This Aeropress attachment is one of our favorite ways to make a strong "espresso-like" drink at home.

 

Much love from the Boomtown Crü during these social distancing orders. If you have young kids, I’m sure trying new hobbies is the last thing on your mind. If you don’t have kids and have the privilege to be thinking about starting ten new hobbies, I bet there are a few of you that have looked into learning how to make espresso at home.

Should I Make Espresso at Home?

Espresso is hard. Much of the blog is dedicated to making coffee at home and sharing ways to make great drinks with what you’ve got, but espresso is one of those things that requires a lot of specialized equipment, understanding, and patience. And even if you have all of those things, you might go through a lot of coffee to dial in a good shot. If you’re a home espresso master, respect. If you want to get into it now, it might be a good opportunity if you have extra time on your hands. I love hobbies that are difficult, and you might too! However, set your expectations before jumping all the way in.

Can you make espresso with an Aeropress attachment?

The Fellow Prismo is a neat little attachment that steps down the aperture of your Aeropress to increase the pressure that builds during the plunging motion at the end of a brew. In our experience, it doesn’t make espresso the way you would expect it in the shop. However, it can still make a beautiful espresso-like beverage that could even have a little bit of crema on top. My favorite way to use it? Brew a strong concentrate and add hot water on top to make a little simulated stout Americano.

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BREW GUIDE

We’re brewing the Shantawene today. This coffee has tasting notes of passion fruit, rose, and candy sweetness.  You can choose to brew with a heavily filtered method (such as a Chemex) to get a delicate, tea-like beverage and really taste those fruity flavors, or make it as a french press or espresso to bring out its delicious sweetness.

Boomtown natural Ethiopian Shantawene

We’re using the Prismo + Aeropress combination to turn everything up in intensity. This recipe calls for making a concentrated "shot" of coffee and adding extra bypass water at the end to dilute it.

You will need:

  • 20g (about 4 tbsp) Coffee

  • 300g (about 10 oz) water fresh off the boil (209 °F)

  • Something to stir with

  • Scale

  • Aerobie Aeropress

  • Fellow Prismo

Recipe

  1. Start with 20g of coffee ground as fine as you can.  This is required to get the pressure high enough to get that elusive crema.

  2. Invert your aeropress, tare your scale, and pour 80g (about 3 oz) of water fresh off the boil.

  3. Stir the grounds heavily--we want to agitate the bed so that all the grounds get wet as soon as possible.

  4. Wait two and a half minutes, flip your Aeropress, and plunge.

  5. Add 220g (about 7.5-8oz) of hot water to dilute your coffee (you can adjust this to taste).

  6. Enjoy!

  7. If the coffee is too bitter, you can wait less time before plunging the press.  If it's sour, wait longer.

Let us know if you use the Prismo or try it after reading this post. Do you like using it? Does it give you an espresso-like experience?

 
Brewing, Editorial, GuideChris PortoComment