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AeroPress Recipe Guide: Standard and Inverted

Two reliable AeroPress recipes with grind, ratio and timing, plus how to adapt them to darker Indian roasts and to travelling.

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Brew guide · 5 min read

The most forgiving brewer ever made.

Immersion plus pressure plus a paper filter. Almost impossible to make undrinkable coffee with, endlessly adjustable, and it fits in a bag. If you own one brewer, own this one.

The short answer

16g of coffee, 230g of water at 90°C, medium-fine grind, steeped 90 seconds, pressed over 30. That is the standard method and it works with almost any coffee.

Standard — upright

16g : 230g · 2:00 · 90°C
Prep
Rinse the paper, assemble on the mugFilter in the cap, rinsed with hot water, cap screwed on, chamber sitting on your mug.
0:00
16g of coffee, then 230g of waterPour fast and fill to the top. A little will start dripping through — that is fine and it is part of the recipe.
0:10
Stir three times, insert the plungerStir to wet everything evenly. Insert the plunger about a centimetre and stop — the vacuum holds the water in the chamber.
1:30
Press, slowlyTake about thirty seconds. If you have to lean on it, the grind is too fine. Stop the moment you hear the hiss — pressing past it pushes bitterness through.

Inverted — more control, more body

18g : 220g · 2:30 · 88°C
Setup
Plunger in first, chamber upside downInsert the plunger about 1cm into the chamber and stand the whole thing upside down. Nothing can drip out, so you control the steep completely.
0:00
Coffee, then a 40g bloomAdd 18g of coffee, pour 40g of water, stir, and wait thirty seconds. Blooming matters more here because the coffee is not draining.
0:30
Fill to 220g and steepTop up, stir once, and cap it with the rinsed filter.
2:00
Flip and pressFlip carefully onto your mug — hold both parts — then press slowly over thirty seconds.

Adjusting for the coffee

Coffee Temperature Steep Why
Light, washed, acidic 92–94°C 2:00 Needs heat and time to open up
Medium, balanced 90°C 1:30 The default
Dark, roasty 82–85°C 1:00 Lower heat keeps the bitterness down
Natural, fruity 88°C 2:30 inverted Longer immersion pulls out the fruit

Concentrate and dilute

For something closer to espresso — or a base for an iced latte — brew 20g of coffee in 90g of water, medium-fine, steeped 90 seconds. That gives you a small, intense shot you can dilute to taste. It is also the trick for making an AeroPress americano in a hotel room.

Metal filter or paper?

Paper gives you a cleaner, brighter cup and is what most recipes assume. A metal filter lets the oils through for more body and texture, at the cost of some clarity and a little sediment. Paper is the better default; keep a metal disc for travel so you never run out.

Questions

AeroPress, answered.

What is the best AeroPress ratio?

16g of coffee to 230g of water for a full mug, or 20g to 90g for a concentrate you dilute afterwards. The AeroPress is unusually tolerant — anywhere from 1:12 to 1:16 produces good coffee.

Standard or inverted?

Inverted gives you complete control over steep time and slightly more body, because nothing drips through while brewing. Standard is faster, safer and produces a cleaner cup. Start standard; move to inverted when you want to experiment.

What grind size for AeroPress?

Medium-fine — a little finer than pour-over, noticeably coarser than espresso. If pressing takes real effort, go coarser.

Why does my AeroPress coffee taste bitter?

Usually the water is too hot or you pressed past the hiss. Drop to 85–88C for darker roasts and stop pressing as soon as you hear air. A grind that is too fine will also over-extract.

Beans for the press

Anything. That is the point.

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