AeroPress Single Cup

Name: AeroPress Single Cup
Total time: 2 min
Yield: single cup
Ingredients: 17 g coffee; 200 g water at 203F

by Matt KennardUpdated October 1, 2026

Method: Inverted

Inverted method.

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Inverted method.

Brew process

Assemble inverted

Set the AeroPress up inverted, plunger seated about a centimeter into the chamber so it cannot slide, and add the coffee.
Pour 0:00 · 200 g total

Start the timer and pour all 200 g in one go, wetting the whole bed. Stir five times, gently, then cap with a rinsed filter. All the water goes in here.
Steep 0:15 · undisturbed

Leave it. Nothing to do until the flip — the coffee is doing the work.
Press 1:30 · a hiss

Flip onto the mug and press slowly, about thirty seconds. Stop when it hisses rather than pushing the last of the air through; that last shove is what pulls bitterness out of the bed.

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) The one I use
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)

If your bag is lighter or darker than that

17 g to 200 g is about 1:12. Everything below is relative to this recipe's own numbers.

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.

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.

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.