AEROPRESS BREW GUIDE

You’ll need an Aeropress, some paper filters, a kettle to boil water in, something to stir the coffee with, a mug to sip from—and some delicious ST. ALi coffee (of course!)

Start by placing your filter inside the small, black removable base of the Aeropress, and rinsing it. This will remove any ‘papery’ flavour you may get from the filter. Use hot water for this, and rinse over your mug—this will help keep the mug warm.

Place the two ends of the Aeropress together (it’ll literally start to look like a giant coffee syringe now) and grind 15g of coffee then pour the coffee into the top of the Aeropress

Different coffees need different grind sizes, and for an Aeropress, you’re looking at something a little finer than regular table salt.

If you’ve ground coffee for espresso before., it should be slightly coarser than that. Try and aim for freshly ground coffee if possible too—it just tastes better. Nothing wrong with pre-ground coffee! But the basic rule of thumb is fresh is best. 

Boil your water in the kettle, then immediately pour around 220g of hot water into the Aeropress, onto the coffee. If you don’t have scales then just aim for just at the top of the 4 marker on the side. 

Using water just off the boil is an easy way to make sure your water is at the right temperature. There’s no messing about with temperature gauges or settings, you just need to make sure your water is boiling. 

Use good, filtered water though, and try to stay away from tap water or bottled water from the supermarket. It’s complicated, but those kinds of waters are great to drink, but not so great to brew coffee with. Use filtered water from a domestic Brita filter or the like. You'll still get good coffee from tap water! But generally filtered water is best. 

With the water now poured into the Aeropress, stir the coffee and water well, making sure every last grain of coffee has been covered with water.  Then put on the top of the Aeropress.

With the top on, a seal is formed and water will stop draining through to your cup—just like magic. Start a timer and wait for two minutes, then gently press down until you hear a hiss. You should feel some resistance as you push down, with the entire plunge happening in around 30 seconds. 

If you’re pushing down with a lot of force and nothing’s happening—you’ve probably ground the coffee too fine. Next time coarsen it up a little. If you find there’s no resistance at all, you’ve gone a little too coarse. With some practice and time, you’ll find the grind size sweet spot. 

And that’s it! Let the coffee cool a little then find a spot in the sun and sip contentedly.