I’ve been using James Hoffman’s recipe since I bought AeroPress, and I was pretty satisfied. While being simple, it produced rich, balanced cups of coffee for both light and medium roasts. I was happy with it. But then I started noticing that some light-roasted coffee was too bitter. It rarely happened, but when it did, it wasn’t possible to get rid of that excessive bitterness. When I tried to increase the grind size, I got watery, but still too bitter coffee. At first, I thought there was something wrong with the coffee beans, but then I thought, maybe immersion brewing was just not suitable for them. So, I decided to find another recipe.
I wanted to try a hybrid recipe containing a percolation phase, as I believed it could produce more balanced cups. So I searched on the Aeromatic app and found a recipe from The Real Sprometheus. It has a long percolation phase and quite a short immersion phase. And this recipe fixed my coffee. I got a balanced cup without excessive bitterness and with more detailed acidity. Now, this is my recipe to go, as I think it’s superior to James Hoffman’s recipe.
The Hoffman recipe is 12g of coffee, 250ml of water, 2 minutes steep time, give a small swirl to the recipient, steep another 30 seconds, then press down slowly over at least another 30 seconds. You can find the video on youtube.
There are many other factors involved such as the size of the grind, the uniformity of the grind, the temperature of the water, the steeping time, and the quantities of coffee and water – so really the recipe is just meant as a starting point. You will need to dial it in for each different batch of coffee.
Most of these factors have to do with caffeine extraction aka “yield”. More time steeping, hotter water, more water & coffee and finer grind all increase extraction but in different ways, and over-extraction usually ends up tasting bitter. The opposites decrease extraction and under-extraction ends up tasting sour. The Hoffman recipe is a balanced start.
With the Aeropress you have easy access to all these factors and can customize the brew extensively but you have to do some trial and error.