r/AeroPress • u/Meowrista_arabica • 21h ago
Experiment Filtepresso: Experimenting with a 1:16 SOUP-style AeroPress brew with surprisingly excellent results!
I've been fiddling around with a tweaked SOUP-style AeroPress method, trying to get some of the clarity/vibrancy of pour-over without sacrificing the ease of AeroPress.
I'm dubbing this version Filtepresso (filter + espresso), although the resulting beverage is probably closer to filter coffee than espresso.
I tried it out on GB Roasters' Koraput Anaerobic Naturals and got a genuinely great cup of coffee out of the exercise: a very balanced, vibrant cup with excellent clarity of expression, sparkling acidity in the form of cherry/raisin, and a long sweet finish.
The recipe:
Coffee: 13.5 g
Water: 216 g (1:16)
Grind: 49 clicks on the 1Zpresso Q Air
Brewer: Standard AeroPress, upright
Filters: One at the bottom, and one on the coffee bed
Total brew time: Approximately 2:45-3:00
The technique:
Put paper filter in AeroPress cap and add coffee grounds.
Tapped and firmed the coffee bed into a roughly level surface.
Used the rubber end of the AeroPress plunger to imprint/texture a second paper filter.
Placed the imprinted filter on the coffee bed.
Used an atomizer to spray the upper filter until it was completely wet.
Used a spoon to make sure the upper filter was evenly in contact with the coffee bed, making sure to pay special attention to the edges of the filter where any excess air might have gotten trapped.
After that, slowly added 25 g of water on top of the coffee bed, leaving it to bloom for 25 seconds.
Gently added the rest of the water (191 g).
Begun pressing to finish the brewing process, which took me 2:45-3:00.
The results:
Here's where I need to start talking about results.
I frequently make this same Koraput from GB Roasters using a more traditional immersion-style AeroPress recipe at 45 clicks on my 1zpresso Q air, which I usually consider to be a great recipe for this particular coffee.
It delivers great value in the form of a full, bodied cup of coffee, with well-balanced sweetness, acidity, and other flavours which are all nicely unified within the final cup.
Filtepresso, on the other hand, delivered a totally different drinking experience: one which had less body and almost a "tea-like" feel, while the acidity in the cup was much more up-front and prominent. The cherry qualities were sparkling, and deeper, darker dried fruit notes of raisin presented themselves at the back of the cup. There was a very prominent sweetness which stuck with me until the very end of the cup. What struck me most about this version, however, was the clarity of the expression: individual flavours were much easier to discern, although the overall cup retained its harmony.
I would probably not say that this cup was better than my "regular" AeroPress recipe: they're really two totally different takes on the same coffee, and I enjoyed both of them.
A few thoughts:
I think it's likely that the use of the well-seated upper filter helped with water distribution across the bed and minimised disturbance of the bed during the pouring process, although I have not tested this theory out in practice.
This is also the first time I've successfully used this method, so I don't really know if I can reproduce these results in the future.
Curious if anyone else has been playing around with longer-ratio SOUP-style brewing, or low-pressure percolation methods in general. Would love to hear about your results, especially with light-roasted fruit-forward coffees!
