Espresso-Style, AeroPress with the Fellow Prismo
About 1:3. The best concentrate you can make without a pump.
- Grind setting
- as fine as your grinder goes, finer than the Ode can manage On your grinder
- Dose in
- 18 g
- Yield
- 55 g
- Brew temp
- 200°F / 93.3°C
- Shot time
- 2:30
- Brew ratio
- 1:3.1
Dialed for a Medium-dark roast. What to change if yours is lighter or darker.
The Prismo replaces the AeroPress cap with a 0.2 mm metal filter and a pressure-actuated valve, so nothing drips until you press and the puck stays submerged while it steeps. It produces a thick, concentrated shot with real crema.
It is not espresso: a machine pulls at nine bars and this is closer to two. It is the best concentrate you can make without a pump, and it is excellent in milk.
Resistance is the signal. An easy press means coarser than it should be; a press you cannot move means too fine. That resistance is the only pressure gauge you have.
Medium-dark or dark beans. The same rule as the machine: Power Button, Blue Bottle Espresso, La Sagrada. Light roasts go sour at this ratio.
Milk is where it shines. Fifty grams of this concentrate under steamed milk makes a genuinely good cortado.
The metal filter lets oils through, which is why it has body a paper AeroPress does not. It also means it wants cleaning properly, not rinsing. A paper filter on top of the metal one gives a cleaner cup if you want it, at the cost of some body.
The grind is finer than the Ode 2 reaches — it is a filter grinder and its fine end stops short. A hand grinder is the answer, at about 1.5 to 2 rotations on a 1Zpresso J-series.
Brew process
-
Dose
Grind fine. Finer than you would for an AeroPress, closer to table salt heading toward powder. The Ode 2 does not reach this: it is a filter grinder and its fine end stops short. A hand grinder is the answer, at about 1.5 to 2 rotations on a 1Zpresso J-series.
-
Lock in
Fit the Prismo to the chamber and stand it on the cup, standard orientation. No inversion; the valve is doing that job.
-
Dose
Dose 18 g and level the bed with a tap.
-
Pour
Pour 55 g at 200°F, then stir gently five times to wet everything. The valve holds it all in.
-
Steep
Steep 60 to 90 seconds. Start at 75.
-
Press
Press firmly for about 30 seconds. It should resist. If it presses easily, the grind is too coarse.
-
Stop
Stop at the hiss rather than pushing through it.
If it's not right
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Thin, no crema | Too coarse, too short, or both. | Go finer and steep nearer 90 seconds. |
| Bitter and dry | Too fine, or steeped too long. | Go coarser, or come back towards 60 seconds. |
| Sour | The beans are too light for this ratio, or the water was too cool. | Use a medium-dark or dark roast, and check the water is at 200°F. |
| No resistance at all | The grind is nowhere near fine enough. On the Ode this is a hardware limit rather than a mistake. | Use a hand grinder — about 1.5 to 2 rotations on a 1Zpresso J-series. |
Beans for this
These numbers were written for a Medium-dark roast. That is what the temperature and the time below assume — it is a setting, not a fact.
- Dogspeed Flat Track Coffee Medium-dark · Latin America, varied seasonally — typically Colombia Supremo, Guatemala (Huehuetenango or Marilandia) and Brazil (Vila Boa natural)
- Espresso Blue Bottle Coffee Dark · Organic blend, Latin America and Central Africa
- Lucem Merit Coffee Medium · Blend, Honduras and Brazil; components shift, and it has also been listed as Peru and Colombia
- Power Button Superthing Coffee Medium-dark · Blend, 50% washed Guatemala and 50% washed Ethiopia
- Andino Leal Merit Coffee Medium · Huila, Colombia, from a committed group of small-scale producers
- La Sagrada Praxis Coffee Roasters Medium-dark · Latin America, rotating seasonally through direct-trade lots (Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala among them)
Every bag I have written up for the AeroPress
If your bag is lighter or darker than that
18 g to 55 g is about 1:3. Everything below is relative to this recipe's own numbers.
A lighter roast than this recipe
- Temperature
- Go hotter. A lighter roast is denser and gives up less at the same temperature — take it to the top of the range, or just off the boil.
- Time
- Give it longer. Another fifteen to thirty seconds of contact, whether that is a slower pour or a longer steep.
- Grind
- Grind finer, one step. Light roasts under-extract before they over-extract, and sour is the failure you will meet first.
- Dose
- Leave the dose alone at first. If it is still thin after the other three, add a gram or two.
A darker roast than this recipe
- Temperature
- Go cooler. A dark roast is brittle and gives up everything it has immediately — back off five degrees or let the kettle stand a minute.
- Time
- Cut it short. Stop the brew at the first sign of it slowing down; the last of the drawdown is where the ash comes from.
- Grind
- Grind coarser, one step. Bitter and hollow is the failure you will meet first, and coarser is the fix.
- Dose
- You can use slightly less and lose nothing. A dark roast tastes stronger than it is.
The roast it was written for
- Temperature
- The temperature on this recipe is written for exactly this roast. Start there.
- Time
- The time is the time. Change it only after you have tasted it once as written.
- Grind
- Grind is still the one thing worth moving. Everything else in the recipe is fixed so that it can be.
- Dose
- The dose below is what these numbers were dialed at.
More on what the words mean: light, medium and dark roasts.
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