R miguel meets the aeropress.

Finally the coffee I ordered from r miguel in minnesota has arrived, and with a cheeky little bonus of around 150gms of ka'u from hawaii. So it was straight out with the aeropress to get buzzing. At 8 days off the roast and without aust customs manhandling my coffee like they did last time i was very excited to get grinding and start brewing.  Method of choice for today, the aeropress, a very simple coffee brewing device that i love for it's ease of use, cleanliness and ability to imitate (not replicate) many different styles of coffee brewing.

I decided to brew using both the standard method (as per the instructions that come with the unit that everyone seems to have a problem with) and mark prince's preferred aeropress method (see here) which we'll call the inverstion process.

First off, the inversion method and Wow, what a cup!  On the nose you're immediately met with a lush, tropical fruit salad and a very interesting background aroma of macadamia (something i've never experienced with such certainty in coffee).  Its flavour is filled with lots of sour, ripe tropical fruits that meld together to create a great melange of flavour, dominated by mango.   This was an exciting coffee that i'd love to enjoy for breakfast with a big bowl of fruit in summer time, maybe even iced.

Now on to the standard method;  What i found here was a much more rounded fruit (still very tropical) flavour, very lush and mouth watering.  All nuances of macadamia were lost, but a very pronounced mango still remained, bringing with it a very pleasant but bright sweetness.

To compare the end result of the two brewing methods, i'd have to say that i found the inversion method a lot more interesting, with greater clarity of flavour in the cup.  Though with the increased intensity of flavour brewed here it bordered on being almost sickly.  I must say that I enjoyed the result from the standard method a little more.  While some nuances were lost, or at least subdued, the final result was a great deal more balanced and enjoyable.


The Next step will be espresso and i can't wait!!