We love the Aeropress.
Simple, easy, repeatable .... there's a lot to love about this classic brewer.
Today, we're going to dive straight in and share 4 tips and tricks we've picked up over the years to help produce tasty, reliable cups with the Aeropress.
Let's go.
1. Plunge slower
Good things take time.
The faster you press, the more pressure you create, and the more of those suspended solubles will make their way through the bed, through the filter and into your brew.
A slow plunge will give you a cleaner, lighter bodied cup.
And who doesn't love that?!
Never rush a good plunge.
We recommend a minimum 30 second plunge - all the way up to 1 min even.
2. Less is more when stirring
You really don't need much agitation.
Let your other variables like grind size, water temp and ratio do the leg work on extraction instead.
You'll need a little bit of agitation, obviously. But you probably want less than you think.
We usually do 2 back and forth gentle sweeps - one front to back and one side to side. Then put the plunger in and do one very gentle swirl.
That's all you need. It's also easier this way to be consistent and recreate the same amount of agitation from brew to brew.
You'd be amazed at how much difference just a small change in agitation can make to your extractions. So do yourself a favour and try to keep agitation consistent, and tweak other variables instead. You'll have a much easier time dialing in this way.
3. The bloom
A full bloom is really important on the Aeropress.
If you skip this stage, the C02 that's released will cling to the ground coffee and block the water from contact.
And that's pretty bad news for your extraction.
So our Aeropress tip number 3 is definitely: don't skip the bloom.
Give your coffee time to do some of that initial degassing.
Then use the the agitation from your main pour to release all of that trapped CO2, so your water can get in and do its job - extracting all the tasty stuff.
4. Grind coarse
Unless you're using a really great grinder, your particle size distribution is probably on the larger end of things.
Because of that, you might be surprised how many fines your grinder is kicking out on those finer grind settings.
Fines are very small coffee particles (smaller than 200 microns) that are produced when grinding beans. Think of them as like the crumbs you get when you break a cracker in half.
Because they're smaller, fines extract really quickly.
Too many fines can get you to over extraction really quickly, and create a lot of astringency and bitterness in the cup.
Grinding coarser helps to reduce some of those fines and create a cleaner cup.
[Bonus Tip] 5. Experiment with different recipes
One of the reasons why we love the Aeropress, is the endless scope for experimenting.
So one final bonus tip for better Aeropress would be: experiment!
Play with recipes and experiment until you find what you like.
There are stacks of great recipes you can try out over Aeroprecipe, and there's a great community there to share recipes.
You can also try out the digital Aeropress dice game and work your way through 7,700 different combinations! This is the digital version of James Hoffman's original dice game.
Jonathan Gagne even has a 10 minute Aeropress recipe, if you're feeling extra experimental.
One of the reasons why the Aeropress has become such a hugely popular brewer over the years, is just for the shear scope of possibilities. There's so many ways you can get really great tasting coffees from an Aeropress.
Immersion brewing methods like the Aeropress tend to produce slightly more balanced and rounded cups, while still bringing out all of that great sweetness. But you can also brew pourover-like acidity-forward brews with it too, with the right recipe.
So have fun with it. Play around and see what happens.
Cheers, and happy brewin'
