Somewhat bewildered by the millions of Aeropress recipes on youtube, I’m wondering if daily users end up settling into a reliable, simple process that’s similar from person to person.
In particular, I note that my method (basically a french press) is vastly different from the one in the instructions which is ground much finer, uses less water, and starts dripping through the filter immediately.
Anyway, here’s me:
- 12g mild-roast (coarse ground a touch finer than most people would use for a french press, done with a C2)
- inverted
- one filter paper, not washed, but damp enough to stick
- fresh boiled water (so probs 95°+) 180g
- stir enough to break up the floaties
- push the plunger in far enough that the liquid is almost at the top before I put the filter on
- tip over and start plunging at 1:30, finish by 2:00
- into ~70g warmed milk
I’d love to hear yours.
Your last point about concentration could also explain @Uninformed_Tyler’s thoughts about the AeroPress being somewhat forgiving. Most of the extraction takes place when the water is clean, then the rate of extraction drops off quickly and then idles along for a bit - so the cut off time is not so critical.
Also the temperature plays a big role. There’s no risk of having 200 °C steam passing through the grinds. Quite the opposite really. You’ll start with roughly 99 °C, but that drops quite quickly into a more forgiving territory.
Theoretically, pressure is another important variable, but since most methods just use atmospheric pressure, so there’s nothing you can do about it.
If you end up with bad coffee, it usually means your measurements are way off. Some people also end up doing the extraction on the kitchen floor instead of inside the cylinder, which isn’t ideal for the temperature.