With a lot of help from kind folk here, I was able to become quite proficient with my espresso machine and can pull shots I'm very pleased with. Couldn't have done it without some great help from users here.

I've decided to revisit brewed coffee. My first love (gateway drug?) of course was brewed coffee. I have a nice coffee machine but dusted off the Aeropress. I was getting decent results with some older basically grocery store coffee I had purchased from Costco I believe. I had visitors from out of town and needed to make a fair amount of coffee consistently so once I finished that large bag, I bought some coffee from my local reputable roaster (they're even listed on the roasters we love thread here). It's a Colombian coffee with "tropical fruit, cantaloupe, and chocolate" tasting notes.

I ground my coffee, brewed a cup, and was profoundly disappointed. This was my first experience with third wave brewed coffee. (Obviously to get good results with espresso you need to brew freshly roasted coffee.) I was expecting what I've read here and elsewhere of almost heavenly tastes accented by fruity aftertastes. Basically I got a cup that I found quite vacuous of flavor. Very little body. Here is my technique. It's basically a combination of a few of the winning world champ methods from Aeropress Championships.

1. 16.5 g of coffee, ground just finer than drip on a Breville Smart Grinder (coarsest "espresso" setting)
2. 40 g bloom for 25s. I'm experimenting with temperatures, everything from 175F to just off boiling (both of these have won at the World Aeropress championships)
3. Add water up to 250 g
4. Total brew time, including the bloom and adding water, from 60 seconds to 2 minutes, I'm experimenting.

There are so many variables you can control with Aeropress, and I just don't know how to adjust them to get the flavor I want.

The first thing I did was get a Bonavita variable temp kettle. This has allowed me to try different temperatures. I also played with the brew time a bit. I've actually found with 175F or 200F and a total brew time (plunging at 1 min) I've gotten the best tasting cup. Which I found odd since I thought the first cup I made had such little flavor. I actually got more with a shorter brew time. I haven't played with the grind much since it seems the majority of people (except many of the world champs) grind pretty fine.

I would appreciate any and all suggestions and criticisms. I've thought about upgrading my grinder and getting a good hand grinder like a Hausgrind or Lido 2. But others seem to think the Breville does a fine job. The final aspect I considered is that maybe I just don't like this particular coffee.

First off you should try different coffees with the same technique, try your espresso beans as well. I personally don't think the grind is as important as other variables, like temp and quantity of coffee.

Whenever I try a new coffee (non-espresso) and it doesn't seem right, I make a cupping cup, e.g., Tim Wendelboe on Roasting/Pourover/Espresso/Cupping [videos + index].

If you want to stick with Aeropress, then the thing with the Aeropress is that it is so flexible that one can get lost. If I had a Colombian that had "tropical fruit," then I would start with Tim Wendelboe's Aeropress technique (also demonstrated and explained in the link above). It is a simple-to-follow technique so one can become very consistent using it, and the method works well with lighter roasts.

Good luck!

Stir & agitate more. Eliminate bloom, pour in your total volume of water and stir briskly, brew, press. No other variable will have more of an affect with the AP imo.

baldheadracing wrote:Whenever I try a new coffee (non-espresso) and it doesn't seem right, I make a cupping cup, e.g., Tim Wendelboe on Roasting/Pourover/Espresso/Cupping [videos + index].

If you want to stick with Aeropress, then the thing with the Aeropress is that it is so flexible that one can get lost. If I had a Colombian that had "tropical fruit," then I would start with Tim Wendelboe's Aeropress technique (also demonstrated and explained in the link above). It is a simple-to-follow technique so one can become very consistent using it, and the method works well with lighter roasts.

Good luck!

That was fantastic. Thank you. Had no idea stirring made such a difference. I made one cup with his method (the one with a larger cup later in the video, haven't made the cupping cup yet) and really like it. It is a tad bit bitter, so maybe I stirred too much. I also learned quite a bit about coffee from listening to him. I'll listen to the whole thing. That man knows coffee. Impressive. The detailed annotations you left are incredible. Thank you.

NBA wrote:Stir & agitate more. Eliminate bloom, pour in your total volume of water and stir briskly, brew, press. No other variable will have more of an affect with the AP imo.

Apologies, which variable has more of an effect? How many times do you stir? It seems from my very recent experience and from Tim Wendelboe's videos that how much you stir can make a huge difference, upwards of 4% difference in extraction. That seems like a lot.

Really appreciate all the replies.

givemeespressofirst wrote:

Apologies, which variable has more of an effect? How many times do you stir? It seems from my very recent experience and from Tim Wendelboe's videos that how much you stir can make a huge difference, upwards of 4% difference in extraction. That seems like a lot.

Here is what has been the most consistent for me with a variety of coffees:


[*]Inverted
[*]Fine metal filter, one that mimics a portafilter basket.
[*]16 g Ground fine enough to have to apply more than the weight of your arms to push the water through but not so fine that coffee grinds get through and into your cup
[*]Heat water to 89 C
[*]One continual poor into the inverted AP ~ 180-200 ml/g
[*]Stir vigorously to make sure all grounds are wet -~10 times or so but again, no bloom, just vigorous stir
[*]Brew as long as takes me to put milk in a jug put on stove and start a timer, ~ <45 sec.
[*]Swish the AP clockwise to get the water and coffee grinds spinning in order to keep grinds from sticking to the plunger
[*]Flip and press into cup over about 20 sec.

With this method/recipe, if I go down to the 79-85 C range, I get sourness/acidity. If I go 91+, I start to get bitterness the higher I go. 88-89 C has been the sweet spot for flavor and balance.

Thanks for the reply. That is a pretty high ratio, about 11-12:1. I've been more in the 15-16:1 range. However I dropped the temp on my Bonavita to 89 and really liked it. Definitely lost some of the bitterness. Thanks for the tip.

Glad you had a good result. I periodically retest Temps from 79 C to 94 C while keeping all else the same and seem to enjoy the 88-89C the best so far.

I imagine if I increased the temp but shortened the total brew time I could get a similar results but the margin for error would be smaller.

As to ratio, I do add 2 oz frothed milk so if we account to that the ratio will be different.

NBA wrote:As to ratio, I do add 2 oz frothed milk so if we account to that the ratio will be different.

That explains it. I tried your ratio and found it too bitter. 2 oz would bring the ratio up to where I brew. But 88-89C seems to be the sweet spot, agreed.

Interesting that no one suggested a better grinder. I take it the Breville Smart Grinder (not Pro) is decent to get good results? (This is the one I have.) It's not the rate limiting step for me?

There are two separate issues:
- is the Smart Grinder limiting;
- is your Smart Grinder limiting.

The issues are separate as the Smart Grinder is a consumer-level product so there may be quite a bit of variation within the model. I don't know the condition of your Smart Grinder, so let's look at the first issue only.

My only experience the Smart Grinder's (non-Pro) performance is the same burrs/mechanism as installed in my friend's Breville 870. On the basis of that experience, I would predict (i.e., guess) that for Aeropress, you won't experience a nice improvement until you go to:
- a Baratza Vario retrofitted with steel burrs, a.k.a. Ditting burrs, or the Baratza Forté BG (which uses the same steel burrs); or
- a Bunnzilla conversion, i.e., a Bunn bulk grinder retrofitted with Ditting 804 burrs (which should be better than Vario); or
- an EK43 or better.

No doubt a Lido would offer some improvement over a Smart Grinder, but I would suspect that it wouldn't be very big for Aeropress, so I wouldn't spend the money.

What you can do is get rid of the boulders in the ground coffee - it doesn't have to be fancy, a flour sieve will do - and then spread the grounds on paper towel (like Bounty), and then lift the towel - the paper towel will capture fines. (You can also get sieves, like the we're-all-waiting-for-it Rafino ...)