better, AeroPress or MokaPot?

I am a die hard tea drinker (sourcing leaves, specific temperatures and times) but I’m trying to understand the coffee world for all my family and friends. I got the Aeropress to be able to make a single cup for guests.

I tried this recipe, and your tips for using a blade grinder and for the first time ever, I’m enjoying a cup of coffee!!! I taste the nuances, I feel the texture. It’s brilliant!

My family and friends thank you 😂

No way. This is just too easy & simple. Gimme more sophisticated & complicated ones!
😂

I feel the need to express to people that James has said the 10 minute does provide a better more rounded brew which is what aligns with his french press technique, so combining his french press technique, this one and the inversion method* you can create a far superior brew to what is demonstrated here.

I lived by this brew for a few months, but since combining the three methods I'd never consider going back.

Method:
freshly ground coffee, boiling water, inverted aeropress
Fill the inverted areopress with the desired amount of coffee grounds, I usually use 20g which is a little more than recommended
Add boiling water and set an 9 minute timer
Also add boiling water to the mug you intend to drink from as the heated chamber will hold your brewed coffee at the desired temperature for longer
Stir the crust allow a small amount of time for the grounds to fall and carefully spoon out the foam/scum
top with the paper and twist top (I find dry paper and having the water level be high enough for the paper to cling to works best for me)
once the timer goes off empty out the mug of water and invert the areopress onto it
give the areopress and mug a slight swill and wait 1 minute
gently press the areopress
Serve however desired

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if you have milk and sugar I'd always suggest full fat milk or freeze distilled milk as you're diluting the final product less while reaching the desired flavour/texture.
For sugar most people agree if you're going to it's nicer to use a darker brown sugar such as muscovado as the flavours are better paired.

(*The inversion method is required because it allows you to comfortable skim the scum but it is a method which james is not a fan of due to the risk factor of a top heavy volume of boiling liquid being easier to knock over but in mine and many others experiences we have never fumbled it but I do see there being a good cause for concern so be cognisant of your surroundings)

James, thank you for your coffee genius! I'm wondering, with the various brew methods why is there a steeping difference? For example, your famous French press recipe (which is delightful) steeps for around 7 minutes total! With the Aeropress we are looking at around two and half minutes. What would happen if we allowed the coffee to steep in the Aeropress for 6-7 minutes...would it go bitter?

Just used for first time and did everything wrong, probably put way too much coffee beans in and grinder didn't grind them much as I had no idea how to adjust it, then just put all the coffee in and filled water nearly to top, but half the cup was full before I even plunged it, probably too much water? It wasn't that strong but drank it lol. Didn't even realise aeropress came with a spoon thing to measure coffee

What is the grind size in this video? about 500 micrometers? And in the other video he recommends 75g/L for infusion methods like AeroPress. I know he says this isn't gospel, but I'm curious why such the big change from 75 to 55.

Thank you. This is brilliant. For YEARS, I've had one of these that I use at the office and I've simply got into the habit of blindly following the (now long-lost) brewing instructions ... stir with the stirrer for 10 seconds then plunge for 20 seconds. Aside from thinking more about roast, grind size and water temperature, you've really made me think twice about the timings involved. I'm going to be doing my own fun experiments over the coming week!

Please do the XL!

You'll probably not see such a late comment but any thoughts on using a reusable metal filter instead of the paper? I switched to a reusable but that basically means I lose water volume when trying to brew the normal way. Water level drops from the 4 to the 3 by the time I can get the plunger in and apply some back pressure.

No bloom for this method?

I haven't purchased an Aero press because I don't like that it's made of plastic. I'm concerned about chemicals in the plastic leaching into the water.

James, thank you for this no nonsense guide! 😁👍 My partner got me an aeropress for xmas and since weve been using your methods for our pour over machine for ages now, the instructions in the box felt almost alien to me, but after following this video a couple of times I now have a solid method for the aeropress too without any guess work or the worry of inconsistent results!

Is the Ode in the video a Gen 2 with stock burrs on setting 5?

Found this video a good while back and have been using it ever since. It really is an excellent "go-to" for your daily brew. Thanks James

What kind of beans should I get? I've been buying beans from my neighbor. He's got kinda his own brand. They're good and all but I wouldn't mind trying something new for a change

I'm just using a regular electric kettle, can I be as jank as using a kitchen temperature probe in a Pyrex jug to measure the heat of the water before pouring onto the coffee?

thank you Mr James!! Im gonna use Aeropress for the first time

I played around with temperature and different roasts.
From my experience I wouldn't go below 95 C even with darker roasts. The aeropress doesn't hold temperature like an espresso machine. If you put in water at 95 C it will quickly drop during your extraction. If you put in your water below 95 C, in my experience even darker roasts will taste a little bit sour.
I would be interested in other people's experiences with temperature. :)

I recently made my very first aeropress cup, using a 1zpresso hand grinder. After a few attempts with your suggested adjustments, I brewed an outstanding cup of coffe. The best coffe I have ever brewed at home, I could not believe how good it tastes. Thank you James!

So i do the inverted method, but beyond that, i drive a truck and this has been a wonderful compact way to make coffee for me. I got this awesom little silicone collapsable kettle to boil water and a little walmart cramic mug and its been awesome! For some reason coffee is not always available where i park and this has been a great way to do it.

My coffee is said to be medium roast. Coffee from Bali, paradise valley
I made it with aeropress, I would say somewhat fine(6clicks on Hario Slim mill, going from fine towards coarse).
12grams coffee and 200mil water
2 minute in aeropress with boiling water. At first I thoughf it was bitter, but after googling I think it was actually astringet. My mouth was drying out, my tongue too.. it started with a little bitterness and as it cooled down souerness became more dominant(not in a bad way..)
So.. how do I fix this? I want.. sweeter coffee without the bitter/astringent dominance

I follow the method of the aeropress coffee competition winner from a number of years ago. Course ground, inverted

Thanks Jim! That was a really good method and definitely gave me a good cup of coffee! Shoutout to always making great content!

Brewed my first decent cup with the aeropress using this recipe. Thank you, James! I appreciate your videos and I'm a fan of coffee from square mile.

How much water should you put in for dilution?

Wow, I was following another method before, that included stirring the coffee after pouring and blooming it for 30seconds before putting in the plunger. I noticed, that after stirring and not adding the plunger directly a lot more coffee dripped through, so I stopped that. Further, I only let it steep for 60-90 seconds.
After watching your video, I adjusted the grind size on my Fellow Opus from 4.7 down to 4.0, replaced the stirring in the beginning with swirling after 2 minutes and let it sit for 30 secs after swirling. I was also more mindful about, how much pressure I was pressing down with.
It was immediately noticeable how much better the cup tasted. Before it wasn't nasty, neither too sour nor too bitter, but tasted kinda boring and flat.
Now, for the first time, I noticed how chocolaty the coffee tasted with a slight sweetness. I have already forgotten what the package said about the supposed aromas this coffee should have, so when I had another look, it actually listed Dark chocolate as the first flavour. I am very thankful for upping my morning coffee.

Great recipe and videos James thank you! I doubled your amounts - 22g of coffee/ 400 g of water - which meant an additional pour once most of the first pour had flowed through. Tasted great. It would seem the impact of waiting for the second pour and then adding it substitutes for the waiting time and swirling in your original recipe and I end up with twice the amount of great coffee! Would love to hear your opinion of this second pouring.

Tip: I found that if I press down using the underside of my forearm I get a steadier and straight down angle and do not end up tilting the unit and spilling the whole thing.

What level on aeropress makes it 200 gm?

This is a great recipe!
For anyone who is trying is recipe, please take note of this line in the description:" The darker you go the more you may prefer to increase the dose and coarsen the grind."
A medium-light roasted coffee with the grind size that was being used in the video might result in a bitter taste coffee, imo the fine grind size is best suited for light roasted coffee.

In my attempt I wasn't fast enough to put the pressure pod in and so a lot of water went through right away. Not sure if that's recommended. Taste was interesting though

This is exquisite

Good video. I disagree that you shouldn't rinse your paper filter. That depends on the type of filter you have. Some of them will leave paper residue in your cup of coffee.

James, I found an interesting technique with the Aeropress. I use a Prismo Fellow Aeropress Esspresso attachment on the Aeropress (with a paper filer as well) and I put the milk in my cup first. Then when I press the coffee, hey presto, I get a nice bit of foam on top, which looks nice to me. Putting the milk in first makes the foam last longer. Love your videos. -James Copple

I don't understand this this recipe. It says 11 g of coffee. with a fine grind, even 5g of coffee filled up half my Aeropress! Without adding the water!

Thank you Steve Bushemi for telling us how to make coffee properly

I'm absolutely no fan of the idea brewing coffee in a plastic vessel. Think of it, it's well known that the extensive use of plastic packagings for our food has a massive impact on our health. Especially for men, as plastics in foods have an estrogen-like effect and influence potency and fertility, psychological health etc. More and more studies are showing that. If you think about it, it can't be healthy pressing boiling water through a plastic tube and then drinking it.

okay what kind of a scale is that? It only starts measuring weight after the water starts to get poured in, what about the carafe that's already on the scale?

What i love is you've linked other techniques, a sign your goal is to get people to really get a good coffee not views or anything like that.

I might be a little late to the party... But thank you very much, James!
That is a down to earth recipe, perfect of early morning drowsiness and it gave me a really sweet and great cup of coffee every time

I love how you don’t even talk about the technique of putting in the plunger. Thanks!

Any recommendations for increase the ratio for say 300g of coffee? 200g isn't quite enough for me

Can you use cafeter coffee in an aero press please?
Grain size coarse.

I’ve always used the inverted method. I tried the “standard” method today and was reminded why I never do it. By the time I wait the two minutes, all of the coffee has already dripped into the cup! There’s nothing left to press! I use a fine grind. Is it just because I use the reusable mesh filter instead of a paper one? I will say that when doing the standard method and all the coffee drips in, if I fill it up again with hot water and then immediately press it before it can drip in, it results in a great Americano. However, I know this is not the intended way to do it.

nice mug

After adding the waterto the coffee in the aeropress a minute and a half llater the coffeeis already through the filter and in the cup. Am i missing a step or technique?