Yesterday morning I woke up thinking: yea, I need to follow up on the World Aeropress Championship piece I did last year. And then I realised we're already in the first week of March, followed by the horror that the finals are on THIS Saturday.
I immediately texted Tim from Bureaux to see if he was happy to have a quick chat. No reply.
I jumped onto the gram and DM'd Simon, the Australian Champion. He has twelve thousand followers and I have a feeling he's going to ignore me too. I panicked and went through the list of finalists, sorted by Asians first. The Japanese and Singaporean finalists’ accounts were private, the Taiwanese had 0 posts, the Chinese - that’s right, no Instagram there. I messaged Michael, the Hong Kong champion, Ryohji - the UK champion, followed by Alex - the New Zealand champion (not Asian, but close enough).
So, in a rush, I accidentally summoned the 2021 Aeropress Champions of the Commonwealth.
Michael, the Hong Kong Champion.
"I've already given up, I expect someone to fuck up during my round."
In case you don't know, the Aeropress Championship this year is a virtual one, for obvious reasons. Contestants were given the beans, water, and a time limit, to come up with a recipe, which surrogate baristas will replicate.
“In Hong Kong, I used two separate Aeropress and Kalita paper filters. They won't let me do it there.”
(Technically, you shouldn't have been allowed to do it in Hong Kong either, but that's not my problem, I thought.)
“I'm confident with the quality. My recipe is light and elegant, I'm pretty sure I'll stand out, but you never know.”
Michael is an electrical engineer by day and runs a coffee research lab at night. He went through the 'barista' route - being the head of operation and training, ultimately deciding the salary in Hong Kong was just too low and went back to engineering. His studio, aptly named 'Normally Closed', runs workshops during the weeknights and weekends so he could share his theories and findings. He had plans for further studies in Melbourne (RMIT!) before 2020, but now he has rent to pay to support his studio. This was his first time entering, first time winning the championship, beating other 120+ contestants.
I asked if he was surprised that he won.
“Not really. I know my recipe was really special so I was quite confident. When you're doing pour-over, the coffee is going through 0.08 Bar of air pressure, whereas the Aeropress produces 0.5-1 Bar of pressure, so I found a way to adapt to that.”
You're a nerd, I said while messaging him a Chinese translation of 'otaku'.
“What? No, I have a beautiful girlfriend. I play basketball!”
Michael shared and demonstrated a method that would not be possible for the competition. 10g coffee, 180ml water, top with a Kalita paper filter (like a hat), brew for 10 minutes (competition rule is 5 minutes), then push the coffee out holding the Aeropress horizontally. Something to do with reducing air pressure.
I tried it this morning and felt like I was trolled because the Aeropress was hot, making it impossible to push and the coffee just dripped down the filters like running down a baby's bib.
His last message to me was “25 clicks if you're using the C40 hand grinder.”
Ryohji and Alex, the England and New Zealand Champion.
Ryohji is the barista trainer of Origin - a specialty roaster in the UK, not to be confused with the god-awful power company in Australia. It's his first time entering, first time winning. His prize was the $300 C40 hand grinder. He sounded younger than his photographs.
Meanwhile, Alex is a youth pastor in Auckland. Not in the industry - just loves coffee. It's his fourth time entering. His price was a full espresso machine. (Yohji sad.)
10 minutes in, it dawned on me, that they agreed to meet not to promote themselves or Aeropress. Despite the name, the competition has not been very 'worldly' for the contestants this year. Unlike previous years, they couldn't meet other contestants. I think they've never spoken to anyone outside of their bubble. (Alex: "Nobody in my staff or church cares. They will ask 'what's an Aeropress?") This was probably their first interaction, just to be able to talk about the experience, with other champions.
I sidetracked constantly, asking them if Gesha beans are really worth it, what roasters do with leftover beans, what coffee would they make for their partners (unsurprisingly, both their partners weren’t big fans of coffee.) Hana was lying on the bed next to me, pretending to read a book, obviously trying to understand the source of the positive energy.
We decided that we should get together again after the finals. Maybe even start a room during the competition.
Simon, the Australian Champion
You talk like a Formula One driver, I told Simon.
“You know what, that's how I explain it to everyone. You get one driver (coffee maker), but it's actually a whole team of engineers, roasters, green buyers working on it. We are more structured, and we train with each other. That's definitely a strength we have, being a larger company with a lot of help and support. There're other competitions we enter. I coached my partner Carlos Escobar who won the Australian World Brew Championship last season and came 4th internationally.”
'Team', 'season', 'training', 'championship'. Those are definitely F1 talk, amirite?
Look at his hand movements.
Simon is the head of Toby Estate's coffee school in Sydney. Which means he's also in charge of training baristas. He couldn't make our zoom call with Alex and Ryohji earlier in the morning, being stuck in traffic due to NSW's flood. This is his 2nd time competing.
Before our chat, I really wanted to dislike Simon. That's an acceptable reaction to someone who has 12k followers on Instagram, no? I was expecting an influencer, with some faux Californian accent, covered in vanity.
Instead I got a barist version of Lewis Hamilton, with a French accent. (Funny observation: The Australian champion is French, UK champion Japanese; New Zealand champion American.)
“The beans that were given - high altitude, Guatemalan, washed... It's got A LOT of acidity, extremely bright and light. So I suspect we will see many similar recipes across the board. The one I make is going to be very different from that. It's hard when there's no score sheet, so we don't know what the judges are looking for. The only thing we can do is to make it impactful, to stand out with positive attributes. But if all three judges really love high acid coffee, I'll be out, for sure.”
It's probably the accent, but I really find it hard to dislike him. In fact, all four champions, I would not engage on any given day. Just too young, too hipster, too full of hope. Now, I feel like going to Hong Kong, Sydney, Auckland and London just to hang out with them. When someone is so passionate about something, the positivity rubs on you.
I asked them - do you think Aeropress is the best way to drink coffee? Given a choice, is it the first thing you reach out to every morning?
“To be honest, when I won, my partner said ‘You won? But you don't even brew Aeropress!’ <laughs> I think the Aeropress is very good at hiding things in coffee. You will still get an amazing brew out of it, but if you're after clarity, or expect certain floral or tropical fruity notes, it won't be 100%. The floor is higher with the Aeropress, but the ceiling is lower, that's kinda how I see it. So no, at home, I'll probably stick to the V60.”
Michael, Ryohji and Alex expressed the same sentiment, Simon's reply was probably the most articulate.
It's a good thing I wasn't sponsored by Aeropress, because I'm trying to force them into saying it's not the best method of brewing, to confirm my bias.
And yet, that's why I'm also interested in this story.
It isn't the choice for the professionals. Sure, you want to spend $10 on a cup of pour-over in a cafe, thousands on a home espresso machine, more on an EK43 grinder, go ahead.
But, at 1/100th the price and effort, you can enjoy coffee that's better than most, with countless recipes tested and provided by professional baristas around the world to get the best out of this coffee maker.
That's why I identify with this inside-out coffee dildo.
It is a hack. Made for the not-snobs.
I closed our chat by asking for his favourite coffee places in Melbourne (if I ask Sydney, he HAS TO say Toby’s Estate), the answer was Code Black in Brunswick, ONA, Patricia, and another place I’m keeping to myself for now.
Out of everyone, all the champions, only one will be able to attend the championship this Saturday - me.
Tim eventually responded - Bureaux is being renovated, a new counter to be installed, and he has a ticket for me.
Knowing what Michael, Ryohji, Alex, and Simon have been through, now that I've seen the faces that are invested in this, I want to be there.
Even though we're going through a pandemic, a war, a divided world, there are still things, tangible things, that bring people together.
I want to see it with my own eyes.
The rest of the world can stream it.
Live stream starts Saturday 2.45pm AEST.
See if you can find me in my black cap.