I love my at-the-crack-of-dawn cup of coffee. It’s sacred. It wakes me up from my groggy, crusty-eyed state and gives me a much-needed dose of carpe diem.
But for all its importance, my original process for brewing coffee was a mess. Calling it a process is generous, I had no idea what I was doing. (Warning: coffee snobbery ahead). I bought stale, pre-ground coffee from the grocery store, I over boiled the water, I eyeballed the coffee-to-bean ratio—it was sacrilege. My coffee wasn’t good and wasn’t consistent, it failed, what I call, the Tarantino Test.
Have you noticed that the characters in Quentin Tarantino’s movies really like coffee? Not only do they like it, but they don’t tolerate sub-bar sh*t coffee. Here are some examples:
Example 1: Pulp Fiction (1994)
Example 2: The Hateful Eight (2015)
I want my coffee to be that good, consistently. Good enough that the characters from a Tarantino film (or any guest in my home) would have to admit: “this is some damn good coffee.”
So, without further ado, here’s my one-cup brewing process using an Aeropress:
Pour 330g of water into a Oxo Gooseneck Kettle (measured on a scale) and heat to 205°F1
Spritz the beans with 1-2 spritz of water3
Grind beans at level 10 coarseness4 using the Baratza Virtuoso conical burr grinder
Set up the Aeropress filter, dump the grounds in, and place the Aeropress on top of a BrüMate mug56
By this step, the Oxo kettle should have beeped, with the water ready to be poured.
Slowly pour the water into the Aeropress to activate the “bloom” phase of the brewing process. Continue pouring water in slowly in a circular motion, making sure you have all the grounds soaked
Once all 330g of water are in, use the Aeropress stirrer to stir the coffee for 5-7 seconds
Remove the stir stick, rinse it, and place it aside for a later step
Use the supplied plunger to create a vacuum seal inside the Aeropress. This allows the “sludge” mixture of coffee and water to brew at equal ratio. Without the plunger in place, water continues to drain out the bottom as it goes through the filter. Inserting the plunger effectively retains the water in the chamber, similar to how a syringe works
Let the coffee sit and brew for 2-3 minutes
Once brewed, gently remove the plunger, give the sludge one more stir using the stirring stick, and re-insert the plunger and begin to plunge until you extracted all the coffee out into the mug
Take the first sip of the day
That’s some serious gourmet sh*t.
Good Beats
Smooth and relaxing coffee bea(t)s.
A 50¢ word (aka words that say a lot with less)
Crema (noun):
The creamy, caramel-colored foam that forms on top of a perfectly extracted espresso, indicative of good quality and freshness.
For Your Thoughts
“Coffee is a language in itself.”
—Jackie Chan, a certified badass
Yours,
-Rahul
P.S. a reminder you can reply directly to oldmanrahul@substack.com, or you can tweet me @oldmanrahul about this edition. Thanks for reading and supporting my writing :)
200°F is the ideal brewing temperature for this method. To account for the rapid cooling of the water, I added a 5°F buffer to the boiling temperature.
An approximate 1:17 coffee-to-water ratio. The ratio that works best depends on your palate and the quality of your beans. A/B test to hone in on what works best for you.
The static of the ground-up beans causes a mess on the countertop. A light spritz of water elegantly solves this problem.
As specified in the Virtuoso manual
I love the BrüMate because it keeps my coffee warmer for longer.
The perfect mug size for this quantity of coffee is a 13oz mug. In fact, it’s an accepted universal truth that 13oz is the ideal size for a mug.