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As a coffee lover, I've spent decades and thousands of dollars on expensive equipment in the search for the perfect cup. And at the end of it all, I found that
by jasoneckert 4y ago
As a coffee lover, I've spent decades and thousands of dollars on expensive equipment in the search for the perfect cup.
And at the end of it all, I found that all I needed was a $40 AeroPress, $50 Chestnut C2 hand grinder, and some good quality beans.
- floodfx 4y agoSame. Aero press for last decade or so. Ethiopian light roast ftw.
- lacrosse_tannin 4y agothat's what i use. it's OK. if you know how to make it like that one cup i had that one time that was the best coffee i ever had, let me know. for a while i knew what bean it was but that's lost to the sands of time/node_modules. El Salvador? it was definitely very light roast.
- anon84873628 4y agohttps://youtu.be/j6VlT_jUVPc https://youtu.be/j6VlT_jUVPc
- thomasahle 4y agoHow long before those beans have set you back thousands of dollars as well?
- Foobar8568 4y agoIt takes as low as 100gr of coffee (could be less depending of the batch) to set you back a few thousands USD.
- silisili 4y agoSame here, except all metal French press instead of aero. I started noticing differences in beans when hand grinding. Some are tough, and feel like trying to grind rocks. Some churn like butter. I'm not smart enough to know why, but that led to me buying the 'butter' varieties. Best I've found yet is Red Bird coffee. Easy to grind and tastes awesome. Hardest to grind was Happy Mug, closely followed by SW. Guatemalan is our favorite, so same country of origin for all 3. (All 3 taste great, only referring to ease of grind).
- sgtnoodle 4y agoI just noticed that today myself. I opened up a 2lb bag of beans I bought from a former coworker's new roasting company, and the beans really took some muscle. Brewed up nicely in my pour-over.
- Foobar8568 4y agoRoasting level, the lighter the roast, the harder.
- silisili 4y agoThanks, that actually explains why the easier grinding ones look a bit darker and 'oilier', I guess. They are supposedly all medium roasts...I guess that definition varies slightly.
- Foobar8568 4y agohttps://lenscoffee.com/roast-levels/ https://lenscoffee.com/roast-levels/ for some comparisons, I didn't really realize it until I roasted beans myself. If they are oily then it's more like a dark roast.
- anon84873628 4y agoAs a sibling comment pointed out, lighter roasted beans are more tough than darker roasted. But the variety and growing altitude also affect density. A high grown East African seed could be much more dense (and thus harder to grind) than a low altitude Guatemalan.
- reillyse 4y agoYes and light roasted coffee is often higher quality- because bad quality roasted light tastes like ass
- sdwr 4y agoTalking out of my butt, but I think it's related to oil content in the beans.
- bhrgunatha 4y agoLet's get down to brass tacks. What recipe do you use? [1] Aeropress is also my favourite method. It's easy to experiment with the main variables than most other devices - water temperature, grind size, immersion time, coffee/water ratio. I find better than the French press - and I think the main factor is that you add some pressure to the process. Aeropress is also easier to clean. [1] https://aeroprecipe.com/ https://aeroprecipe.com/
- petepete 4y agoAgain, hugely overcomplicating. Scoop of coffee, grind, add, pour in some water from a boiled kettle, stir, wait for a minute or three, invert, press.
- recuter 4y agoIn the spirit of no over complications: don't bother inverting. Here is a weird coffee person succinctly explaining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6VlT_jUVPc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6VlT_jUVPc
- leobg 4y agoYou’re missing the heatgun. For roasting.
- Foobar8568 4y agoOr a modded popcorn machine...
- zikduruqe 4y agoOr a 20 year old one from the thrift store.
- creamyhorror 4y agoLike you, a Timemore C2 and a V60 here (plus a Clever Dripper for immersion occasionally). I didn't enjoy light roasts initially - too acidic! - but over the years, my taste buds have shifted to prefer fruitier, more complex coffees. I still enjoy balanced, non-bitter dark roasts as are common in Japan. I also enjoy digging into the science of coffee brewing, though - finding out how exactly changing method, temperature, grind size, and brew time change the relative ratios of compounds extracted. There's still a lot of disagreement about the effect of temperature, for example (most experts say temp should be kept higher, while a minority of hobbyists go for lower temperature sometimes). It's a nerdy hobby.
- Emma_Goldman 4y agoThis is exactly my set up! Although I adopted it as a PhD student precisely to avoid those expensive options in the first place. I've just never found any cause to change since. Aeropress allows you to combine immersion and high pressure with a £25 device that largely self-cleans, and is small enough to travel with. It makes a smooth, rich-tasting coffee. With electric grinders you pay for the burr, which is what really matters, and then an electric motor. But if you buy a fairly decent hand grinder like the C2 chestnut, you get a far better burr for the same price, and because of that hand grinding is really easy-going and quick. I enjoy doing it every morning. There are some coffee enthusiasts that create over-complicated aeropress recipes, but the truth is that it was designed for simplicity. What I've found matters is: 1. Small-to-medium grind size 2. Stand upside down to immerse for longer 3. Use 80-85c water 4. Stir 5. Press gently Obviously the quality and freshness of the coffee beans matters too, and you can vary the immersion time for the strength of the coffee you want.
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago>Stand upside down to immerse for longer Don't bother with this. The seal created by the plunger is good enough to stop the flow of coffee. Insert the plunger at an angle so that you push out as much air as possible before straightening it out.
- Emma_Goldman 4y agoI don't see how it's any bother. You have to put the grains and water in with it upside down anyway, so whether you put it onto the mug during or after immersion involves equal effort. In my experience there's some leakage if you just leave it standing for minutes upright.
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago>You have to put the grains and water in with it upside down anyway Wait, what? The standard method is to put coffee into the Areopress right way up. Having tried upside down and right side up immersion, I can’t say it makes much difference either way. In which case, I’d rather not have a top heavy vessel of hot water on the counter. It also has the advantage of being able to inspect how the filter is seated before you proceed. I’ve had instances where the filter is not seated properly and excessive agitation manages to unseat the filter. If you reuse filters (and I taste no reason not to), I observe that the filters bunch up a little bit more with reuse. Anyway, I don’t mean to say that you can’t invert things. But taste-wise, inverted brewing may have no clear advantages if you just want a nice coffee.
- swarnie 4y agoThis comment just cost me £90, you better be right. =)
- WelcomeShorty 4y agoSame here! And a SMEG water kettle(0) with temperature settings. I use 90C for almost all coffee. 0: https://www.smeg.com/kettles/variable-temp.-kettles https://www.smeg.com/kettles/variable-temp.-kettles
- r00fus 4y agoThis brand is so asking for a red dwarf product placement.
- sails 4y agoMaking aeropress for 4 is an unsolved problem. Takes forever, and from my reading the French press alternatives don’t quite cut it
- rkachowski 4y agoI have an aeropress and a hand grinder, yet I can't make that awesome coffee. I don't feel like I'm over complicating it so I must be missing screwing up fundamental. This leaves bean choice, brewing time and grind size. Are there some really basic fool proof values to start with here?
- yaur 4y agoWe have a french press and a burr grinder. Brewing at 190F has finally made me able to appreciate the difference between various beans. DW prefers to brew at 200f which blows all of that subtlety out and leaves brew that is mild and suitable for mixing with milk and sugar.
- jibbit 4y agoI’ve also tried, and failed with aeropress. I found that grind size is very tricky to convey with words or photos. e.g. https://elegantcoffee.com/coffee-grind-size-brewing-methods/ https://elegantcoffee.com/coffee-grind-size-brewing-methods/ It’s almost like a wind-up. I also don’t know if my grinder is any good. I only know it was expensive. Even more fundamentally, it would help if I could drink some aeropress coffee made by someone who knew what they were doing.
- helsinkiandrew 4y agoI was also quite disappointed with my aeropress. I think it’s OK coffee just it didn’t match the hype/expectation. I find the James Hoffmann french press technique - basically stir, break the crust, and let time and gravity do the work produces a far nicer cup of coffee: https://youtu.be/st571DYYTR8 https://youtu.be/st571DYYTR8
- nvarsj 4y agoVery much the same. Aeropress user for 10 years now. I bought a metal filter years ago and it’s still going strong - probably the best upgrade possible. Not sure if they exist still - bought it on kickstarter. This year I finally “upgraded” and bought a Niche grinder and reverse osmosis water system with instant boiling water (Osmosis Zero). Mostly for convenience rather than taste. But still using the Aeropress. My Aeropress recipe is taken from some champion winning recipe and I’ve used it for years: - Inverted Aeropress - Fill with boiling water to heat it up - Grind one scoop of beans (18g) - Pour hot water from Aeropress into mug to warm mug - Put grind into Aeropress - Pour a small amount of boiling water in and stir to wet grind - Start 2 min timer at same time as pouring in - At 1:40 fill up Aeropress rest of way, put on filter and cap - Let sit to 0:50 and pour out mug while waiting - Invert Aeropress and put on mug - Slowly press out coffee over the last 50s - Done! The only thing you need to adjust is the grind. If too astringent, use a coarser grind. If too weak, use a finer grind. Then enjoy :).
- strich 4y agoWhy steep the grind in a small amount of water for 2mins vs simply filling the press up straight away?
- nvarsj 4y ago20s gives time to pour hot water and stir. It makes sense when you do it. Start the timer before pouring the first water. Idea is to wet all the grinds - if you fill it right away there may be some dry grinds on the bottom (especially with a finer grind).
- basch 4y agoI’m sure there’s a million more specific changes to the chemistry of coffee by blooming, but the basics are: Regular coffee you bloom so channels don’t form for all the water to run down. With the Aeropress, the coffee foams and could foam over if you fill it, so blooming first let’s you stir the bubbles out and then top it off.
- 4y ago
- madduci 4y agoFor me was the same. I am very happy of my DeLonghi machine where I can put beans or pulverised and i can make espresso or long coffee as I desire. The real trick is to find the optimal beans, Lavazza and Segafredo work best for me
- ndsipa_pomu 4y agoI can heartily recommend the Knock grinders: https://madebyknock.com/ https://madebyknock.com/ Their Aergrind is designed to fit in the middle of an AeroPress and is extremely well made, so perfect for travelling with.