The Mood Method! While that’s definitely getting a little liberal and cocky with the naming, as we’re all standing on the shoulders of giants and all that, but it’s got a catchy ring to it..
That being said, a brief but very big shout out must be made to Juan Mario, the Chilean coffee godfather, who gave me (Jack) my first opportunity in the coffee industry (a whole story that’s better suited to another blog post) and who also introduced me to the key concept of this method - the slurry.
This and other key points are outlined below. Alongside the video, we hope this post can help you to make a wicked aeropress at home, and maybe inspire a little experimentation in your daily aeropress brewing.
Part One: The Slurry:
As a key part of the bloom, and quite possibly the most important part of this method, making your slurry with as little water as possible gives the best results. The real art to slurry making is making it just the right degree of sloppy and/or slimy. You want it wet enough that you can still smush it around easily with your stirrer, without it being too crusty and crunchy, but not too wet that all the grinds are floating in water.
Once you have your slurry, you need to really stir it around aggressively. By doing this you’re doing two key things:
- Allowing the water to soak into the grinds. Dissolving and releasing the undesirable gaseous compounds.
- Loosening up all the desirable solubles we want in the final beverage, which will be extracted once the chamber is full and in the final push and extraction.
Once the slurry has been forcefully mixed, add your water to just below the rim of the inverted aeropress, so you have space to give it one final soft stir.
Part Two: The Flip.
Not much to say here, apart from hold onto all parts of the aeropress and your vessel to avoid any scalding hot and messy mistakes!
Part Three: The Push.
The final push is a good indicator of where you are with your grind setting (as with the final taste). It’s a fine line, but quite simply you should be able to complete the extraction by using a little force but not much more than just the weight of your hand/arm, in just under a minute.
- If you really need to press hard to get the water through the coffee, like standing on your tiptoes, clenching your teeth kind of hard, that means your grind is too fine.
- If you hardly need to push and the plunger blasts through with little to no resistance, you’re too coarse.
Part Four: The Bypass.
It’s kinda like making a Long Black or Americano on an espresso machine. The concentrate will be bitter and not as palatable as it is when you add just a dash or two of water. How much you need to add will depend on your water at home and probably depending on what coffee you're using, and also how you actually like your coffee. But it basically opens up the flavour and brings more balance to the final cup.
Our recipe works on our water from the beanstore, (which is very soft) and gives a balanced and sweet cup in the finish.
Conclusions:
As our first aeropress guide, we really wanted to highlight the versatility of these awesome little brewers. The options for playing and creating new coffee recipes really are endless.
Hopefully you can enjoy our method, or maybe be inspired to make a few tweaks and come up with a better recipe that makes you your best cup.