aeropress follow-up

this morning, i made a cup of coffee with my aeropress, following yesterday's formula. but this time i'm using my favorite organic/fair trade hazelnut blended coffee. this hazelnut blend is lighter in roast than yesterday's costco branded super dark french roast which isn't my favorite. wow... the aeropress hazelnut coffee tasted smooth, no hint of bitterness and clean. and this is better coffee than the french press. but the bean's oils which heavily characterizes a french pressed coffee is gone. the color was surprisingly dark yet clear (imagine tawny port wine). with my usual amount of milk and sugar... the coffee was even smoother — no harsh bitterness!

i don't have a solid conclusion of which is better. i need to conduct more comparisons with the aeropress and the french press. experimenting with coffee makers, how fun!

fact: the makers of the aeropress created the aerobie frisbee!

french press vs. aeropress

french press vs. aeropress

not too long ago i read about a new coffee press called the aeropress which combines the techniques of both a paper dip and a french press. the aeropress forces the water and ground mixture through a paper filter into a mug. the company of the aeropress claims it'll create a "richer, smoother cup of coffee." i like that sound of that.

also recently, i was concerned about health issues from french pressed coffee. according to wiki and a research study linked on 'french press' wiki, french pressed coffee "increases LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels... The French press method allows certain Diterpenes, such as Cafestol and Kahweol, to remain in the coffee while other brewing methods either remove or limit these chemicals." this is very dishearting (no pun intended) for a person who enjoys using the french press. with that information, i decided to look into manual paper filtered coffee.

this past saturday, i came across the $30 aeropress at sur la table while my buddy min was shopping at west elm in corte madera. out of the box, the aeropress looks like a syringe or in my brother's words, "a penis pump." the aeropress has four parts — plunger, chamber, cap and filter. after looking over the instructions, the aeropress was easy to use... so i bought it, figuring that i'll do a comparison of results with french pressed coffee.

brewing with the french press & aeropress

the french press is the simplest manual coffee maker. scoop some grounds into the press cup, add water, stir, cover with press plunger/filter, brew for a couple of minutes, push plunger and pour.

with multiple parts of the aeropress, it's not quite as easy. you place a filter into the cap, lock cap onto the chamber, place chamber over a mug, drop scoop of grounds into the chamber over the filter, pour desired amount of water, stir, insert plunger into chamber and press. once you start pouring water into the chamber, it immediately starts to drip into the cup. the plunger forces the water and ground through the filter.

french pressed coffee & aeropress coffee

here are the results (drinking both black): the french press coffee was muddy and dark looking with grounds. the taste was smooth and slightly bitter with character. the aeropress produced an amber clear coffee, looking more like bourbon. the taste was clean, very bitter and smooth. the characteristics of the beans weren't as prominent as the french press. i assume the filter took away some of coffee bean oils.

i prefer the french press for the bean's character. i didn't like the strong bitterness from the aeropress. however my brother prefers the penis pumped coffee for it's clear and clean taste. i'll post some more tasting notes after trying them with milk and sugar.

yuanyang

some time ago, my dad and i were talking about the coffee beans we bought on kona. we're big coffee drinkers. somehow the conversation lead into tea. "have you hear of yuanyang?" my dad asks.

"no. what is it?"
"it's a coffee tea drink. very popular in hong kong."
my mom had to inject something into the conversation, "i had a co-worker who drank that all the time."

afterwards, i got interested in the idea of mixing coffee and tea. i googled around to learn more about it. and finding out how to spell 'yuanyang' wasn't easy. eventually, i found it on wikipedia. however there wasn't much to go on. [read yuanyang wiki] it's funny how 'western' society debates if the drink was invented in hong kong. my mom later added that the co-worker drank yuanyang during the '70s. she also mentioned during the sf muni bus strike of that era, her co-worker would go out to by a cup of coffee and tea and mix the two at her desk. the actual origin or history of yuanyang is pretty much like the chicken or the egg question.

using my french press, i decided to try it. i'm probably doing this all wrong but who cares. i took a scoop of my free-trade 'organic' hazelnut coffee and several pinches of black tea leaves from mariage freres into my french press. poured some boiling water. and waited for four minutes.

the color is different. with my grounded coffee alone, it has a brownish muddy appearance. but this yuanyang has the clarity of tea appearing more blackish than the usual dark red color of black tea leaves. the taste is definitely more coffee than tea. maybe the balance wasn't right. after the tasting, i add some milk since i don't usually drink coffee black.

i will have to try again to strike the right balance for the "yin and yang" of coffee and tea.