How to Prepare for an AeroPress Championship

I’m a regional AeroPress 2nd place holder (losing against the then current three-time regional champion), and lost in the first round against the then current national AeroPress champion in the national championship. When I’ve spoken about my experience it had some interest, so I thought it might be a good thing to write a little summary of my findings.

What is an AeroPress Championship?

An AeroPress Championship is a competition in which I had to brew a coffee with an AeroPress at the same time as two other competitors. Three judges then tasted the coffees without communicating with each other, and each chose the best-tasting one by pointing to the winning cup. The name of the contestant was written under the cup and switched places before the judges tasted them, so there should have been no way of knowing whose cup was which.

The Rules

There were three rules I had to observe:

1. I couldn’t use more than 18 grams of ground coffee.
2. I had to present a coffee of at least 150ml.
3. I had to brew and present it within 5 minutes.

I was allowed to grind and heat my water before the timer started. The beans for the competition came from the organizers or sponsors and were the same for everyone. They were made available 10 days before the competition, either for pick-up or by mail. I received one bag of 250 grams of beans then, and another bag of the same size on the day of the competition.

In those 10 days, I experimented with the beans as much as I could. I had to keep in mind that if I used 18 grams of beans each time, I could only brew 13 cups, so I had to be mindful of how I used them.

My Strategy

My first step was picking up a well-renowned bottled water for coffee in my country. I could have tried different waters and done a cupping to really nail down the best option, but that would have required a lot of effort (brewing each water independently), and I didn’t think I would get much out of it at that stage.

From there I used a recipe I was already familiar with: the James Hoffman Method.

• 11g beans
• 200ml water
• 100ºC water
• 2:00 shake, 2:30-3:00 press

That gave me a baseline for what the coffee tasted like, and from there I could experiment. The good thing was that all the variables were defined and there was somewhat of a golden zone.

Water

I looked for water that was known to be good for coffee in my country. I knew that calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity were important factors for extraction, but I didn’t know the exact proportions. I could have gone deep into it, using a Brita or BWT filter, buying water packets from specialty coffee vendors, or even creating my own with distilled water and mineral additives. But I knew those changes would only give me marginal gains in taste, much less than having a good recipe. So for me, it was enough to try a few easily available and well-regarded waters, and once my recipe was set, see which one worked best.

Temperature

Most recipes recommended brewing between 80ºC and 100ºC, so I tried three brews changing only the temperature: 90ºC, 80ºC, and 100ºC. Starting with 90ºC worked best for me because it was likely to be close to optimal and gave me a good reference point. The general wisdom is that darker roasts are better at lower temperatures and lighter roasts at higher ones. Lately, I’ve found that the claim about lighter roasts always being better at higher temperatures has been questioned, especially with experimental fermentation coffees. In any case, taste was king.

Brew Time

Most recipes started from at least one minute. Since I had a 5-minute time limit to make and serve the coffee, I decided not to brew for more than 4 minutes. I had to keep in mind that I also needed time to prepare the AeroPress, pour the water, and cool down the coffee. Technically, the longer I brewed, the sweeter the coffee became, but I could also speed up extraction with stirring. Stirring, however, was less likely to be consistent brew to brew, so I tried to be careful, especially since I had to go round after round with the same recipe, and consistency mattered.

Grind Size

I started with the grind size recommended for the AeroPress for my grinder, and then went finer until I noticed astringency (it dried out my mouth). From there I went one step coarser, which gave me the perfect grind setting. The competition offered a few different grinders, but since I didn’t know the perfect settings for my recipe on those, I chose not to risk it, even if they were more sophisticated. I’d heard that grinding twice, first very coarse and then to the final size, could reduce ultrafines and create a more even grind. The current AeroPress World Champion had certainly done so, but I didn’t believe she had won solely because of that.

Proportions of Coffee and Water

This part was tricky. The AeroPress can hold at most about 300ml, and that was pushing it. If I brewed normally, some of the water would bypass the coffee without extracting much, which reduced the strength compared to using the inverted method. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, just something to account for when trying recipes. Since I could only use 18g or less, and the AeroPress could only hold about 300ml, I had two upper limits, which coincidentally made for a golden zone ratio of 1:16. I could manipulate that by adding more water after brewing, but it was a good reference point. I saw people go as low as 1:20 and as strong as 1:10. So that would be 10 grams or 20 grams of ground beans for 200ml of water, respectively. I noticed that bland coffees sometimes benefitted from stronger ratios, while flowery or experimentally processed coffees worked better with milder concentrations. For me, it was very bean specific, so I adjusted according to taste.

Filters

According to the official rules I could use any kind of filter as long as I used the normal filter cap from the AeroPress itself. I tried official paper filters, the official metal AeroPress filter, and even two paper filters at the same time. I also saw competitors using Aesir filters, a premium type said to provide more clarity.

Other Considerations

It was important to keep in mind that the judges would taste the coffee shortly after brewing it. If it was still too hot, it wouldn’t be judged favorably. With an external thermometer I found that the optimal serving temperature for me was 65ºC. I managed to reach this quickly by switching the coffee from mug to mug, letting the heat dissipate into the cold mugs. The optimal drinking temperature has been said to be 60ºC, so I kept mine a little higher because I didn’t know how long the judges would take before tasting. The judges sipped from spoons, much like a cupping session, so the whole brew wasn’t judged — just those sips. I tried to optimize for that.

While calibrating my recipe, I reminded myself to change only one variable at a time. For comparative tastings I sometimes used more than one AeroPress to keep the brewed coffee temperatures similar.

On the day of the competition, I saw people spread out their beans to filter out defective ones, which can improve flavor. I also saw Kruve sifters being used to filter out ultrafines after grinding, since they tend to overextract and taste bitter. If I had owned one I might have tried it, but otherwise I didn’t even entertain the thought.

Final Thoughts

I wrote all this down to put a method to my process of optimizing a recipe for a specific bean as a learning experience. But the most important part of participating in an AeroPress competition, at least for me, was having fun, getting to know other people who share the same passion, making new friends, and growing as a person. At the end of the day, I could think I had the best recipe ever, but if it wasn’t according to the judges’ tastes there was nothing I could do. So I learned to relax and enjoy it. I saw people who had been years in the industry with very expensive tools, but they were just as likely to win or lose as newcomers if the judges preferred someone else’s cup. Everyone there shared the same passion for the beverage, and for me that was the best part — taking the opportunity to make friends in the industry.

I hope this text gives you a little bit of direction in your own search for the perfect AeroPress recipe!