Aeropress
The AeroPress is an ideal coffee maker for travel or brewing a small amount at home or in the office. It makes a very clean, sediment-free cup in a short period of time, and it is easy to clean up. You just need ground coffee, hot water, and something to brew into. Brewing with the AeroPress gives good control over the variables since you can easily adjust the water temperature and coffee-to-water ratio.
After a lot of frustration on vacations using friends' and relatives' dirty, low temperature coffee makers, the AeroPress seemed like a perfect match for anyone away from their home brewing setup.
There's one big problem with the brewer: the claims made by the manufacturer that come printed on the packaging. They mean well and want to sell their product, but this is not an espresso maker, nor are the other "made-for-TV" type exaggerations on the package true. This is a brewer that makes a concentrated coffee, and then you add hot water to the concentrate. A quick internet search will give you results for different brewing methods, as well as iced coffee and coffee concentrate recipes using the AeroPress.
It's no looker. It has all the charm of a medical device. Ugly packaging and looks don't mean bad coffee, though. The AeroPress is well made; it is easy to use, fast, easy to clean and travels well.
The AeroPress has such a clean cup because it uses paper filter discs. The brewer comes with a 1 year supply of filter discs! In fact, it can last longer than that, and you can even rinse and reuse discs, although that is not ideal.
All these pieces make the AeroPress seem more complicated than it really is. It can be packed into a compact package, and you don't necessarily need to take all these items for travel.
1. Prepare the Press
Put a single paper disc in the black plastic cap, twist it onto the clear brew chamber.
2. Grind the Coffee
Measure out your coffee using the scoop provided, 1 level scoop per "cup." Add 50-65% more water to the concentrate after brewing, so you will roughly double the amount you initially brew in the AeroPress. These amounts are in blue ink on the side of the press. 2 scoops will make a 10-12 oz mug of coffee. Of course, you will dilute to your personal taste, which will require some experimentation. You can use the funnel (right) to grind directly into the brew chamber.
What grind to use? A medium fine; finer than French Press, a bit finer than drip filter coffee, not nearly as fine as espresso. If the press is hard to plunge, make the grind coarser.
3. Add Hot Water And Brew!
Add hot water. I recommend using the TOP of the ovals indicated on the side. I prefer to brew using 2 or 3 scoops, and using the top of the ovals marked 2 or 3 respectively. Thoroughly wet the grinds while pouring. Then stir grinds rapidly, using the stirrer paddle.
How Hot Should the Water Be? Aeropress recommends low temperature brewing with 165 to 175 f water. They say "professional coffee tasters" preferred low temperatures. The Aeropress should be brewed with temperatures on the low end of the traditional coffee brewing window from 195 to 205 f. But if you add a small amount of hot water to a room temperature brew and room temperature ground coffee, you immediately experience a big temperature drop. Add 195 to 200 f water, begin stirring in 10 seconds, continue for 10 seconds, then go to Step 4 and start plunging ...
4. Plunge It, Dilute It.
As mentioned, this is a fast brew method. The coffee tastes overextracted if you let it steep 3-5 minutes, as with other brew methods. Steep 10 seconds, stir 10 seconds, then plunge for 10-20 seconds. Pushing with even, light force is better than pushing hard and fast. In either case, push the plunger all the way down.
Add hot water to dilute the concentrate to a drinkable coffee. 50-65% additional hot water seems right. You don't want the undesirable tastes of overly strong coffee (liquor-like flavors) nor weak, watery cup results.
Variables: Grind, water temperature, steeping/stirring/plunging times, dilution. All 4 of these are going to affect the brew results greatly. If at first you are not pleased, experiment with these variables. A good feature of the AeroPress is that you control the variables and can customize your results, even if these variables may give some occasionally unwanted variability to the results.
5. Clean Up
One of the nice things about the press is clean up. Simply remove the black plastic cap from the brew chamber. Then hold it over a compost bin or trash, and push the plunger in a bit further. The puck of coffee grind and paper filter will pop out.
You can rinse the end of the plunger, and the inside of the brew chamber, but actually, you can just wipe it off with a towel too. Voila, that is it! This makes the AeroPress really convenient for use in a hotel room or office, where you want to brew coffee without a real kitchen. AeroPress says you can even heat the water inside the plunger in a microwave, if you are desperate.