What has Stanford University engineering lecturer in common with coffee?

Well, he designed wonderful flying disc, which broke many distance records and he started producing them under the name Aerobie. It’s a great thing to have loads of fun with outdoors. What this have in common with coffee? Well Alan Adler made another ground breaking invention 20 years later. And it is a plastic coffee maker which can also be easily used outdoors. And coffee lovers around the world get absolutely mad about it. Here’s why.

Aeropress is a plastic plunging tube with a cap where you can place filter. It’s simplicity combined with countless possibilities of brewing is the key of its success. You can brew the coffee for a minute and then press it slowly through the filter. You can brew it for 4 minutes and press it fast. You can have almost infinite control over it. It is made of plastic so it won’t smash in your backpack when going for a hike. It doesn’t take much space either. You can clean it pretty well without using water. It really makes pretty darn good cuppa joe.

It has three parts only. Tube with plunger and a cap with holes in it. You put paper filter into the cap, screw it to the tube, add coffee, pour some water and press it through the filter with plunger. That’s it really. Simple, right? Let’s go deeper then. Usually in filter coffee methods time of extraction of coffee depends on grind size of coffee. Not here. You can Keep grounds in a brew for as long as you like really, then press it when you want to. Therefore, you can have long extraction of coarse coffee or very quick fine coffee. You can press it slowly or really fast too. Thanks to these two factors you can also play a lot with ratio of coffee to water too. These are most important aspects of making coffee. Ratio, contact time and temperature. Aeropress gives all possibilities of brewing. You can try to mimic espresso brew or get delicate sweet brew too.

Pimp up your coffee

I love to pack my Aeropress with me whenever I go hiking or meeting friends in a park. Water in thermo flask, ground coffee (or I take my hand grinder if I am in a mood for some biceps workout). Cup or serving jug and I am ready to rock. Jealous people walking by, dreaming of their own freshly brewed coffee in a park is a bonus.

Diversity of this device, it’s portability and brew quality made this one of the most popular brew methods of all the time. There are also World Aeropress Championships every year. I had a pleasure to won Irish edition of this contest in 2015 and I went to Seattle representing country on international stage! Rules are also super simple and everyone can start! In a group of three people, you got 8 minutes to prepare your best brew. Then panel of judges in a blind tasting picks their favourite coffee. In finals are same rules but there is one on one match! Oh, everyone have to use same beans. Just a little catch. That also gives a good idea of how amazing this thing is. You can get totally different outcome if using different recipe!

How to do it?

What was my winning recipe?

It’s a secret!

Well, alright, here you go!

• Measure 18g of coarse ground coffee – it should be roughly three tablespoons. I would recommend MEastelo medium roast for this. You can order it ground coarse in our shop!
• Heat the water – I used water at precisely 88 degrees. It would be about 5 minutes after boiling with a lid of kettle open.
• Place paper filter in a filter cap and pour some water over it to prewet it. White paper filter might have that paper bleach aftertaste. They also might be bit dusty. It’s a good practice to prewet it.
• Set your Aeropress in inverted position. Place plunger in a tube but just at the beginning of it, so you have open chamber where we could put coffee. Place it on a table on the plunger. Classic position would be if you would place cap with filter on the tube and put it on the vessel, then just add plunger at the end of the process.
• Get the coffee in the Aeropress and reset your timer! 
• Pour some water over the coffee. Don’t feel it to the top yet. Just enough to cover all the grounds. Start your timer. 
• Let it “bloom” for about 30 seconds. “Blooming” is a process of degassing coffee, it will reduce sour notes in your brew.
• Fill it up to the top, stir it three times and put the cap with a filter on. 
• When timer show 1 minute turn Aeropress around and place it on a vessel, it can be a mug or a jug. Press slowly. Ideally just with a weight of your arms. You want to press all liquid through when timer show 2 minutes point. Don’t press it to the very end. When you will hear hiss of air it’s enough. You really don’t want to squeeze all water from the grounds, it would make it very bitter.
• Enjoy your Best Meastelo Coffee, brewed like a champ!

This is the 2015 Irish Aeropress Championships winning recipe but go for it and change it!

Get more coffee in it. Get hotter coffee. Don’t “bloom” it. Or “bloom” it for a minute! Or even go crazy and stir it five times!

Only one tip, try not exceeding 4 minutes of a brew, this really makes coffee harsh.

We have Aeropress for sale in our shop too. It comes with a carrying sack, stirring paddle and 350 filters! Yeah, 350. It should last for a month or two, right?

You can find our coffee in couple of places in Dublin, including Golt Food stores on Tallaght or Finglas. Just ask for Meastelo!

Stay safe!