Aerobie

Hi everyone, I came across an Aeropress in our kitchen and decided to mess around with it. With weather pretty much having gone from winter and straight into summer, it's gotten rather hot lately. After seeing a post on Reddit about cold brewing with the Aeropress, I decided that I would give it a try myself. Being relatively impatient, I really hoped that it would work, so I'd have a lazier way to make iced coffee. Sadly, I don't know much about the Aeropress, so I snagged Andrew, our CS manager to help me.

For starters, here's what we used to conduct our test (I apologize in advance for our Cinco de Mayo tablecloth).

• 6oz of cold water and 2 level tablespoons of coffee, espresso grind, 1 minute steep time, inverted brew - Relatively weak cup, somewhat tart.
• 8oz of cold water and 4 level tablespoons of coffee, espresso grind, 1 minute steep time, inverted brew - Somewhat stronger cup yet more bitter cup, not quite to our tastes though.
• 6oz of cold water and 3 heaping tablespoons of coffee, espresso grind, 2 ½ minute steep time, regular brew - Looked like coffee, tasted like coffee, didn't melt any ice!

Cup 1

Cup 2

Cup 3

So, was our experiment a success? I'd say yes it was. It took us a bit of tinkering, but in the end we managed to produce a drinkable cup of coffee using cold water and an Aeropress. Would I do it again? Maybe--the Aeropress is extremely easy to use and easy to clean up. I suppose that what I liked best was how potent and smooth the coffee was after adjusting the variables to our liking. It was too cold to melt much of the ice, so the flavor wasn't diluted. It's definitely something to try if you want some cold coffee and have an Aeropress laying around.

Conveniently, we had some surplus Ghirardelli Caramel sauce, a Jura Froth Pro and a near-expiration gallon of milk that we were able to combine to create a smooth cold foamed sweetened milk drink. We present to you the iced cappuccino pictured below.

Here are some "fun" pictures for your enjoyment!

Since my co-workers are so much more adept at testing espresso machines, I took the opportunity to try brewing a cup of Americano coffee using the AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker. I have been intrigued with press-brewing coffee for several years now after first watching my friend Tracy using a French press in the office to make his coffee every day. Until today I have only made coffee drip-brewed in percolators, or drip-coffee filter brewers, or single-serve K-cup machines. A friend sent me some pre-ground coffee for Christmas so I thought this would be the perfect time to try press-made coffee. The Aerobie AeroPress was available for testing so I figured it’s time to give it a work out.

It comes packaged with a body cylinder chamber having level markings on the side, a plunger with an articulated rubber plunger seal, a filter cap that screws onto the bottom of the chamber, a filter holder and 350 micro-filters, a measuring scoop, funnel, and a stirrer. Since this one had been opened by the sales department for previous testing, the instructions were missing. I quickly read the brewing instruction on the internet and set out to make my first cup. I loaded a filter into the filter cap and screwed it onto the chamber and set the assembly on my sturdy metal woodworkers coffee mug. I put 2 full scoops of pre-ground coffee in the chamber and poured in hot water.

While Aerobie recommends water at 176°, I just boiled water and waited, hmmm... about 3 seconds for it to cool, then poured water into the chamber and started stirring using the stirrer that comes with the AeroPress. The Stirrer is well-designed, shaped, and sized so that you can’t drop it into the chamber and you also can’t scrape the filter in the bottom of the cap. I stirred for about 10 seconds, then wet the rim of the plunger-seal and put the plunger into the top of the chamber and started to gently press it into the chamber.

As the pressure started to build I heard it relieve through the filter and liquid started to drop into the mug below. I continued to press gently until the plunger bottomed out. I removed the assembly from the cup and added some more hot water to the mug to make my cup of Americano coffee. Voila! Darn good fresh brewed coffee with no grounds or "dregs-dust" in the cup, the filter works great! And I could make just one cup without brewing a full or partial drip-pot. Now I can have a fresh-brewed cup of coffee and my tea-drinking wife can have a mug of tea from the same pot of hot water.

I didn’t pay enough attention to the instructions on how to eject the spent grounds and used-filter from the unit and made a mess, luckily over the sink, when I just backed the plunger out of the cylinder. I should have unscrewed the filter holder over the waste can and then pushed the plunger on through to eject all of the grounds. Oh well, I’ll do better on the next cup. Now I can’t wait to try some fresh ground coffee like coffee purists do to see if the quality of the coffee can get better.  Oh did I mention that the coffee I used was a Christmas gift, from 2 years ago?  Even so it still made very good coffee!