Been screwing with my Aeropress a lot these past few weeks. I still highly recommend it. I believe it may now be my favorite prep method. Every once in a while I break out my Vac pot to stay in tune, and I notice a definite difference in the taste. Sometimes one coffee preparation method makes a better taste in the mug than the other, but usually they're pretty close. Yesterday I was messing around with my Brix meter again while making a cup of this newfangled Wonko bean that Kevin sent me.. and I measured 1.9 on the meter. This, according to the SCAA, George Howell and Alan Adler (the guy who makes the Aeropress) multiplied by 0.85, roughly translates into the Total Dissolved Solids percent (TDS) of the cup you're measuring. According to SCAA stuff, they're currently thinking a number of 1.25% TDS is right on for brewed coffee. Well, I measured the Aeropress cup I was drinking yesterday and found it to taste like pure heaven.. and as it measured the 1.9 brix I mentioned above, that translates into ~1.6 TDS. A little stronger than SCAA thinks is ideal.Today, I measured a cup of Yama Vacpot I brewed up using the 7 grams per 5oz water ratio I usually shoot for with vacpot and came up with 1.4 brix, equalling 1.19 TDS. A little short of the SCAA number of perfection. This cup was LACKING. Little body, a touch of astringency, and overall sadness compared to the cup of perfection I'd had the day before. Hmm.. seems I like my coffee on the higher end! I'll try for 1.25 TDS tomorrow and see what that tastes like before I get too carried away with this stuff, but it's an interesting new idea to wrap my head around. Plus, it's a way to meausure and quantify different prep methods and test them with roughly the same TDS numbers for the coffee, with only the brew method being the difference. Sort of levels the playing field that way, between brewers...
What a geek!
Now, go click that Google money link, you cheapskates!
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