You’re right, it isn’t. It’s better than espresso.

People used to drinking swill office coffee, upon tasting some awesome AP brew almost invariably ask what I added to the coffee to make it taste so good. When i say “nothing – that’s what coffee actually tastes like if you don’t ruin it” they are amazed. My dad swears I’ve been drinking ‘flavored’ coffee or that somehow some flavored coffee must have mixed in with whatever I bought or was left over in the grinder at the store. Sorry pops, I only buy fair trade stuff from the hippy-food store, and they don’t sell flavored coffee.

However, it’s one of those paradoxes, I can’t tell you what I do because I use my Aeropress before I’ve had coffee…

I do know I don’t fiddle around with temperatures, and I either use frou frou beans from some of those local small batch folks here in Portland, or Fred Meyer generic coffee.

Anyway, ignoring those idiots, here are some entries from the, God help us!, World Aeropress Championships … http://worldaeropresschampionship.wordpress.com/recipes/

Pre-ground coffee? REALLY?

I bought one, liked it and bought one for my parents and one for my aunt.

Good stuff but are cory and mark getting a cut of the sales or something? *L*

1, a disclaimer. I’m disinclined to thoroughly read all the comments, so I’m sorry if I’m repeating information.

2. WARNING: Semantics. Aeropress coffee is not, in any fashion, espresso. Espresso is coffee brewed under a good amount of pressure (typically 9atm). Aeropress is brewed at 1atm. It can be used to brew especially strong coffee, but that’s not espresso. You can add water to the strong coffee you make on an aeropress, but that’s not an americano. It can be used to brew less-strong coffee, as well.

3. Everyone should go to http://www.brewmethods.com.

4. Have a nice day.

I just use it for regular coffee; I was really picky about temps early on; but got lazy and now just use water off the boil and it’s fine (though I’ve got my eye on a kettle with an adjustable thermostat…)

For those looking at the multi-step instructions and shaking their heads (normally those who use a French press in my experience) you should know that it goes by really fast; especially once you get used to it. You can have a coffee ready 25 seconds after the water comes to a boil; and the press is clean and ready to go again 10 seconds after that.

I think the shockingly expensive Clover machine uses the same concept as the $30 Aeropress:
http://www.chow.com/food-news/54246/you-cant-afford-this-coffee-maker/

we use the cuisinart perfectemp kettle: http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-PerfecTemp-Porcelain-Enameled-Teakettle/dp/B001D1IH2S

it doesn’t turn itself off, but i don’t like electric kettles, especially ones that are plastic (some metal ones even have plastic bases). anyway, it’s a great setup.

The single origin comment is in reference to utilizing the brewer inverted, as an immersion brew method. Coffee for espresso is generally roasted a bit darker, and won’t taste nearly as good as a single sourced coffee at a good medium roast when brewed inverted. Blends are typically lower quality coffees put together in order to make something palatable. Buying a higher quality coffee is generally the best way to get the tastiest coffee you can.

There are many different ways to brew, but as far as the AeroPress is concerned, there really only is one right way. And that comes down to basic brew science. AeroPress by default creates a concentrate that can be sipped as is, or have water added to it. It doesn’t create espresso, so generally people are adding water to it, creating a diluted americano style beverage. Diluting the concentrated means you are betraying one of the most basic aspects of coffee — the body a coffee can have. The heaviness on the tongue, the silky mouthfeel — these aspects are all lost when brewing a diluted concentrate. Henceforth, inverted immersion method.

The issue his is the propagation of misinformation. If someone said “oh hey, architects are fairly useless these days because we have AutoCAD software that can map everything out,” architects would be up in arms. That’s misinformation. If someone said we didn’t need IT professionals because we have McAfee software, that’s misinformation.

Tanzania Peaberry — info about this coffee:

1) Peaberry refers to a genetic malformation in which a single coffee seed is inside a coffee cherry instead of two. They are typically smaller, have a roundness to them, and have a different bean density.

2) Peaberry lots are built from a variety of lots from a farm or an estate. This means the farmer discovered they had enough green peaberry (discovered through a sorting by size process with screens) in order to produce a full lot to sell.

3) Therefore, the availability of the peaberry is fairly rare and, to be honest, not necessarily anything that affects the flavor of the coffee.

More importantly, then, is the information about which farm/estate that coffee from Tanzania came form. The excellent flavors you experience were due to good processing, high quality coffee, and a skilled roaster.

The few things that make a delicious coffee — lack of defects, great land husbandry, freshness of the coffee from the farm, a good roaster, and freshness of the roast.

The best a coffee will taste will be between 2-12 months off the tree, and within two weeks of being roasted. Line up those variables with the general profile of a coffee you like, and you’ll find a delicious coffee.

And finally, it’s the Internet. Everyone sounds like an asshole, because there is no way to convey inflection. I might have been laughing and using a sarcastic tone during that entire first comment.

Coffee you didn’t roast yourself? REALLY?

/I love being smug… ;->

The technical definition of what the aeropress makes can be called espresso, but I’d say “weaker espresso”. No, it is not brewed at the 8 bar and up pressure of your “pure” espresso.

It’s a coffee grey area, or brown area, if you like, but it’s a kind of espresso BECAUSE it is brewed under a pressure. At least, that’s my take on it.

Of course, always grind from whole beans as soon before brewing as possible. But that isn’t always practical. Ala one of the best uses for the Aeropress- the camping/hiking portability. Unless you have room for a 10 lb. cast iron hand grinder, I doubt any serious java person who wants coffee in the outdoors would rig up a solar panel for their burr grinder. We pregrind and properly seal.

When you get into single origin coffees, now you’re just sounding silly and elitist. If you do it to try a specific region’s flavor, yes. Good. But anyone who makes a point of only drinking such “pure” single-origin, organic and what else coffees for “purity reasons”…

…are just being snobs. Much like wine snobs.

You’ve forgotten the financial impracticablity of that approach to coffee for 98% of the world’s people, and the god-honest point of drinking coffee. People do not drink coffee solely to affirm a regions’ taste. That would be like eating sushi only from the west coast of Japan, and your reasoning being “TRUE sushi is only from the west coast of Japan. The rest is just fish!”.

People drink coffee to enjoy it, and wake up. The majority of the point of drinking coffee is not to affirm some regional or cultural “image”- it’s to just goddamn enjoy the flavor. And good flavor can be found from any number of coffees from beans that aren’t just single origin.

There are many ways to enjoy coffee. Anyone who prescribes to a single method of drinking is cultured, or a connoisseur. When they insist, however, that everyone else must use THEIR way, they leave the realms of good or refined taste, and just become an ass or snob.

I can definitely sympathize with a connoisseur. I get and appreciate the mentality of being exact to enjoy something. It’s when we assume everyone must do as we do that we all become asses.

Please remember that.

That said, I see you being up this “inverted” method a few other people mentioned. That’s how you get props- bringing up stuff we may not know about in an intriguing way. I will look into this myself now.

For the record, my favorite bean is Tanzanian Peaberry. Hard to find. Non-existent in Japan- I’ve looked everywhere. But the best damn bean I’ve ever drank.

BUT they’re not espresso. Unless you grind super fine, make a custom tamper, and utilize a juice press [yeah, people have tried that], you’re not getting anywhere near the amount of pressure required to make espresso.

The AeroPress has always seemed closest to a vacuum coffee pot to me , both in principle and flavor profile. This isn’t bad – it’s actually really good — and probably describes why so many people love the flavor profiles these extract. The celebrated $11,000 clover machines work on nearly the same principle [ clovers and vac-pots use vacuum pressure , this is just the inverse ].

There are better things to talk about than dumb semantics, but this stuff isn’t extracted at 9+ bars nor is it at 190-205° (depending on blend), and it sure as hell doesn’t taste like espresso made from the same beans. It’s a great way to make coffee, but its just not correct to call it espresso.

I work at a small coffee shop in Western Massachusetts, we roast and brew that, and will shortly beginning our forray into e-commerce, so you can order straight from us.

Check out Tunnel City Coffee in Williamstown, MA

/shameless plug

Like: One cup @ a time. *Easy* to clean! Customize water temp to taste.

Not like: Some effort involved pushing the plunger. Because of this narrow bottom cups can tip and go flying accross the counter (I told you so, Wife!).

The only drawback to the Aeropress is the beans per cup ratio. As someone who cannot always afford to buy the better beans, I find the quick extraction makes for a terrific cup even with inferior beans.

Now, top quality beans through an Aeropress will rock your world, especially considering the cost.

Water temp of 175 is the inventor’s preferred temperature, but is not necessary. I’ve used water anywhere between 205 and 175 and the coffee’s come out fine.

Also, if you want to brew a stronger-tasting cup, approximating what you might get at an espresso bar, there’s a neat trick you can pull that involves upending the Aeropress to get a longer extraction time. This has become my preferred method.

1) Measure out your water and put in a cup.

2) Put plunger partially down in the top of the Aeropress, and flip it over, standing it up on the top of the plunger.

3) Add grounds to Aeropress, hot water, stir. Let sit from 3-5 minutes.

4) Give one more stir, carefully put on strainer w/filter, upend it, and plunge.

And, btw, welcome to 2007, Boing Boing. I hope you had a nice nap.

I confirm that AeroPress does not contain BPA (bisphenol-A).

Best regards,

Alan Adler
AeroPress inventor and owner of Aerobie, Inc.