The AeroPress: A Coffee Brewing Device That Celebrates Creative Freedom!

Life needs freshness, and so does coffee. Daily pour-over coffee with its routine water pouring and circular movements can inevitably lead to some "brewing fatigue." At such times, why not try something more versatile—the Aeropress.

Its concept was originally designed as a device focused on how to make coffee quickly and conveniently. Unexpectedly, after a competition born out of curiosity, it transformed from a coffee tool into a "coffee toy." People's pursuit shifted from "how should I brew with it?" to "what can I brew with it!" And its inventor is also a gentleman with a playful spirit. So, before understanding how to use the Aeropress, let's first learn about its origin!

The Birth of Aeropress

Aeropress was introduced in 2005, invented by a gentleman approaching 70 years old—Alan Adler.

His life before retirement was filled with legendary achievements: he not only worked as an electronics engineer but also served as a lecturer at Stanford University, and was the founder of the Aerobie toy brand. His inventions and patents are countless. And it was this legendary figure who, dissatisfied with contemporary coffee brewing methods after retirement, invented the Aeropress out of frustration!

Like many office workers, he developed a coffee habit after starting work, a habit that continued into his retirement life. Even at home, he would experiment with making his own coffee. He tried numerous coffee extraction devices at home, such as capsule coffee machines, automatic drip machines, or even the Chemex pot, and so on... But these devices were either complicated to operate or time-consuming, which greatly dissatisfied Alan Adler. So, with his strong hands-on ability, he came up with the idea of creating a coffee device: "I want to create a device that can extract coffee quickly and conveniently!" And so, from 1993 to 2005, he spent a full 12 years, going through more than forty experimental versions, until the device he envisioned finally came into being—the Aeropress! It can be divided into three parts: the plunger, the chamber, and the filter cap. People describe its assembled appearance as "syringe-shaped."

The coffee extraction principle of the Aeropress includes both immersion and pressure methods. Its usage mainly falls into two categories: standard and inverted! The standard method is the official standard usage: place the chamber with the assembled filter cap on the prepared container, add coffee grounds and an equal amount of hot water, stir, then insert the plunger for pressing extraction. The inverted method involves assembling the plunger first without the filter cap, then adding coffee grounds and an equal amount of hot water together, stirring, then attaching the filter cap, securing it to the container, flipping it over, and finally pressing for extraction!

Since the Aeropress is not limited by too many restrictions, parameters such as water temperature, time, amount of coffee grounds, grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, and stirring frequency & method can all be freely adjusted. Each parameter change affects the final taste of the coffee. We can try to imagine: each change in these parameters can lead to new extraction methods, so if we change them one by one, how many different extraction methods could be derived? It is precisely because of this characteristic that the Aeropress quickly gained favor from Tim Wendelboe (a leader in Nordic light roast) after its launch. He was very curious to see who could push the Aeropress to its limits! So in 2008, he and several Aeropress enthusiasts gathered in a small local room and held the first Aeropress competition. At that time, there were only three contestants, and the judge was Tim Wendelboe. Unexpectedly, several years later, what started as a small "competition" with just three people evolved into a world-class event!

This is not only due to the broad inclusivity of the Aeropress but also to the playful spirit of Aeropress enthusiasts. Now, FrontStreet Coffee will share a versatile brewing method for the Aeropress~

Brewing Experiment

This experiment used "Kenya Assalia" beans, with hand-brewed coffee flavors featuring bright acidity of black plum and cherry tomatoes, and a sweet sensation of snow pear! Amount of coffee used: 18g. Grind setting: 90% pass-through rate on a #20 sieve (finer than regular pour-over grind). Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:11 (approximately 200ml). Water temperature used: 90°C. Extraction method: Inverted.

We can pre-place two circular filter papers on the filter cap and wet them with water to ensure proper adhesion. (If you don't have circular filter papers, you can cut them from regular filter paper.)

1. Assemble the plunger and chamber, then push the plunger to about the 4 mark and invert it!

2. Pour in the ground coffee, then add an equal amount of hot water and start timing!

3. Use the stir stick to stir the coffee grounds in the chamber for ten seconds. (Slow circular motion)

4. Attach the filter cap with the properly adhered filter paper to the chamber.

5. Then secure it to the prepared container.

6. When the time reaches one minute, flip it over and begin pressing downward to "press out" the coffee.

The extraction is now complete, taking approximately 1 minute and 20 seconds. The stability of the inverted method is higher compared to the standard method, which can greatly reduce the difficulty for beginners! The Kenya brewed this way tastes sweet and sour, with a very full-bodied juice sensation, truly excellent~

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FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)

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