Technical Guide: AeroPress Iced Coffee - Bean Selection Tips and Making Tutorial

Iced coffee is a summer essential, and plenty of readers ask FrontStreet Coffee how to make it well. Here's our take. First, good iced coffee depends on many factors: fresh beans, an appropriate grind size, precise extraction time, and more. For this demonstration we chose FrontStreet's washed Yirgacheffe on an AeroPress, chosen for its delicate floral aroma, clean taste, and bright acidity. Made into iced coffee, the Yirgacheffe's acidity turns even more refined while its florals and fruit notes hold, and the chill adds extra juiciness. A perfect fit.

What Is an AeroPress?

The AeroPress breaks down into three main parts: the chamber, the filter cap, and the plunger. It combines the immersion method of a French press, the paper filtration of pour-over, and the pressure extraction of an espresso machine. The working principle: mix grounds with hot water, stir, then use the plunger to force the liquid through the filter, yielding a cup with notably clean flavors.

Bean selection:
Balanced sweet-and-sour: honey process, such as FrontStreet's Costa Rica Musician Series
High sweetness: natural process, such as FrontStreet's Natural Flower Queen; high body: FrontStreet's Lin Dong Mandheling or Golden Mandheling; bright acidity: washed, such as FrontStreet's Kenya Cherry Tomato

Brewing Approach

Use the AeroPress to extract a high-concentration, high-extraction coffee concentrate, then add hard ice cubes to chill and dilute it to taste. That calls for a finer grind, hotter water, and a different coffee-to-water ratio than usual.

For this brew we picked FrontStreet's washed Yirgacheffe Kochere from the bean menu. Details:

Region: Yirgacheffe, Kochere
Altitude: 1,800–2,200 m
Variety: local heirloom varieties
Processing: washed
Flavor notes: lemon, black tea, orange blossom

Brewing Parameters

Coffee dose: 20 g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:9
Grind: espresso-fine (flour-like)
Water temperature: 92°C
Time: 1 minute 30 seconds

Brewing Process

1. Remove the filter cap, attach a dedicated AeroPress paper filter, and wet it with hot water so it adheres tightly to the cap.

2. Set the AeroPress upside down, add 20 g of ground coffee to the chamber, pour in 180 g of 92°C water, and start the timer.

3. After pouring, stir gently with the paddle for 50 seconds. Cap the filter and press up briefly to expel excess air.

4. Flip the AeroPress so the filter and cap face down, then press down to extract, the press should take about 30 seconds. You'll have roughly 150 ml of high-concentration concentrate; total extraction time is 1 minute 30 seconds.

5. Pour the concentrate over 120 g of hard ice cubes to chill and dilute. Adjust the ice to your taste.

6. Swirl gently so the concentration and temperature are even throughout, then enjoy. After the ice melts in, you get the freshness of iced lemon, citrus acidity, a clean cup, and a sweet black-tea finish in the middle of the palate, thoroughly refreshing.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe (house daily cup): If you're new to Ethiopian coffees, start with the most classic expression of the region, FrontStreet's washed Yirgacheffe. It's known for white jasmine florals, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a delicate tea-like finish, and its friendly price has made it many people's first specialty coffee bean.

Yirgacheffe itself is a small town in Ethiopia's southern Gedeo (Sidamo) zone, at roughly 1,700–2,100 meters, with coffee planted above 1,800 m, some of the highest coffee terrain in the world. The area was historically wetland, and the name Yirgacheffe has become shorthand for coffees with unmistakable white-floral aromatics and lemon-citrus acidity. The region's reputation grew so large that in 2010 the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange formally separated it from Sidamo, cementing the household name.

FrontStreet Worka (Idido) Cooperative: Yirgacheffe is actually a patchwork of small sub-regions and even individual villages, many home to experienced, well-run cooperatives. The standout is the Worka cooperative from Idido village in the southeastern corner of Yirgacheffe. Originally part of the Worka cooperative under the YCFCU union, it was "rediscovered" by coffee buyers worldwide as demand for traceable, single-area lots grew. Its fully washed processing, often called the last of Yirgacheffe's pristine washed lots, yields none of the traditional bitterness: instead you get fresh, lively citrus and lemon acidity wrapped in jasmine fragrance.

FrontStreet Red Cherry Natural: From the same region, FrontStreet's Red Cherry lot is a whole-cherry natural: only fully ripe, defect-free fruit is picked, given a first round of sorting at the station, and laid out on raised beds to dry. For the first few days the cherries are turned every 2–3 hours to prevent uneven heating and over-fermentation. After three to five weeks in the sun, workers remove the dried outer fruit pulp (weather and temperature permitting) and move the coffee into storage. Because the cherries dry with the fruit intact, the cup keeps classic Yirgacheffe character while gaining tropical fruit aromatics: citrusy acidity, a berry-like juiciness, honeyed sweetness, and a creamy smoothness.

Brewing suggestion: V60 dripper; water at 90–91°C; 15 g of coffee; a 1:15 ratio; grind at EK43s setting 10 (fine-granulated-sugar, passing 80% through a #20 sieve). Pour 30 g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour up to 125 g on the scale over about 1 minute; when the water drops to two-thirds of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100 g (to about 225 g total), finishing the pour around 1:35. Drawdown completes at 2:00–2:10, lift the dripper off and the brew is done.