AeroPress
The AeroPress is a plastic tube with a plunger, a bit like a giant syringe 🧪. Coffee steeps in hot water for a minute or two, then you press it through a small paper filter straight into your mug. People love it because it's quick, tough, easy to clean and travels anywhere. It makes a clean, smooth cup, and it's very hard to mess up.
Grind: Medium-fine, between table salt and sand
Pick your kind
- Your first AeroPress (the right way up)Steep 15 g of coffee in 225 g of water for about a minute and a half, then press.5 min · easy
- Inverted AeroPress (upside down, safely)Brew upside down so nothing drips early, then flip carefully onto the mug and press.6 min · a little practice
Words you'll hear
- Chamber
- The main tube where the coffee and water steep. It has numbered marks on the side.
- Plunger
- The part with the rubber seal that you push down to press the coffee through the filter.
- Filter cap
- The perforated cap that holds the paper filter and screws or twists onto the bottom of the chamber.
- Steep
- Letting the coffee sit in the water so it can extract flavor.
- Inverted
- Brewing with the AeroPress upside down, plunger at the bottom, so nothing drips out early. You flip it over to press.
- Hiss
- The sound when air starts pushing through the coffee at the end of the press. A good moment to stop.
- Ratio
- Water weight divided by coffee weight. 1:15 means 15 g of coffee to 225 g of water.
- Extraction
- How much flavor the water pulls from the grounds. Under-extracted tastes sour and thin; over-extracted tastes bitter and dry.