Coffee the Everyday Biohack We Can Perfect

Mikey's Aeropress Setup

I harbor a secret desire to be Aeropress World Champion. I would love to compete at making delicious coffee with the world’s best. Why the obsessions with coffee? We drink it and it changes the way we feel. It is the biohack that most of us participate in multiple times each day. Let’s hack it a little more together to make it as delicious as possible.

I reviewed the aeropress champions recipes from 2009-2015. The three major components of coffee are broken down into these graphs:

  1. coffee in grams
  2. water volume milliliters
  3. water temperature

Coffee Weight Aeropress Champion

Aeropress Champion Water Volume and Temperature

By averaging six years of champion Aeropress coffee, water and temp numbers we can make a pretty amazing cup of joe. Here is what the final numbers came out to:

  1. Coffee 18.4 g
  2. Water 245 mL
  3. Temperature 175.2 deg F

I would also suggest the following tricks based on an averaging of Aeropress champions techniques.

  • use a burr grinder for the coffee
  • use the aeropress in inverted mode
  • let the coffee bloom – pour 40 mL of water, wait 40 seconds, slowly pour the remaining 205 mL
  • push slowly – take a full minute to press your shot
  • stop short – don’t push the plunger all the way to the bottom (that will be very bitter), stop as soon as you hear a wheezing sound.

What do you think makes an ideal cup of coffee?


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2 Comments

  1. Daniel Splawski

    I love Aeropress coffee and one day I also aspire to be an Aeropress World Champion. I also plan on winning a rock skipping title or two (http://www.franklinpa.gov/festivals_events/rock_in_river_festival) but that’s an entirely different topic.

    I’ve tried a variety of different brewing variables and I find that they all produce delicious coffee when compared to the local coffee shop or a household drip machine. In terms of competition success, it’s my belief that developing a taste for world class class coffee is certainly the biggest hurdle. If only coffee taste was as easy to quantify as stone skips.

  2. I think one other variable is the consistency of the grind of the coffee. Burr grinders are best as you mention, but there are campaigns to use precision sieves to get even more consistency of the grinds:
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rafino/the-rafino-coffee-grind-refining-system
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rafino/the-rafino-coffee-grind-refining-system

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