Aerobie's blind-tasting
tests showed that the tasters repeatedly preferred the micro-filtered AeroPress coffee to screen filtered French press coffee.
This is not surprising because of the fact that the fine coffee bean particles which pass through metal filters are
quite bitter.
In Coffee
- A Guide to Buying Brewing and Enjoying, renowned coffee expert Kenneth
Davids wrote about making drip coffee with metal filters;
“…you may not
like coffee made with these filters as much as you like coffee brewed with paper
filters. The mesh allows a good deal of sediment and colloids to enter the
coffee, which gives it a heavy, often gritty taste, closer in style to French-press
coffee.”
2. Coffee
made in my AeroPress is awfully smooth. I like a little “edge” in
my coffee. What should I do?
You can easily increase the
“edge” by using hotter water. Our instructions suggest trying this
when making a latte. But you can try it with all of your coffee beverages. People
also ask about increased steeping time, but we’ve found that this has
less effect than hotter water. One of the advantages of the AeroPress coffee maker is that
you have complete control of the brewing and are free to experiment
to your heart’s content.
3. I have
a whirling blade grinder. Do I need a more expensive grinder capable
of a finer grind to fully enjoy coffee from the Aerobie AeroPress coffee maker?
We’ve found that whirling blade coffee grinders work fine, but you may need to run them longer than their instructions suggest. When the
grind is fine enough, it will tend to stick in the grinder and
you'll have to help it out with a spoon.
Two scoops
of a nice grind require about 20 seconds press time in the AeroPress coffee maker.
Coarser grinds will run through faster and make a slightly weaker cup –
which you may prefer, or you may wish to compensate by adding an extra scoop
of coffee.
5. To make
American coffee instead of espresso using an AeroPress coffee maker, you just dilute it with hot water. Why not run a whole cup of water through
the press?
We tried just that. Once
again, in blind-tasting tests everyone said that the coffee tasted smoother
when made by our recommended method.
6. The instructions
for the AeroPress coffee maker recommend using 175° F water. That doesn’t seem
hot enough. Why don’t you recommend a temperature closer to boiling?
In developing the AeroPress coffee maker
we spent more time on taste-testing various brewing temperatures than on any
other tests. Our tasters ranged from casual coffee drinkers, to coffee aficionados,
to professional coffee consultants. Every single taster preferred
brew made at 165F to 175F. They said the hotter brews were ok, but the 165F
to 175F brews tasted best.
Books often recommend a brewing
temperature of 195F to 200F. This is true for conventional brewing methods that
pass hot water through a bed of coffee. In this method, the water rapidly cools,
so the lower part of the bed is operating at a lower temperature. However in
the AeroPress all of the coffee particles contact the same water temperature
during the stirring phase.
One other note of interest
pertains to espresso pressing temperature. Of course the espresso process also
passes water through a bed of coffee, but perhaps the 195F to 200F is above
optimum. Two noted coffee writers, Richard Reynolds and Jeffrey Steingarten
have said that the best espresso in Italy is served in Naples, and they use
190F water there.
7. The AeroPress
instructions recommend not cleaning the AeroPress coffee maker in a dishwasher. What will
happen if I ignore those instructions?
Nothing will happen, but the Aerobie AeroPress coffee maker is so easy to clean that it would really be simpler just to wash it out by hand.
8. Why did
you include a stirrer with the AeroPress? Almost any spoon will work.
The handle on the AeroPress
paddle prevents the tip from tearing the paper coffee filter. It also won’t scratch
the AeroPress chamber.
9. Where
can I buy more filters?
Each AeroPress comes with
350 filters so you have enough filters to last many months. Replacement packs
of 350 Aerobie coffee filters are also available from TealCo.net.
