Please Stop Trying to Make AeroPress Coffee Complicated

I’m a tinkerer. In my tiny kitchen, I fuss with different spices, stove versus oven, bean cooking liquids, and so on. But there’s one kitchen ritual I prefer to keep simple — making coffee, specifically with my AeroPress.

For those not familiar, an AeroPress is a coffee maker whose appeal is in its straightforwardness. It consists of a tube, a plunger, and a filter cap. The instructions in the box are also simple, which I can’t help but feel is a product of good design. The “How to Use” section of the AeroPress website lists “3 Simple Steps” which consist of 1) adding coffee and water, 2) stirring, and 3) plunging. There’s even a cute, under-a-minute animated video about it.

The process of plunging creates a vacuum that pushes the coffee through the filter to brew an espresso-like shot that you can drink as-is or, as I do, add water to create an Americano. It creates an exceptional cup of coffee, and takes up precious little real estate if you live in a tiny studio apartment like I do.

A guide to complicating life’s simple pleasures

My love of the AeroPress did briefly awaken my tinkering tendencies, and at first, I wondered if I could find a way to brew a cup using less hand strength or coordination than the device requires.

But after looking broadly for online information about brewing with the AeroPress, I found a wealth of surprising hacks that frankly seemed needlessly complicated and unnecessary.

The main AeroPress hack is called the inverted method. Starting with the AeroPress upside down (!), you give the device, which is filled with very hot water and coffee grounds, a quick 180-degree flip before plunging. This sounds…risky because it is. One roaster somewhat understatedly says to make this maneuver “with haste and control,” like you’re Han Solo landing the Millennium Falcon under duress in Cloud City.

Another roaster is a little more to the point when it comes to this method, simply urging home brewers to do it “carefully!” An online retailer advises a training-wheels approach where you practice the flip with tap water until you get the hang of it.

Competitive impulses

The inverted method has also been competition-hardened, employed by winners of the World AeroPress Championship (yes, it’s a real thing).

But all this inversion bravado flies in the face of the help section of the AeroPress website, which says, “we strongly discourage using this method.”

I got in touch with AeroPress CEO Gerard Meyer to ask him about the dissonance between the bold, italic answer on the help page and the way in which coffee professionals, competitors, and enthusiasts have embraced this technique.

“For coffee professionals, especially those competing in the World AeroPress Championships, achieving 100% control over every variable, down to the last drip, is paramount,” says Meyer. “Hence, many competitors have turned to the inverted method to eliminate any drip-through entirely. While this method carries a risk of burning, seasoned professionals, akin to professional chefs, possess the skill to execute it safely.”

At this point, you may be wondering why the potentially scalding inverted method is so popular. When brewing coffee the normal way, you pour water onto the coffee sitting on a filter over the perforated cap, and some water drips through. (I add a splash of extra water to the AeroPress right before plunging; I don’t know if it makes a difference, but at this point my routine is on autopilot.)

This dripping becomes more of an issue if you fill the tube completely with water and grounds to make a full cup of coffee, rather than Americano-izing concentrated brew. The latter is a much quicker process. Team Inverted prefers a long steep time, with the plunger at the bottom to dam up the grounds and water.

But to drip or flip? Regarding drip, AeroPress inventor Alan Alder had this to say on the “Ask Alan” section of the company website: “The tiny amount of brew that drips before you press has no perceivable effect on flavor or richness.” (Though he did have a caveat about using a grind size between espresso and drip.)

Meyer says that if you are concerned about drip but don’t want to go the inverted route, AeroPress offers a Flow Control Filter Cap. He echoes Alder’s intent, saying, “Drip-through that occurs during the non-inverted brew process is a normal part of the brewing process, as envisioned by the inventor, and consistently delivers an amazingly flavorful cup of coffee.” (No argument here.)

Further ways to complicate your morning coffee

Other steps deviating from AeroPress’s simple provided instructions, most in concert with the inverted method, all have a certain…fastidiousness. Many require a stopwatch to do x at time interval a, y at time interval b, and plunge in z manner for c seconds. A few examples:

• “Use three filters, rinsed with warm water.”
• “Holding the brewer and the piston, gently swirl the brewer.”
• “At 60 seconds, remove the plunger and stir 3 times with a spoon from front to back.”
• “After about a minute, add 215 grams of water for a total of 250 grams. Immediately stir back and forth for 10 seconds just vigorously enough to not overflow the brew chamber.”

And, my favorite:

• “First, completely disregard the AeroPress recipe on the box.”

As an aside, after reviewing videos and blog posts, it seems some men, and they do tend typically to be men, simply refuse to allow the AeroPress to just be. (As a tinkering dude, I recognize this impulse, but at least I’m self-aware?)

The brewing process spirals into a complex “ultimate method” to assert and demonstrate “mastery.” The subtext becomes, “You use the instructions on the box? Let me show you how it’s really done. But I warn you, it isn’t easy.”

Alder himself told Sprudge in 2014 that he still uses the recipe on the box.

“The whole motivation for making the AeroPress is a short wet time,” he says. The device was created to work quickly and work well. In the AeroPress I’ve found something astonishingly simple that also happens to give complete satisfaction. And I’m stopping there.