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.
I love the entertainment factor of James but he and Lance both are held up as gods by coffee people when i think a lot of what they produce, especially their “scientific” experiments, are questionable at best.
In roasting we have a similar problem with Scott Rao who most professional roasters think is a fool.
Yeah, Hoffman is great, but he’s not some infallible authority on every brewing method, though people treat him like one. In his video on specialty moka pots, he covers the Bialetti Brikka, the only moka pot that produces crema. He ignores all the very specific instructions that come with the Brikka, like use only 280 mls of water and don’t pre-heat it, then uses a random base rather than the special-sized base that comes with it, and fails to get it to produce crema. I still see coffee snobs claim that the Brikka doesn’t work because of that video.
I think Hoffman is a great starting point for people going from a cup of Dunkin every morning to something more interesting (and drinkable).
Agreed. And he’s legitimately entertaining. Lance on the other hand….is a tool of the highest order and a pseudointellectual.
What’s the recipe? Can you share?
Was thinking about picking up an aeropress for camping, and was just going to start with the James Hoffman recipe, but I’m open to trying something different.
I’ve had an Aeropress for about a decade, and for the price I think it’s a great tool to have in the cupboard. It has positives and negatives.
On the plus side, it’s portable, fast, and makes a single serving.
On the downside, it’s single serving, and it produces mediocre cups (IMO, YMMV).
I use mine to make my wife’s once-weekly decaf, and when I run myself out of cold brew and am not in the mood for an espresso drink. Maybe 5x a month. I’m really glad I have it; I’d be unhappy if it were the only thing I had.
If you do get one, look on YouTube for best Aeropress method. Aeropress runs a competition and declares a winner for best method; the current winner is a rather fussy inverted method - but given the design, “fussy” for an Aeropress really isn’t hugely different in effort from Hoff’s “simplified” method. It’s a pretty simple process and you really have to go out of your way to make it hard, unlike pour-over which can be fractally and infinitely fussified.
I like the fast brew method by Lukasz Jura.
Coffee: 19.5–20g Grind: Slightly coarser than filter grind Water: 200ml @ 75°C Brewer: Inverted Filter: Paper, soaked
Directions:
- Stir 4 times
- Stop stirring, secure the filter and turn at around 10 seconds (total contact time around 15 sec.)
- Press and serve
I only use 14g of coffee and as much water as I can fit inverted without it falling over lol.
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.
Add 15g of coffee. Then:
00:00 Pour 100g of water 00:10 Let it bloom 01:30 Add 150g of water 01:45 Stir slowly with a spoon front-back, left-right 02:00 Insert plunger and let it steep 02:30 Make a gentle swirl and push gently 03:15 FinishSource: https://youtu.be/VXPKxowfXDQ
Awesome, thanks! I guess it’s time to order an aeropress.
Picked up an aeropress and gave this a shot. Was a little more bitter than I expected.
Will try again and change a few things, but I think this is a good starting point.
Well that’s the nice part about the Aeropress, the process is so customizable that you can find a good recipe for just about any coffee.
The Hoffman recipe is not meant to be perfect, just a safe starting point. It can’t possibly fit every single coffee batch out there.
Light and medium roasts are finicky and vary by the bag.
The lighter the roast, the easier it is to brew too long, resulting in astringency.
If a brew is astringent, keep reducing brew time until the astringency goes away.
Regardless of whether Hoffman’s stuff is good or not, coffee taste is kind of a unique thing for each person so experimenting and trying things until you find what you want just makes sense.
