Recapping the 2022 U.S. AeroPress Championships

Recapping the 2022 U.S. AeroPress Championships

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Recapping the 2022 U.S. AeroPress Championships

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Recapping the 2022 U.S. AeroPress Championships

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Recapping the 2022 U.S. AeroPress Championships

Recapping the 2022 U.S. AeroPress Championships

minimum dose size?

Jan 31, 2024 |

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

Recapping the 2022 U.S. AeroPress Championships

Grassroots camaraderie presses on (pun intended) at this year’s U.S. championship.

BY JOSH TAVES
SPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE

Photos by Josh Taves

The AeroPress championships have been the monarch of grassroots coffee championships for a long time now—14 years to be exact. While just about every other form of coffee sports has been co-opted and grown by our social-media-frenzied generation’s desire to take something fun and minor and ”make it a thing,” the AeroPress championships have remained, well … small.

Honestly, I think that’s why people like it. At the end of the day, no matter how many Instagram followers, sponsors, or media writers the AeroPress championships attract, they still consist of a handful of folks in a back room or side stage getting together to brew coffee simply and deliciously. For over a decade now I’ve been waiting for AeroPress championships to go mainstream; they just won’t. I love that.

The U.S. AeroPress Championship allowed competitors to do whatever they felt necessary to create the perfect cup. This included grooming, sorting, custom grinding,
and variable water chemistries.

The Vibe

I’ve never typed out a laugh in an article before, as I feel those are best left for abbreviated guffaws between friends, but I think this quote from the World Aeropress Championship website might deserve just that:

“We’re not particularly fond of rules and regulations—they’ve sucked the fun and inclusivity out of other coffee competitions.”

Hahaha. Perfect.

So, when the U.S. AeroPress Championship came within driving distance of where I live, I decided to make the trek to see it for myself. Now to be fair, I had seen the U.S. AeroPress Championship before, but it usually involved a few beers, lots of folks to chat with, and me not really paying attention. I was excited to spend a little more focused time seeing the action firsthand. There is no qualifying event for the U.S. AeroPress Championship, so stakes were high, as one of the 17 competitors from around the country would go on to represent the USA at the World AeroPress Championship.

The Tinker Coffee Co. training lab was a great space for the U.S. AeroPress Championship to take place.

The Digs

Tinker Coffee Co. in Indianapolis hosted the event in their training lab, which had plenty of bar space for heats of three competitors brewing at the same time head-to-head. Competitors had 5 minutes to make and serve their coffee. All the competitors used the same coffee (provided by Tinker), and it was up to them to apply the recipe, technique, and preparation style that best fit that coffee. Some brought their own grinders, some groomed the whole beans, and some sifted the grounds. All worked hard, put their heart into it, and had a great time.

All participants put lots of serious effort into their 5-minute presentation time to give the judges the best-tasting experience possible.

A Judicious Approach

The judging format was about as loosey-goosey and soulful as the quote above would lead you to believe. The three judges had varying degrees of coffee experience (one was Hugo Cano, the 2021 U.S. AeroPress Champion). They took a few minutes to taste all three coffees in each heat, do some spitting and thinking, and then on the count of three pointed to their favorite. The lucky brewer who had the most fingers pointed at their cup got to advance to the next heat in the hopes of more fingers being pointed at their submission. Three heats later and a champion was crowned.

The judging panel took their task very seriously at the U.S. AeroPress Championship.

The U.S. AeroPress Championship lived up to its grassroots hype. Tasting the same coffee being interpreted many different ways by many different folks with many different personalities—using a brewer as dynamic as the AeroPress—is one of the more interesting experiences I’ve had in the coffee world.

The Outcome

At the end of the weekend, three competitors stood on stage and received recognition for their recipes. Cecil Cope of Stone Creek Coffee in Milwaukee finished third, hometown hero Luke Speers of Amberson Coffee finished second, and taking top honors was Daniel Soria from Typica Chicago. The final heats were done on the larger stage in front of a full audience (Tinker was hosting the U.S. CoffeeChamps preliminaries the same weekend), and it made for an entertaining event.

The camaraderie amongst competitors at the event was pervasive. Here, Luke Speers (left) and Daniel Soria cheer each other on during the finals heat.

Daniel Soria will be representing the USA in the World AeroPress Championship in Vancouver, B.C., in a few weeks, thanks to the host of sponsors that continue to invest in this groundswell culture.

Long live the AeroPress championships.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Josh Taves is the head of business development for Stovetop Roasters in Michigan and the
creator of CuppingBrewer.com. He is also a 2017 USBC finalist, so he knows his way around
lots of different coffee gadgets. He’s been working in the coffee industry since 2006 and enjoys
taking advantage of all the great adventures the outdoors have to offer.

The post Recapping the 2022 U.S. AeroPress Championships appeared first on Barista Magazine Online.

Recapping the 2022 U.S. AeroPress Championships

Perfect Little Beans

Chinmey Hill Coffee uses specialty-grade beans with zero primary defects (such as black beans or sour beans) and less than five secondary defects (such as broken beans). This is important because primary defects will greatly affect the taste of the coffee. Having zero defects allows the coffee to be the most optimal flavor.

Window for Optimal Flavor

Chimney Hill Coffee ships our coffee the same day it was roasted, so you will receive it before it enters the window of optimal flavor.  This means you’ll never miss the opportunity to enjoy the coffee’s peak flavor.

Coffee Ratings

Coffee undergoes many scoring processes by professionals who achieved their Q Grader certification. Coffee is first graded when it’s green. If there are defects the coffee is determined to be “not-specialty grade”. For those coffees that pass green grading, they are sample roasted and cupped. (Cupping is the official term for critically tasting and scoring coffees. The official cupping form is standard worldwide, and where the 100-point scoring system comes from.) A coffee’s dry fragrance, wet aroma, flavor, aftertaste, body, acidity, balance, and overall impression are taken into consideration while uniformity issues and defects, will lower the overall score.

Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee, coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974, refers to a coffee that receives a quality grading score of 80 percent or higher. While “premium” or “gourmet” seem like they’re synonymous with “specialty,” they simply are marketing terms with no defined standards. Specialty coffees are grown in specific and ideal micro-climates, and have distinctive and unique flavor profiles, with little to no defects.

Third-Wave Coffee

We’re currently in the third wave of coffee. The first wave of American coffee put pre-ground, vacuum-sealed cans in kitchens across America. The second wave started with the late ‘60s introduction of Peet’s coffee (by Alfred Peet) through the proliferation of Starbucks. The third wave of coffee focuses on origin transparency, nuanced flavors, and artisan roasting. The term “third wave” is synonymous with specialty coffee.

Recapping the 2022 U.S. AeroPress Championships

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