My English AeroPress Championship Recipe: How I Made It to the Finals
- Mathew Frost
- 22 hours ago
- 5 min read
This year, I competed in the English AeroPress Championship and made it all the way to the finals in London.
Although the AeroPress Championship is one of the more laid-back coffee competitions on the circuit, with no presentations to make alongside your drink preparation, it’s still one to be taken seriously.
It’s a chance to put yourself out there, test your coffee brewing skills and show what you can do with one of the simplest and most versatile coffee brewers around.
And, importantly, have a bit of fun while you’re doing it.
What is the English AeroPress Championship?
The rules are pretty simple.
Every competitor is given the same mystery coffee, with no indication of its origin or processing method. You then have to use an AeroPress coffee maker to produce 150ml of brewed coffee for the judges.
That’s it.
Mystery coffee, an AeroPress, water and a bit of hope (and luck).
Because you know virtually nothing about the coffee beforehand, the competition is a real test of your palate. You need to quickly work out how the coffee responds to different grind sizes, water temperatures and brew times, then dial in an AeroPress recipe that gets the best from it.
For the heats, I wanted to produce a genuinely great cup of coffee that showed that I do, in fact, know what I’m doing.
But I also wanted to honour the humble AeroPress itself.
Who invented the AeroPress?
The AeroPress was invented by Alan Adler and released in 2005.
Interestingly, Adler wasn't originally known for coffee equipment. He invented the Aerobie, a flying disc designed to rival the Frisbee.
The idea for the AeroPress came after a conversation with the wife of one of his colleagues about how difficult it was to make a single cup of coffee using a drip machine without it becoming watery.
Adler set out to solve the problem.
The result was the AeroPress.
How does an AeroPress work?
The AeroPress is beautifully simple. It essentially consists of a brewing chamber, plunger and filter cap.
Place a paper filter into the cap, attach it to the brewing chamber and position the AeroPress over a mug or carafe. Ground coffee and hot water are added before the plunger forces the brewed coffee through the filter.
The resulting coffee sits somewhere between espresso, filter coffee and French press.
It's simple to use, easy to clean and extremely portable, which has helped make it a favourite with both professional baristas and home coffee brewers.
But its simplicity is also what makes it interesting.
Since its release, baristas and coffee enthusiasts around the world have tinkered with grind sizes, temperatures, brew ratios, steep times and even brewing the AeroPress upside down. There are now hundreds, if not thousands, of different AeroPress brewing recipes out there.
It has become one of the most accessible and versatile coffee brewers on the market.
Creating my AeroPress Championship recipe
Going into the competition, I knew I wanted to keep my recipe simple, quick and replicable. If I had to make it multiple times across different rounds, I didn't want loads of complicated steps to remember. The fewer moving parts, the fewer things that could go wrong.
You only get five minutes to brew in the competition, too.
If something went completely wrong, I wanted to theoretically be able to
start again and still get a coffee in front of the judges within the five-minute limit.
There is a frankly ridiculous number of AeroPress recipes available online, so rather than overcomplicate things, I went back to its original purpose.
That led me to Alan Adler's original AeroPress recipe.
After all, who knows how to brew with an AeroPress better than the man who invented it?
A quick Google search led me to an interview with Alan on European Coffee Trip. I took his method, tweaked a few things here and there, and eventually landed on the recipe I used for the North East heat of the English AeroPress Championship.
The result is a full-bodied cup with bold flavours that highlight acidity and sweetness, a pleasant mouthfeel, and a slightly dry finish.
And you can easily recreate it at home.
Mat's English AeroPress Championship Recipe
What you'll need
18g coffee
110ml water at 80°C for brewing
Additional 92°C water for dilution
AeroPress
AeroPress paper filter
Grinder
Scales
Timer
Mug or carafe You can check out this recipe as a video tutorial on Instagram, using our new Doyo Organic Washed Coffee
Step 1: Grind 18g of coffee
Grind 18g of coffee slightly finer than you normally would for pour-over coffee.
I used setting 9 on an EK43, whereas I'd usually use around setting 12 for filter.
Adler recommends an almost espresso-like grind. I found this produced a slightly more concentrated, harsher cup than I wanted, so I went a little coarser.
Step 2: Prepare your AeroPress
Add a paper filter to the filter cap and lock it into the body of the AeroPress.
You can rinse the paper filter first if you like. This can help remove the slight papery taste sometimes associated with paper filters.
However, I found that not rinsing the AeroPress filter gave the finished coffee a really nice body without making it too heavy.
Place your AeroPress on top of a carafe or your favourite mug.
Step 3: Add 110ml of water at 80°C
Add hot — but not boiling — water until you reach roughly halfway between the 1.5- and 2-cup markings on the AeroPress.
If you want to be precise, use 110ml of water at 80°C.
Start your timer as you add the water.
80°C is relatively cool for coffee brewing, but after tasting several competitors' coffees, I found that the lower brewing temperature helped bring out their sweetness and brightness without leaving an unpleasant dry finish.
Step 4: Stir for 15 seconds
Stir the coffee and water for 15 seconds.
Place the plunger into the top of the AeroPress and pull it back slightly to create a vacuum.
Then leave the coffee to brew.
Step 5: Brew for one minute
Allow the coffee to brew until your timer reaches one minute.
Then begin pressing.
Don't apply too much pressure. Press slowly and consistently until you hear the AeroPress hiss.
That means there's very little water left to push through.
Step 6: Dilute to 150ml
Your AeroPress should produce approximately 86g of brewed coffee.
Top this up with 92°C water until you reach 150ml.
If you're making the recipe at home rather than competing, you don't necessarily need to get the scales involved here. Add hot water gradually and taste as you go until you reach the strength you enjoy.
Step 7: Sip and enjoy
That's it.
18g coffee. 110ml brewing water. One-minute brew. Slow press. Dilute to 150ml.
A relatively simple AeroPress recipe but one that got me through the North East heats and ultimately helped take me to the English AeroPress Championship finals in London.
Sometimes, keeping things simple really does work.
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