Our mighty AeroPress® attachment made it to the national stage thanks to Alyssa Brynn Bell of Taproom Coffee in Atlanta and a Glitter Cat competitor. To wow the judges, Alyssa chose to brew with Prismo in the 2020 US Coffee Championships. To wow you, she has graciously decided to share her full competitive recipe:
Photo credit: @chaiamericano
I created this recipe with people brewing at home in mind. I wanted to make it easy for people to create the same cup of coffee over and over again while reducing waste. I mean, who can afford to throw away grams of specialty coffee every time they brew? I knew I wanted to use an AeroPress® because it is a pretty common brewer, and it is easy to use. You don't have to worry as much about flow rate, bed depth, or Darcy's Law to replicate the same cup which is pretty sweet. The only problem with using an AeroPress® for an immersion brew is the inverted method. It is terrifying, and I have personally been a victim of things going wrong. I originally got Fellow’s Prismo for the sole reason of avoiding the inverted method but soon discovered other pros to the attachment. The single valve on the attachment aerates the coffee as you press and enhances the quality of the aroma. It was kinda like adding an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence, and it just made the aroma so much more exciting!
Now that I figured out how to avoid the inverted method, I had to tackle the challenge of getting more flavor clarity out of an immersion method since Brewer's Cup is all about those flavor calls. I added that paper filter which helped a lot and then played around with sifting. I personally liked the flavor I got from sifting, but it did create unnecessary waste. I started reading a lot about fines. It seems like everyone has a different opinion and there is no clear consensus in coffee if they are good or bad. The people on the “fines are bad” side argue that fines over extract and take away from coffee flavor. The people on the “fines are good” side argue that fines add a certain complexity to a cup of coffee. I thought we can have both ways by taking out the fines and adding them later to the brew. By doing this, they don't over extract but they still add to the body and sweetness of the cup. I use a cocoa powder shaker to sift because I wanted to keep people at home in mind. Coffee sifters with precise micron sleeves can be expensive but the shaker can get the job done for about $5.
The Gear:
- Prismo AeroPress® Attachment
- AeroPress® Coffee Maker
- AeroPress® paper filter
- AeroPress® Paddle
- Stagg EKG Electric Kettle
- Scale
- Vessel for pressing
- Cocoa powder shaker with a fine mesh top
The Ingredients:
- 17 grams medium-fine coffee
- 207 grams water at 200°F
Note: I highly encourage you to play around with the temperature. 200°F worked best for my competition coffee but I have gotten great results with darker, lower elevation at 195°F
The Recipe:
- Prepare your AeroPress® by placing a pre-wet AeroPress® filter on top of Prismo’s metal filter. Attach the Prismo and place your AeroPress® top of a serving vessel.
- Grind 17 grams of coffee on a medium-fine setting and begin to heat the water to 200°F with Stagg EKG.
- Dose ground coffee into a cocoa powder shaker and sift 2 grams of finer particle size coffee (the shaker removes coffee particles under 300 microns). Put 2 grams to the side.
- Add the remaining 15 grams of coffee to your AeroPress®.
- Pour 207 grams of hot water into the AeroPress®.
- Stir three times to ensure even saturation of coffee grounds.
- At 1 minute and 45 seconds, add the 2 grams of sifted fines.
- Stir three more times.
- Begin to press at 2 minutes and 15 seconds for 15 seconds.
- Serve and enjoy a sweet, thick body coffee with some popping flavor. This coffee shines best after it cools so sit, ponder life, and take in the morning.
About Alyssa:
My recipe perfectly reflects what I love about coffee and how I got here. I was studying sociology at a small college in rural Georgia when I began my coffee career. I was really into environmentally sustainable systems built around social responsibility—I know, nerd alert! Lucky for me, there was a fair-trade, organic coffee shop in town that did just that. I thought it would just be a part-time job. Soon I fell in love with coffee and decided to make it a career. Now I manage Taproom Coffee in Atlanta, GA. We not only serve up local East Pole Coffee but bring in coffee roasters from all over the country to the small neighborhood of Kirkwood. I love sharing new coffees with customers and love hearing what they enjoy brewing at home.
Feature image by @paigelizabethicks