Guide · AeroPress
AeroPress guide & championship recipes
The AeroPress is a plunger brewer that combines immersion and pressure. It is cheap, tough and endlessly tweakable — which is why it has its own world championship and a public archive of winning recipes.
How it works
Ground coffee steeps with water in a cylindrical chamber; then a plunger with a silicone seal pushes the brew through a paper or metal filter in the cap. The pressure lets it make a concentrated coffee, filter-strength coffee, or cold brew. It was invented by Alan Adler — a retired Stanford engineering lecturer best known for the Aerobie flying ring — who began prototyping in 2004 and unveiled it in November 2005 at CoffeeFest in Seattle.
The official recipe (upright)
- Fine-ground coffee on a paper microfilter.
- Water at about 80°C (176°F) for dark roasts or 85°C (185°F) for lighter roasts.
- Stir for about 10 seconds, then press.
Competition parameters cited for Brewers Cup-style AeroPress brewing are broader: grind slightly finer than filter, 14–20 g of coffee, about 200–230 ml of water at 80–92°C, and a 30–60 s steep.
Upright vs. inverted
In the inverted method, you insert the plunger first and stand the AeroPress upside down on it, add coffee and water, stir, then screw on a rinsed filter cap, steep, flip onto a cup and press. Because nothing drips through during the steep, it behaves like a small French press and suits coarser grinds and longer steeps. Most championship-winning recipes in the archive use it — handle the flip carefully, as the chamber is full of hot water.
World AeroPress Championship winning recipes
The championship began in Oslo, Norway, in 2008 with three competitors; the 2018 event drew 3,157 competitors from 61 countries. The organizers publish winners' recipes. Here are the champions' key numbers (the full steps are on the official recipe page):
| Year | Champion (country) | Position | Dose | Water temp | Notable step |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Némo Pop (Australia) | Upright | 18 g | 84°C | 70 g bypass water at 50°C in the carafe; fines sifted at 200 µm |
| 2024* | George Stanica (Romania) | Inverted | 18 g | 96°C | Bloom 30 s; press to ≈76–79 g, then dilute |
| 2023 | Tay Wipvasutt (Thailand) | Inverted | 16 + 2 g | 89°C | Second 2 g dose added at 0:45 |
| 2022 | Jibbi Little (Australia) | Inverted | 18 g | 90°C | Stir 35 times; dilute concentrate to 150 g; target TDS 1.3–1.35 |
| 2021 | Tuomas Merikanto (Finland) | Inverted | 18 g | 80°C | 200 g water; two filters |
| 2019 | Wendelien van Bunnik (Netherlands) | Inverted | 30 g | 92°C | Press ≈60 g, add 100 g water |
| 2018 | Carolina Garay (USA) | Inverted | 34.9 g | 85°C | Stir with chopsticks 30 s; top up with hot and room-temp water |
| 2017 | Paulina Miczka (England) | Inverted | 35 g | 84°C | ≈90 ml concentrate at 4.5% TDS, then dilute |
| 2016 | Filip Kucharczyk (Poland) | Inverted | 35 g | 81°C | 150 g water, add 100–120 g after |
| 2015* | Lukas Zahradnik (Slovakia) | Inverted | 20 g | 79°C | 230 g water; 45 s press |
| 2014* | Shuichi Sasaki (Japan) | Upright | 16.5 g | 78°C | Very slow 75 s press; leave ≈45 g in the brewer |
| 2012 | Charlene de Buysere (Belgium) | Upright | 18.3 g | 85°C | 250 g water; 30 s bloom |
| 2011 | Jeff Verellen (Belgium) | Upright | 17 g | 80°C | 270 g water; discard last 50 g |
| 2010 | Marie Hagemeister (Denmark) | Inverted | 20 g | 80°C | Stir 10–12 s; stop pressing before air |
| 2009 | Lukasz Jura (Poland) | Inverted | 19.5–20 g | 75°C | 200 ml water; ≈15 s total contact |
Patterns worth borrowing
- Cooler water than filter brewing. Most winning recipes sit between 75°C and 92°C, well below the SCA's 93°C filter target — consistent with the AeroPress's own official recipe.
- Brew strong, then dilute. From 2016 on, several champions press a concentrate and add water afterwards, which lets them set final strength precisely.
- Don't press it all. Several recipes stop pressing early, leaving the last grams of liquid in the brewer.
- Weigh everything. Every recipe is specified in grams and seconds. A scale with a timer is the one tool they all share — see coffee scales explained.
A neutral starting point inside the competition parameters above: 18 g of coffee, 200 g of water at 85°C, a 1-minute steep and a gentle 30-second press. Then adjust using the grind chart and ratio calculator.