What’s The Best Coffee For Your AeroPress? 3 Top Coffee Choices

If you’re looking to step up your coffee game, this article offers suggestions on starting points for choosing the best coffee for your AeroPress.

The Aeropress is a fascinating innovation, marrying craftsmanship and efficiency and giving us all an opportunity to play mad scientist with our at-home coffee making. But just like any other brewing method, there are traits and factors to consider when buying coffee for your Aeropress. For example, if you want to get the best flavor experience, you should choose beans that will work with the strengths and weaknesses of this particular method.

But what qualities should you look for specifically? That’s going to depend somewhat on your tastes, but we’re happy to steer you in the right direction. Read on!

Consider AeroPress Strengths And Weaknesses

The Aeropress is a unique piece of equipment and delivers a different coffee experience to other methods. As a single-serve coffee brewing method, the system’s mechanics create a more robust, more intense coffee experience, not unlike a fusion of espresso and automatic drip coffee. But with that innovation comes a set of strengths and weaknesses that impact your best coffee choices for the equipment.

Because the AeroPress brews a more intense cup of coffee compared to pour-over or automatic drip, the quality of your coffee is much more important. Obviously, quality always plays a role in how good a brew turns out to be–but the more concentrated the brewing method, the more that quality matters.

And to ensure the best quality, you want the freshest coffee you can get. That typically means buying whole beans and grinding as close to the time of brewing as possible.

Another facet to consider is that a more intense brew might mean you want a less intense starting flavor from your beans. Aeropress is great at delivering on the subtleties of the coffee bean, but that does mean that roasts and blends that hit like a sledgehammer of flavor aren’t best suited to this brewing method.

If you tend to prefer medium roasts, consider buying on the lighter end for your Aeropress. On the other hand, if you like dark roasts, the Aeropress is an excellent reason to sample a medium roast.

More Tips For AeroPress Excellence

Before giving my picks for the best beans for the Aeropress, there are a few tips and tricks you can use to get the most out of your experience. For one: despite the existence of after-market metal filters for the Aeropress, you truly will get the best results by using the paper filters designed for the rig. You’ll especially get a good result if you pre-rinse your paper filters with clean water before you use them to brew.

The good news is that the versatility of the Aeropress means that you can play a little bit fast and loose with grind sizes. Sample and test different grind sizes, water temperatures, and even brewing times until you find the result that you like the best.

The Best Coffee For Your AeroPress

Overall, the Aeropress is an excellent vehicle for getting the nuances out of your coffee beans that you might miss with other brewing methods. In addition, the hybrid brewing style extracts a lot of flavor, which means that you can enjoy more complex beans in a brand new way. Here are some of my favorites for Aeropress.

1. Volcanica Coffee Tanzania Peaberry

Peaberry coffees are on the pricier end as coffee beans go, but Volcanica Coffee’s Tanzania Peaberry is pretty reasonable as prices go. The medium roast provides a smooth, buttery sensation with a balanced sweetness and acidity. For the Aeropress, it’s a good option because of the complex flavors the unique beans boast, bringing out the dried fruit and chocolate taste at its best.

2. Dancing Moon Mexican Chiapas

While the Aeropress does not tend to perform the best with darker roasts, this coffee by Dancing Moon is a welcome exception. In general, the coffee is rich, with a beautifully even-bodied texture and just enough acidity to give it a crispness that’s almost refreshing, even brewed hot. In addition, the single-origin coffee boasts a delicate flavor profile that marries well with the qualities that Aeropress brings out.

3. Tiny Footprint Organic Peru

I’m a big fan of Tiny Footprint Coffee in general, and this Peruvian medium roast is an excellent introduction to the brand’s quality. The premium coffee balances a caramel finish with fruity, citrusy acidity that’s almost juicy in its intensity. These qualities reach their peak with an intense method like the Aeropress, making it a good marriage of technology and ingredients.