Transcription
Where do you go to get the ultimate AeroPress recipe? The AeroPress Championships, of course. Hold that. Oh, yeah. I've not been invited, and they haven't announced this year's date, so I guess I'll study the winning recipes from the last 15 years, combining their winning elements. I'll push the boundaries of blooming. I'll go wild with weight. I'll grind fine, grind coarse, and then I'll grind some more. I'll invert, unvert, rinse, and plunge with it, without, and then I'll sit and slurp until I crack it. The AeroPress recipe to end all AeroPress recipes.
Hello, friends. If you haven't met, I'm John, a filmmaker turned coffee roaster, and I'm here to show you that brewing delicious coffee needn't be complicated. It can be done by anyone, anywhere. Now, stick around to the end because I'm giving away this AeroPress.
But, before we get started, I need to level with you. There's a whole lot of precision, detail, and fiddlesome things that we can all do when we brew coffee to make ourselves feel like we're taking it very seriously. And there's certainly a time and place for that sort of thing, but that is not in this video. This recipe is going to use the mega championship formula, but without the minutiae. By the end, you're going to have a fail-proof method that you can use to make delicious, reliable AeroPress coffee every single time, without loads of measuring, timing, and weighing.
Here's what you'll need to brew like an AeroPress champion. An AeroPress, 18 g of ground coffee, a spoon, water, ideally filtered, a kettle, some digital scales. Grab your AeroPress and set it up like this. This is known as the inverted method. Now, if you're worried about it tipping or spilling whilst you work, you don't need to. We're going to set our plunger to the number four, making sure our rubber line cuts right through the middle of the number. This gives us the starting point for all our measurements throughout the brew, but it also makes it super sturdy.
We're using 18 g of ground coffee in this recipe, so weigh out your beans, and then grab a spoon from your kitchen drawer, or the one that comes with the AeroPress kit. This is the spoon you'll use for future brews, so make a note of how much 18 g is in relation, and then you can ditch the scales next time around. I've worked up this recipe for a coffee that's just on the dark side of medium, and we're going to opt for a medium to coarse grind. Now, what does that look like? Well, it looks like this. It's like table salt or sugar. And as a point of comparison, this is the sort of grind I'd be using for a French press, which is, as you can see, a bit coarser. And this is where I'd be for an espresso grind, lots finer. The grind we're after is 20 clicks on the Comandante grinder.
Now, as this is the ultimate AeroPress recipe, we're going to honor the championship-winning combo and follow the precise measurements and timings this time around, but only once. We won't be needing the next time as we'll be using the numbers on the side of your AeroPress. But for this run-through, it's useful to check we're getting everything right. With your ground coffee in, this should now sit just below the number three on the side of your AeroPress. We're going to add 50 g of just-off-the-boil water. And if you want to get fully specific, it's 94°C that we're aiming for. But that's the same as leaving the kettle to sit for roughly 2 minutes after it's boiled, and will take your level up to the halfway mark between three and two. Give it a gentle stir, ensuring that all the grounds are saturated, and let the coffee bloom for 30 seconds.
After 30 seconds, we're going to add another 50 g of water, which will take our level up to the center point of number two. This multi-pour approach with blooming is what's going to maximize flavor clarity and sweetness, and we're going for a balanced extraction. That's the aim of the game. Now, perform a gentle north-south-east-west stir for a further 10 seconds. This was detailed in several of the championship recipes, so it's a must. Stirring the coffee in anything other than a north-south-east-west stirring pattern is sure to result in a disgusting cup that is not evenly extracted, and your friends are sure to shun you.
After the stir, get your filter in the basket and give it a rinse. Some people say not to bother with this, but we're championship level here, gang, and that's what they do. This is going to remove any papery taste, if it exists at all, but also helps create a firm seal in the basket and that the paper won't fall out when you flip it over later. With that done, screw the cap tightly onto the Aeropress and push down until you've removed all of the air. I like to preheat my mug with a bit of hot water, but you do you. Stick it on the scales and zero the scales before carefully and confidently flipping the Aeropress over and on top of your mug. There's often some concern about the inverted method and flipping hot liquid about the place, but if your filter's screwed on and you've pushed all the air out, the vacuum created inside holds really well. You could shake it around and only really end up with a few drops being lost.
With your Aeropress in position, gently press down until you've extracted all of the coffee, stopping just before you get to the hiss. Hissing's for snakes, not championship-level Aeropress brewers. Now, by the end, you should have about 70 g of coffee in your cup. Now, we're going to add another 100 g or ml of hot water from the kettle, which is just over double the amount you already have in the cup. And finally, we're going to add 30 g or 30 ml of room-temperature filtered water.
Now, why all the messing around with different temperatures of water, you might rightly ask. Well, it's because we're trying to balance out the flavor. By adding some room-temperature water, we can fine-tune the final cup, creating the perfect strength that's tailored to you. Now, this is your chance to fine-tune, too. Perhaps you like it a little hotter. If so, less room-temperature water, a little bit more hot water. Maybe you like it stronger. If so, even less water. Is it too bitter? Try adding a little bit more. Good coffee brewing is all about experimentation, so just keep trying until you hit that sweet spot that works just for you.
I hope you found this ultimate recipe useful. I'd love to know how you're brewing your own Aeropress coffee at home. And if you don't have one, I'm giving this one away. All you have to do is hit that subscribe button below, and one of my subscribers will be selected as a winner. Full details can be found below. Thanks for watching, and good luck.