History Of The Aeropress
Versatile & Customisable, the Aeropress
Continuing our series of our favourite brewers' histories, following on from the moka pot, here we delve into the background of the humble Aeropress. A relatively new development in the world of coffee contraptions, the Aeropress was invented in 2004/2005 by retired Stamford engineering lecturer, Alan Alder. Alder’s vision for the Aeropress was to create a brewer that reduced acidity and bitterness in the coffee he himself enjoyed every morning - sounds like a good plan. Acidity and especially bitterness are two characteristics that a lot of coffee drinkers would enjoy the least. Acidity is very subjective but we can all agree that bitterness doesn’t make for a pleasing cup of coffee.
New to the Aeropress? Try our brewing guide
For those of you unfamiliar with the Aeropress, it comprises of two cylinders, a puck-like chamber which houses the coffee, an a circular filter. The Aeropress can be placed on top of your favourite coffee mug and the coffee grounds and water are poured into the first cylinder. The second cylinder, sort of like a plunger, fits inside the first, creating an air tight vacuum around the coffee and water. After a few minutes of brewing, you simply press down on the plunger and the coffee is extracted through the circular filter at the bottom, straight into your coffee cup. Need more help? Check out our Aeropress brewing guide.
The extraction method is more similar to espresso coffee machines than it is traditional pour-over methods, the only difference is the pressure is created by the physical act of pushing the coffee through the filter, rather than using electricity to create pressure in its espresso machine counterpart. Because of this, Aeropress coffees are typically characterised as full bodied and are less reminiscent of coffee produced by pour over methods.
Great tasting coffee with reduced brew time seemed to be one of Alder’s main objectives with the Aeropress. In the fast paced world we live in, although the ritualistic method of brewing of v60 is mindful and cathartic, it doesn’t gel well with people’s need to quickly get out of bed and out the door in the morning. Alder achieved this using that air-tight cylindrical brew chamber. That, combined with the downward pressure created when plunging the Aeropress enabled much shorter brew times whilst producing coffee with robust flavour and plenty of body to give everyone that morning pick me up we all need.
The World Aeropress Championships
It wasn’t plain sailing for the Aeropress when it first came onto the scene. It’s all-plastic construction made the Aeropress quite unassuming and many were sceptical thinking that the Aeropress was more like a toy or a gimmick than a serious piece of coffee apparatus. Alder’s unrelenting persistence came good in the end with many quickly changing their tune after trying the coffee for themselves. Sometimes you just need to let the coffee do the talking and you can’t argue with the results. Over time, the Aeropress has deeply cemented itself in speciality coffee culture, far beyond Alder could have ever hoped for. Not only has it become a household name for coffee lovers with many adopting it as their main brewer of choice for home use, but it has also been catapulted onto the global stage with its own dedicated competition - the World AeroPress Championship (W.A.C.). In 2018, over 3000 people from more than 60+ countries competed in the competition, thus solidifying its credibility as a serious brewer.
Giving the Aeropress a try
This status and level of intrigue from serious coffee lovers has lead to a true evolution in how the brewer is used. Creativity is everything in the world of speciality coffee and who would have thought these two plastic cylinders could be such a powerful piece of kit. Whether you brew conventionally, if you brew using the ‘Inverted’ method, or too, like to mess around with different grind sizes and brew times, it’s truly a customisable brewer.
If you’ve not tried an Aeropress then we definitely encourage you to give it a go. It’s easy to use, easy to clean, quick to brew and makes an amazing cup of coffee. For the coffee itself, whilst both dark and light roast coffees are suitable, we'd always recommend light roast coffees for highlighting those lovely bright, fruity notes - coffee is a fruit, afterall. It might look slightly alien to those new to speciality coffee but fear not, it’s so much simpler than you think! Ideal for home use, for camping, for coffee on the go! It’s no nonsense, minimal fuss design makes it a winner in our books.
GUSTATORY (adjective): curating excellence in taste.