How to brew on an AeroPress: the forgiving recipe

The AeroPress is a plastic cylinder and a plunger. It looks unserious and behaves seriously: it pushes coffee through a filter under pressure and gives a very clean cup.

Its best quality is that it forgives. On a V60, a pour a second late is audible in the cup. On an AeroPress, almost nothing changes.

What you need

• An AeroPress and one paper filter
• 15 g of coffee, ground slightly finer than for V60 - about table salt
• 220 g of water at 90 °C
• Scales and a timer

The recipe

Put the filter in the cap, rinse it with hot water and screw the cap on. Stand the cylinder on your cup.

Add the coffee, zero the scales and start the timer.

0:00 - pour all 220 g of water at once.

0:10 - stir five times with a spoon, then rest the plunger on top without pressing. That traps the air and stops the water draining early.

1:30 - start pressing slowly. The press should take about 30 seconds.

Stop when the plunger reaches the bottom and you hear it hiss.

Adjusting it

Sour: grind finer, or extend the steep to 2:00.

Bitter and drying: grind coarser, or start pressing at 1:15.

Why we like it

It does not break, it weighs nothing, and washing it takes one second: push the puck out and you are done.

For travel, for the office and for a rushed morning it is the most reliable thing there is. It is on the menu in our coffee shops too - ask and we will make you one.