James Hoffmann's Ultimate AeroPress

Ingredients

Instructions

1. 1

   Boil the kettle and weigh out 11g of coffee. Grind on the finer side of medium — noticeably finer than you would for a pour over, but nowhere near espresso fine.

   Tip: This recipe is built around a short, hot steep, so the finer grind is what does the extracting. If the cup tastes thin or sour, go one step finer next time; if it tastes harsh or drying, go coarser.

2. 2

   Disassemble the AeroPress, drop a paper filter into the cap and screw it onto the brewer. Stand the brewer the normal way up on your mug or carafe. Do not preheat or rinse the brewer.

   Tip: No inversion needed. The seal created in step 4 is what stops the coffee draining through early, so the standard orientation is perfectly safe here.

3. 3

   Add the ground coffee to the brewer, then pour in all 200g of water in one go, moving the stream around so every bit of coffee is wetted. Start your timer as you begin pouring.

   Tip: Pouring straight from a kettle just off the boil is fine — the water cools as it hits the coffee and the brewer.

4. 4

   Immediately insert the plunger about 1cm into the top of the brewer to create a seal. Leave it there and let the coffee steep.

   Tip: The seal creates a slight vacuum that holds the water in place. Push it in just far enough to catch — do not press down.

5. 5

   At 2 minutes, remove the plunger and gently swirl the whole brewer to settle the coffee bed, then put the plunger back on top.

   Tip: Swirl the brewer rather than stirring with a spoon. It knocks the grounds off the sides evenly and gives a more consistent extraction without agitating the bed too aggressively.

6. 6

   Let the coffee rest for a further 30 seconds so the grounds settle to the bottom.

7. 7

   At 2 minutes 30 seconds, press down gently and slowly, taking around 30 seconds to reach the bottom. Stop as soon as you hear the hiss of air.

   Tip: Pressing slowly keeps the pressure low and the cup clean. If it feels like hard work, your grind is too fine. Pressing past the hiss pulls bitter fines through into the cup.

8. 8

   Serve straight away. If the cup tastes too intense for you, top it up with a splash of hot water to taste.

   Tip: Diluting after brewing changes the strength without changing the extraction, so it is the safest lever to pull when dialling in a new coffee.