팁 테크닉
For all of these brewing methods below, you will need the following:
Now that we have all of the tools together and an understanding of the Aeropress, let’s begin.
This method comes from your’s truly. I (Tim) have been using this method of brewing with the Aeropress for over a year now, and it creates the perfect cup that I enjoy. Strong, bold, very flavorful, and sometimes even very slightly bitter (I actually prefer that in my first cup of the day).
This method uses the regular brewing position, meaning you place the filter and cap on before you begin brewing, and set it up as in the photo above with the plunger on top and the cup underneath from the beginning.
The reason why I love this brewing method is because of how crisp the coffee always comes out. It typically simplifies the coffee’s flavors, bringing out one pretty heavily and pushing the others to the side. With the Finca Las Delicias coffee from today, the flavor that popped the most was th Sweet Molasses, which made for a very rich and medium-heavy bodied cup.
As the coffee cooled it became even deeper. The sweetness fell away, and the roast note appeared.
When I was done with the cup there was a strong aftertaste that was full of that roast note. It stuck around a bit longer than I would have liked, but wasn’t too terrible.
The first inverted method that we’re going to look at is from Stumptown Coffee Roastersout on the West Coast. This is a unique brewing recipe in that it adds several steps that aren’t often discussed by Aeropress users, such as tilting the Aeropress to 45º and spinning for 10 seconds. It’s a fun process, but might take a bit too much time and energy for the average coffee drinker to want to try and conquer.
As I said, this method is inverted, meaning you start the brewer off with the plunger already partially inside of the brewing cylinder (the filter and cap go on last on top), and you flip the brewer over before making the plunge into your cup.
This brewing method is a bit long, more complicated than others, produces less liquid coffee, and gives you a cup that is quite strong. Stronger than any of the other brewing methods listed here, by far. If you don’t dilute the cup with any hot water, you will have a truly full-bodied coffee experience with notable roast and caramel notes with a thick body. It’s very slightly bitter, but not harsh.
When diluted to a ratio of 50:50 coffee to water, though, this cup really develops nicely. Even though quite a bit of water is added, it doesn’t come out tasting watered down. It moves from the sweetness of caramel to being a bit more chocolatey. The acidity and body obviously smooth out as well.
The aftertaste on this cup (at 50:50 coffee to water) is nearly non-existent. It stays for the briefest of moments in a fine, smooth, and very slightly sweet manner before fading away.
It’s not the most profound cup of coffee I have ever had, and for all of the effort put into it I can’t say I highly recommend this brewing method. However, with that ratio of coffee to water I could find myself every so often using this method at the very end of my day to relax and not get kicked in the face by the huge flavors found in various other brewing methods.
In 2013, Jeff Verellen took the stage at the 2013 World Aeropress Championship Competition and produced the winning cup of coffee with this Aeropress brewing method. No inversion of the brewer here, just regular old setup of the Aeropress.
There’s a reason why Jeff was the World Champion with this Aeropress recipe, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by what I found with it. Seriously, I’m probably going to switch from my original brewing recipe (above) to this one. We’ll see.
The flavor notes on this cup of coffee are incredibly sweet and delicate. The flavor of caramel permeates the cup with some hints of delicious cane sugar on the side.
As it cools the coffee retains a steady sweet flavor, a heavier body, medium acidity, and a perfectly smooth aftertaste that lasts just as long as I was hoping for. This was a refreshing cup of coffee to drink, and I will recommend others try it as well.
Another big fish in the craft coffee world, Blue Bottle, also chooses to go with the inverted method of Aeropress brewing that Stumptown works with. Though not quite as complicated, this brewing recipe has a few unique steps that made for an intriguing and complex cup.
With this recipe we finally were able to bring out some of the stewed apple flavor notes of the Costa Rican coffee we were brewing. It started off with a nice thick body, with less caramel and more of the molasses and roast notes.
As it cooled, more and more of the stewed apple flavoring appeared as the sweet and roasty notes smoothed out. As I drank the cup I found it becoming more enjoyably complex. The aftertaste was a bit long and drawn out, very slightly roasty. With everything that was going on in this cup of coffee, I would definitely recommend it for people who really enjoy challenging their palette.
There are so many Aeropress recipes out there, and so many more to be discovered, that it’s hard to find one that I can say is my absolutely “favorite”. Through my trials and experiments I have found that the regular brewing methods, like the original Guddina method and the recipe by Jeff Verellen, are probably more along the lines of what I enjoy, but there are most assuredly people who will enjoy the cups brewed by Stumptown and Blue Bottle.
We want to know what your favorite recipe is, though, so leave us a comment below! If you share a recipe that we’ve never tried before, you can bet that we’re going to at the next chance we get.