tags: #coffee #aeropress #frenchpress
Coffee is one of my few remaining vices, I don't drink vast amounts, only one or two cups a day before my anxiety kicks in, but it is a comforting habit when there is a lot to freak out about.
I have been a long-time user of the Aeropress, in fact I'm on my second unit having worn out my first one a few years ago. I like how it makes a single cup of coffee since no one else in my family drinks coffee so making more than one cup at a time is a waste. It is also mostly self-cleaning, I give it a quick rinse after use and maybe once a week pop it in the dishwasher but that's all it really needs to stay in good condition.
Over time though I started seeing inconsistent results, sometimes the coffee was nice, sometimes it was bitter and unpleasant, most of the time the coffee was already quite cold once I'd given it what I thought was enough time to stew. I initially decided to switch to the French Press and was getting better results from that for a while but it was still unreliable so I started looking closer at my methods, which I think over time have become lazy and slipped into routines that no longer worked as well as they once did.
James Hoffmann produced a useful video (youtube) a while back about his French Press method. I learned a few things from this that really helped, but a core principal was that he takes a lot of care to avoid over-extracting the grounds partly by using the press as a strainer more than a press, leaving the mesh just below the water line during the pour. The results I got from this have been excellent but a major drawback is the fact the method takes up to 10 minutes to do properly.
Later I found an Aeropress recipe from coffee brand Taylors of Harrogate. I figured it was too conservative though by asking for only 90 seconds stewing time and just one tablespoon (7g) of coffee. I was right, the results were OK but weak for my tastes so I adapted it by doubling the grounds to 14g but keeping the 90 seconds stewing and the results are much more pleasant but still quick! To be fair I'm not using their coffee in this recipe so the results may be different with different grounds.
A useful Aeropress tip from this recipe was to rinse out the chamber with boiling water first, this moistens the filter but also warms it up so the resulting coffee is as hot as it can be and that's solved one major problem I was having.
I'm now enjoying a much more pleasant brew that is more consistently good each day so a little research and practice to tighten up my methods was well worthwhile and I'll probably need to do it again a year or two down the line. That said I'm sure I can still improve further, so the research continues.