The story begins with me having an amazing cup of coffee.
It was one of those moments, like your first time. For me it was a single origin Kenya AA Flame Tree roasted by Mountain Air Rosters, Grand Junction CO. I still remember tasting the peaches and apricots.
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Brew Lab in Dublin and having a cup of a 'Colombia Oscar Hernandez double fermented thermo-shocked coffee' roasted by Blind Monkey. The coffee was prepared using a Paragon, which is a pour over method that involves placing a frozen metal ball under the dripper to cool the coffee as soon as it is extracted. The cooling prevents the ethers from evaporating, leaving more of the flavors in the cup. The resulting coffee smelled and tasted like ripe bananas and of course they were already sold out of all bags except for the small batch they kept for serving their customers. This didn’t stop me from buying a different bag of Blind Monkey Ethiopia to try and reproduce the effects of Paragon method as it was recommended to me by the staff. The suggestion was to make a standard pour over, but use cooler water for the bloom, around 70 degrees Celsius.
I was very excited. Even though I don’t regularly use a pour over, I know the basics and usually use the Five-Pour method.
I got back to my kitchen and proceeded to make a cup, and then another, and another. How could it be so different from the amazing coffee I just had at the café? What was I doing wrong? I quickly convinced myself I needed a new grinder and began my journey of searching for one. After a few days of reading forums and watching YouTube, settling on Lance Hendrick’s recommendations of 1Zpresso ZP6 or Timemore 078, I stumbled upon his video of comparing different coffee drippers. I use a stainless Kalita Wave, in which I’ve enlarged the holes and usually throw a toothpick under the filter to create room between the bottom and the holes to increase the flow rate. I was surprised for Lance to point out that the only place water can flow on flat bottom drippers is where the holes are, and it is useful to lift the filter off the bottom to improve the flow. Amazing, I’ve come to the same conclusions on my own, I deserve a cuppa.
This got me thinking, should I be drilling more holes in the Kalita? How is that different from the AeroPress or a non-pressurized espresso basket I have for the Joepresso? The next thing I knew I was standing over my AeroPress. Attached was a Joepresso with a 4 cup non-pressurized basket, a paper filter on the bottom, 20g of coffee ground, the same as I would for a pour over, and the dispersion screen on top. I decided on using the basket with the dispersion screen as the screen acts like a Melodrip tool. It would be hard to pour into the AeroPress without disturbing the grinds. I poured in 300g of water and waited… and waited some more. The coffee wouldn’t drip. Did I grind it too finely? Are the holes in the basket too small? Oh well, I inserted the plunger and started to press slowly. I was aiming for a 3 min total extraction time. The result was the best tasting cup I’ve made in months.
I tried again with different beans, and again the result was great! I didn’t need to worry about the grind size so much or how I poured or agitated the grinds. I didn’t have to worry about the pour stalling because the filter could get clogged. All I needed to do was decide how long I wanted my extraction to take and press to match the time. I didn’t have to think much about the bloom either. I could go finer if I wanted more sweetness or coarser and still have total control over the flow rate. This was a real game changer.
The very next day my wife sent me an article of Filter 3.0 by Scott Rao. She said, look this looks a lot like what you’re doing. Sure enough, I’ve discovered something much brighter minds have already worked out. For those not familiar, Scott Rao wrote many books on coffee, espresso and is considered one of the leading minds on the subject. He has created Filter 3.0, which is a larger than normal non-pressurized backet to be attached to espresso machines to make on demand filtered or pour-over style coffee in café settings. The advantage of this method is consistency and efficiency. Most cafes don’t have the resources and training, or numerous staff to produce consistent cups of pour-over coffee. Likewise, I too don’t have the skills and patience to experiment with every bag of coffee I get. If I can control the flow rate directly, I am way ahead of the game. So, the AeroPress lets me control the flow rate, duh. How is this different from using the AeroPress as God… I mean James Hoffman, instructed us to?
My test:
I made Hoffman’s recipe vs the PushOver method, and the difference was clear, the latter had more juice and berries while the former was flatter and had a small amount of as my wife described “carboard flavor”. Sure, I could play with the grind size and water temperature and timing of Hoffman’s recipe, but I have doubts it would come close to the PushOver.
The technical explanation:
AeroPress uses an immersion brewing method. As soon as you pour the water into the chamber, most of the grinds float up and stay on top until you swirl. After the swirl they slowly settle to the bottom. There is a good bit of agitation happening and most grinds are extracted at the same rate.
In the PushOver method, the grinds are confined to the basket with the screen sitting on top. Like in a pour over, the grinds stay on the bottom during the brewing process. The water flows through the dispersion screen and onto the grinds without much agitation.
The main difference between the AeroPress and a French Press is the paper filter. I don’t see too many people obsessing over the French Press method and having competitions or tastings using the French Press. Cafes don’t offer a French Press as connoisseur option; they offer a pour over. Therefore, it would make sense that a method closer resembling a pour over would taste better than one resembling a French Press.
The PushOver Recipe:
equipment
AeroPress
4 cup non-pressurized basket
(note: 2 cup basket can be used but adjust the recipe for 14g of coffee)
ingredients
20g of coffee, ground similarly or slightly finer than for a pour over, you don’t have to worry about stalling and fines
300ml of water, temp to match roast and grind size
Paper filter (optional)
method
Place the paper filter on the bottom of the basket and rinse
Add coffee grinds
Insert into JOEPRESSO and add the dispersion screen on top
Attach to the AeroPress and place on a tall container, you’ll need the extra room for the basket
Add 300ml of water, you can adjust the coffee to water ratio if desired for lighter roasts use less beans.
Insert the plunger and start the timer
Press evenly and slowly to finish at your desired total brew time, 2:30 to 3:30 for most cases, faster for darker, older, decaf roasts and longer for light to extra light.
Swirl your cup and enjoy.
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