AeroPress, Two Ways

AeroPress splits the difference between pour over clarity and French press body, and it does it in under two minutes. There are two main ways to use it — standard and inverted — and it's worth knowing both.

Standard method

Grind medium-fine, similar to table salt. Use a 1:15 ratio — 15g of coffee to about 225g of water at 85-90°C, slightly cooler than pour over since the brew time is so short.

Rinse the paper filter, assemble the AeroPress with the cap on over your cup, add grounds, and pour all your water at once. Stir for 10 seconds, insert the plunger just enough to create a seal, and let it sit for 1 minute.

Press down slowly and steadily over about 30 seconds. You should hear a slight hiss of air at the end — that's your sign you've extracted fully.

Inverted method

Flip the AeroPress upside down, resting on the plunger, so the chamber opens upward. Add grounds and water the same way, stir, and let it steep the full minute without a filter cap attached yet — the inverted position stops any water dripping through early.

Attach the rinsed filter cap, then carefully flip the whole thing right-side up onto your cup before pressing. This gives you a longer, more controlled steep than the standard method, and tends to produce a slightly heavier-bodied cup.

Both methods are genuinely good — inverted just gives you more control over steep time, while standard is faster and has less room to fumble the flip.