Coffee

Coffee Brew Methods  →

Did you recently come into possession of an AeroPress, a siphon pot, a Clever dripper, a V60, or the like? Well, then you’d probably enjoy spending some time here next time you’re relaxing and drinking your coffee.

For the AeroPress especially because there are so many ways to brew a great cup of coffee with it. Unlike a French Press which has pretty much one best way to brew (coarse grind, 4-minute brew time, stir half way), the AeroPress can make a great cup of coffee with so many different variants.

Curiously, the Brew Methods site doesn’t list the the 2012 world championship recipe. I came across this method last spring and have been brewing that way almost every day since.

Coffee Brew Methods

The Espro Press

Since I’m caffeinated, I’ll get right to it: The Espro Press makes an amazing cup of french press coffee.

These things are finally starting to show up for sale, so it’s time to review the one I got from Kickstarter back in April.

The original Espro Press is an 8-ounce single-serving press pot. I’d never even heard of it before I saw their project on Kickstarter, where their aim was to build a 32-ounce version. Since I am genetically predisposed to back any coffee-related project on Kickstarter, I pitched in my $85 and “pre-ordered” one of the large Espro Presses.

Their project was funded (more than five times over), and in early April of this year I received my 32-ounce (1,000 ml) press.

AeroPress, Espro Press, and classic Bodum french press

Seven days a week I brew a cup of coffee. Most days it’s with my AeroPress, but once or twice a week I like to make french press. People often ask me what makes a better cup of coffee — AeroPress or french press? Well, they both make fantastic coffee with their advantages and disadvantages. I enjoy both for different reasons; they’re both favorites, really.

So what is it about the Espro Press that makes it so much nicer than my Bodum french press? Two things:

1. Double-walled Steel Vessel

The pot is durable and rugged. And it’s heavy. Since it’s stainless steel, the best way to keep it clean is to hand wash it. But I’ve been putting it in the dishwasher since I got it and there are no rust spots.

The double-walled steel construction helps keep the coffee hotter for longer. Normally after brewing a pot of french press I would pour it into a vacuum thermos. Now I just bring the press downstairs to my office with me. Though the Espro Press doesn’t keep the coffee piping for 3-4 hours like my vacuum thermos does, it does keep it hot enough for over an hour (about how long it takes me to finish a pot) and it means one less vessel to clean.

Time (min.) Temp (F)
41 168°
10 166°
15 162°
30 156°
45 149°
60 144°

Since the press rod and lid are metal, they conduct a good amount of heat. Which means some heat is lost through the rod and lid, as well as the fact that the lid gets very hot to the touch. But it also means they are built to last — a tradeoff I’m willing to accept.

Double-walled stainless steel french presses are not a new thing. For example: the $100 Frieling french press has a high-quality double-walled stainless steel carafe, not unlike the Espro Press. But the Frieling has the same basic steel mesh filter that you’ll find in a common Bodum french press.

What makes the Espro Press the Espro Press is the filter.

2. Double-Layered Micro Filter Basket With Rubber Seal

Breakdown of the Espro Press filter (image courtesy of Espro Press website)

It’s a double-layered micro filter basket with a rubber lip seal. It’s unlike any other press pot filter I’ve seen, and it makes a great cup of coffee.

The filter basket is designed to keep as much of the grit out of the brewed coffee as possible. Here’s a comparison of the grit left at the bottom of a cup of coffee by an AeroPress, an Espro Press, and a classic french press:

Grit comparison between an AeroPress, Espro Press, and French Press

Obviously the AeroPress wins the “keep as much grit out as possible” competition because I used a paper filter.2 The Espro Press, however, has far less grit than the classic french press. And since the Espro uses a micro filter, you don’t lose any oils to a paper filter. (Though I don’t know that I’d even be able to tell the difference.)

I drank all three of the now empty cups of coffee you see above. Comparing the Espro Press to the French Press side by side like that I realized just how superior the Espro Press is. The classic french press coffee was noticeably more acidic and bitter (not horribly so) than the Espro Press coffee.

I’ve always loved the rich and bold coffee that a french press makes, and the Espro seems to make the best version of it.

Cleanup

The Espro Press, despite having a much more complex filter than your average french press, is still just as easy to clean.

Removing the filter basket from the pot, I simply rinse off the grounds from the sides of the basket, rinse out the pot itself, and then put the whole thing into the dishwasher.

The basket can be easily separated so as to clean out the middle zone of the double walls. Until today, I had yet to do this. Here’s a is a shot of the grit that accumulated inside the middle filter wall after 30 or so uses of the Espro Press (and, for the record, I intentionally didn’t clean the inside wall of the basket, because I wanted to see how dirty it would get over an extended period of time):

Grit caught inside the middle of the Espro Press filter

There’s no reason to let even that much grit accumulate. Taking apart the filter basket is quite simple (it easily twists apart), allowing you to easily separate the outer and inner baskets every time you put it in the dishwasher.

Deconstructed Espro Press filter basket

The Best Recipe

The Espro Press carafe can hold 1,500 ml of water. But that leaves no room for any coffee grounds or the filter basket. You can brew up to 1,000 ml of coffee, but I’ve found that the best recipe is when you brew 750 ml.3

The reason I shy away from brewing the full 1,000 ml capacity is that large filter basket gets in the way when you are brewing that much liquid. About 230 ml of liquid are displaced into the basket and thus don’t fully brew with the rest of the water.

Therefore, when brewing 1,000 ml of coffee I do 70 grams of grinds instead of the recommended 60. This causes the water below the basket to brew stronger, and then be diluted a bit once the basket is pressed down and the previously displaced water rejoins the brewed coffee.

The recipe I prefer is the one that Espro recommends for a 3/4 pot:

  • 45 grams of coarsely ground coffee
  • 750 ml of hot water
  • Pour most, stir, pour the rest, wait 4 minutes, press

Now, if you’re looking for an iPhone coffee app, I can recommend one of those as well.

  1. For comparison: I brewed a Bodum glass french press alongside the Espro Press. At the 4 minute mark, just after pressing the grounds, the Bodum coffee temperature was 158° — a temperature it took the Espro nearly 30 minutes to reach. ↵
  2. This is one reason I love the inverted AeroPress method with a coarse grind. It’s not unlike brewing a pot of french press, but thanks to the paper filter you keep all of the grit out of the brewed cup. ↵
  3. For reference: the classic Bodum french press has a maximum brewing capacity of 750 ml. ↵
The Espro Press

Exclusive, Hands-On Review of This Americano

I’m on location at The Roasterie coffee shop in Leawood, Kansas, where I was just handed a hot americano with steamed breve.

Americano at the Roasterie

My initial impression is that it’s delicious.

Americanos at The Roasterie are available hot or iced, and in four different sizes: 8, 12, 16, and 20 ounces. I chose the 12-ounce which, including the extra cost for the breve, cost around $3.

The drink comes in a white paper cup with an additional paper sleeve around the cup. The sleeve not only helps to keep the drink warm, but it also protects your hands from the heat of the cup. There is also a black plastic lid which secures to the top of the cup. The lid serves a dual purpose: it not only helps keep drink hotter for longer, it also acts as a low-level form of spill protection should you accidentally knock your coffee cup over.

After consuming nearly all the contents in this cup, I’ve found that drinking coffee is not only enjoyable and relaxing, it also stimulates the little grey cells when any sort of thinking and creative work is being done.

Highly recommended.

Exclusive, Hands-On Review of This Americano

Coffee or Tea Ice Cubes  →

Not in a million years did I ever imagine that I’d link to a Martha Stewart article. But with Spring here and Summer on the horizon, this is a clever idea for use in iced coffee or tea:

If the ice is made from coffee, it won’t dilute your drink as it melts. Freeze hot coffee (or tea, if you prefer) in an ice-cube tray, then use the cubes to cool your brew.

I’m not a big fan of just plain iced coffee, even toddy. I like iced lattes or iced tea. And I have a killer sweet tea recipe that I make using mint we have taking over the flower bed on the south side of our house.

Coffee or Tea Ice Cubes

iPhone Coffee Apps

Search the iTunes app store for “coffee” and you get over 700 search results. On my iPhone I have 7 coffee apps installed: 4 of them have similar functionality, 3 of them are unique from the others, and only 1 gets used on a regular basis.

Affogato

Affogato is designed by Visioa, an iOS development studio based in England. The app is, more or less, an encyclopedia of coffee terms, types, and brews with the relevant descriptions and overviews. There are not many specific details directly related to how to brew a specific type of coffee. Rather, Affogato is primarily an informational app. Though some of the explanations of different drinks include an overview of what that drink’s generic recipe is.

Decaf Sucks

Decaf Sucks is a social network-type of app, where users can (a) post suggestions and reviews of local coffee shops; and (b) find local coffee shops based on other peoples’ reviews.

The idea is great. In reality, however, I have not found any real-life benefit from the app. In part because I am already aware of all the local coffee shops that Decaf Sucks recommends to me here in Kansas City. Also, when I have gone out of town the app has not had enough reviews for where I’m at to be able to recommend a local coffee shop to me. I’ve found that a question to my Twitter followers will yield more suggestions about where to go.

CaféTimer

CaféTimer is nothing more than a 4-minute timer with a picture of a French Press. I love the simplicity of it: launch it and the timer starts. But I would love to see a few options to add different timers. I, for one, do not brew a pot of French Press coffee every day. Usually I brew my AeroPress, and sometimes I brew my siphon pot. Neither of these brew for 4 minutes.

And so, if I just want a quick coffee timer, my stove’s timer is usually the quickest. Though I do also use Siri.

The Other Four Coffee Apps

There next 4 coffee apps are very similar to one another, and their primary function is providing brew recipes, timers, and detailed information on how to brew various types of coffee.

When I think of a coffee app, these are the types of apps I think of.

These are coffee apps that tell me the proper ratio of coffee grounds to water for the various types of brewing methods. Ratios are important because with them you can brew 8 ounces of coffee just as successfully as 32 ounces. And if you’re brewing with a new type of method, detailed recipe-based apps like this give you a good starting point.

Intelligentsia

This app is done in conjunction with the well-known Intelligentsia coffee roasters and brewers. The app features a list of types of coffee beans, detailed instructions for brewing various types of coffee, and a timer.

The list of coffee beans is basically a catalog of their coffee offerings. With information on the bean, the roast, its origin, and more. I’ve never used this part of the app.

The timer is just that. It has pre-determined times based on the type of brew method you are using. You can select your brew method and then start your timer. The brewing methods section is great if you are learning a new way to brew some coffee. The provide detailed and illustrated instructions for Cafe Solo, Pourover, Chemex, Cupping, Siphon, and french press.

If you’re just learning about these various brewing methods and need beginner-level instructions for how to prepare the coffee and the tools, then the Intelligentsia app is a great resource. However, after that initial instruction the app becomes less helpful in providing information for branching out how you brew your coffee.

Coffee Timer

The app “Coffee Timer!” is a reference app for setting the appropriate ratios of coffee grinds to water and for timing your brew. It comes default with settings for french press, siphon, chemex, popover, AeroPress, and the clever
dripper.

Though I like the clever drawings on the front of the app’s home screen I find the actual coffee-brewing page of the app difficult to adjust, especially on the fly as a task that you may be adjusting a little bit every day. But I do like that you can save your own recipes for various types of brewing methods, such as your single-serving french press and your family-sized french press or your extra-strong AeroPress and your regular-strength AeroPress.

Bloom

Similar to the app “Coffee”, Bloom also offers a list of coffee-to-water ratios and timers for various brew methods. It has the same six methods as “Coffee” does, but with Beehouse instead of AeroPress.

You can add your own recipes to the list, duplicate current ones unto creating your own, and even share those recipies via email, Twitter, or MMS. I created a recipe for AeroPess and Bloom was smart enough to assign an AeroPress-looking icon next to my new recipe. I made up a randomly-named recipe called “Shawn’s Fave” and Bloom gave it a more generic coffee bean icon. I made a recipe for “Drip” and Bloom gave it the same generic bean icon.

I like the simplicity of Bloom’s interface for a specific coffee brewing recipe in that it displays the coffee and water weights, the bloom and brew times, and has a timer ready to go all on the same screen.

However, what I do not like is that all information for custom recipes has to be entered in manually. There is no way to assign a ratio. Rather, you must manually adjust the coffee-to-water recipe. And therefore: (a) you need a different app to figure out the proper ratio: and (b) you can’t adjust your coffee recipe on the fly.

Brew Control

My favorite of the whole lot of coffee apps is Brew Control. As someone who is already familiar with all my coffee tools, I have found Brew Control to be the most easy to use for my daily coffee brewing.

It is extremely simple to set the proper measurements for a brew method. It supports both weight (in grams) and volume (in ounces) for the coffee and the water. My mind thinks in ounces of water, but my scale thinks in weight.

I use Brew Control by first deciding how much coffee I want to brew and setting the water dial in ounces. Then I translate that to grams, and I have my coffee and water ratios. Adjusting the ratio is easy as well.

I don’t know about you, but I brew my coffee a little bit different every day it seems like. And so I highly value the ability to tweak my recipe on the fly.

Brew Control has pre-defined recipes/ratios and timers for AeroPress, Auto drip, Chemex, espresso maker, pour over, french press, and siphon. You cannot add new brew methods to the list, but you can customize each current one as you see fit.

My only nit with Brew Control is the UI design. It could use a bit of polish, but only around the edges because the way the app’s design and functionality are built in is actually quite clever. Or, in other words, I love the dials.

Of all the coffee apps I have, Brew Control is the only one I use regularly. And for coffee nerds with iPhones, this is the only one I’d recommend spending a few bucks on.

iPhone Coffee Apps

Brew Methods  →

Exactly what it says on the tin. Brew Methods is a collection of links to coffee brewing methods. Including Aeropress, french press, pour over, siphon, stove top, etc. If you’re feeling adventurous and want to deviate from the daily grind of how you normally brew your coffee, you’re sure to find a few new methods here.

Brew Methods

AeroPress

As I write this sentence there is a hot cup of coffee sitting next to me, brewed using an AeroPress.

I own a drip coffee maker, a Turkish coffee maker, two french presses, a stove-top espresso maker, a siphon, and now an AeroPress. The stove-top makers never get used; the drip maker is only for when lots of company comes over; the siphon gets used about once a week at most; and the french press gets used every single day. Until today.

Savvy readers of the site will know that pretty much every day of the week I brew half a pot of french press coffee. The siphon also makes great coffee and is a lot of fun to use. But it takes lot of work and is very impractical for daily coffee making.

This is where the AeroPress comes in. It makes a cup of coffee on par with the french press and the siphon and is the easiest of them all to clean up.

You can’t ask if the AeroPress makes a better or worse cup of coffee than a french press or siphon — AeroPress brews coffee differently and brings out different flavors and tones. It is not better or worse, it is different, and yes, it is good. If you like french press and/or siphon then I bet you will also like AeroPress.

There are many ways to brew a cup of coffee with AeroPress. The common way is to brew it more similarly to how an espresso machine would: by pushing a little amount of water through a lot of fine grounds in a short amount of time. Once you’ve brewed and pressed your AeroPress your cup only has about 3 – 4 ounces of coffee in it. Very strong coffee. Then you can add hot water or hot milk.

There are some huge advantages to this type of brewing that you will never get with a french press:

  • You brew the AeroPress with 175-degree water. Using a bit cooler of water means you are far less likely to burn your grounds and so more likely to end up with a cup of coffee that is not very bitter or acidic.

  • You brew a lot of grounds with very little water and you do it quickly. This means you don’t over extract the coffee and your chances of ending up with that smokey-burnt flavor is also far less.

  • After brewing you can then add piping hot water to your 4 ounces of AeroPressed coffee and bring the temperature back up to piping. I, for one, like my coffee to be as hot as possible.

All of the above advantages to the AeroPress can be overcome by someone who is good at making french press. There is no reason you can’t brew a great cup of french press (I do it every day), but the margin for error is smaller with the AeroPress. However, there is one advantage that the AeroPress has which the french press or siphon will never have: clean up.

The AeroPress basically cleans itself as you use it. Once you’re done pressing your coffee, you simply untwist the plastic filter cap, pop the coffee puck into the trash, rinse off the bottom of the rubber plunger, and you’re done. Clean up takes about 10 seconds. By far, my biggest annoyance of making french press coffee every day is the cleanup.

If you’re persnickety about your coffee and brew some every day then the AeroPress may be your cup of tea.

AeroPress

Coffee Joulies  →

Kickstarter project to keep your coffee hotter for longer:

Coffee Joulies work with your coffee to achieve two goals. First, they absorb extra thermal energy in your coffee when it’s served too hot, cooling it down to a drinkable temperature three times faster than normal. Next, they release that stored energy back into your coffee keeping it in the right temperature range twice as long.

(Thanks Mariana!)

Coffee Joulies