A mediocre pseudo-espresso recipe with the AeroPress

A real espresso requires an espresso machine, and that’s somewhat inconvenient for an average Joe like me, because

  • I can’t afford one.
  • I’m not willing to spend that much money, if I could afford one.
  • If I was willing to buy one and could afford it, I wouldn’t wanna bring it to the office, since I wouldn’t be able to use it at home.

So, what can I do? I’m not willing to pay someone to make it for me at Starbucks, because it’s pricey and has never tasted good (to me). There are some great 3rd wave cafe’s near me, but then again, I can’t leave the office 5 times a day to buy a fresh shot and come back.

I’ll go over the recipe first, and will then explain my reasoning. Keep in mind that I’m an absolute novice, so take everything here with a grain of salt.

The recipe

  1. Grind your coffee fine-ish. ≈450-500 µ m
  2. Boil your water to 80°-90° Celsius
  3. Put the AeroPress filter in, lock the filter piece.
  4. Pour in the coffee ground.
  5. Pour 70-80 milliliters of water.
  6. Stir AND swirl.
  7. Swirl again around 3:30 minutes to remove the foam.
  8. Drink it at around the 4:00 minute mark.

Reasoning

Grind
This was a personal choice, but the reason I went with a finer ground was more flavor. This is, in a sense, a misuse of this product, because almost every tutorial and the manual discourage you from pressing too hard with a fine grind, but it seemed to have resulted in a better taste (for me). Another thing to note is that I haven’t calibrated my grinder (k-ultra) in a while, so those micron figures may not be exact.
Water
I just go with 80° for dark roasts, and closer to 90° for light to medium.
Filter
I use the paper filter, but according to AeroPress' website, the metal filter is better for this style, since the metal lets in more of the oil and will result in a better texture.
Ratio
The manual only says go up to the first circle, which is not an exact amount. For me 70-80 was around there, and the confusing part might be that prior to stirring, the water is not level, so it’s hard to know how much to pour. Most sources out there recommended more than 15g of coffee, but for me 15g was already plenty of extraction.
Stirring
In the Pourover videos and the AeroPress videos by James Hoffmann, he recommends swirl over stirring. I personally feel like I’m getting more extraction doing stirring first to spread the ground and then swirl, but it could very well be confirmation bias.
Timing
Once again, this was based on James Hoffmann’s AeroPress video. Although he shows that the extraction isn’t as fast after ≈ 2:00 minutes, I felt a noticeably better taste after 3:30 minutes, which might not have to do with extraction.

You might’ve also noticed I didn’t try the inverted method. It’s not because of any scientific evidence or experiments; I’m just too scared to do that on the same desk that I have my laptop on.

Resources

  • The AeroPress Go Manual, which is because I got the “Go” version. I checked the other manuals, and they don’t seem to have the espresso-style. Regardless, this is what I initially started with and deviated to get more extraction.

  • These two blog posts were amazing. The recipe is different than mine, but they’re very valuable in terms of information.

  • This blog post mentions a more similar to mine, but uses the inverted method and has a shorter wait time (though more than the previous website). The most interesting thing mentioned here is the pressure is not directly correlated to extraction, which is what enables one to actually brew something similar to the espresso with the AeroPress.

  • The official website, which has a much higher coffee→ water ratio than mine, similar to the other sources, but the water temperature is closer.

  • Most importantly, James Hoffmann and his recipe. One distinction to note is that this is older than his “Understanding The AeroPress” video (timestamped), which goes over extraction over time, which is my most important deviation compared to other techniques.

  • I’ll have to retry these things once I get the metal filter, but I’ll keep researching and trying different things. Everyone has their own taste, but hearing about new techniques and perspectives is always refreshing. It makes wonder if I’d need a comment section on this blog…