A few years ago I was given one of the best Christmas presents I’ve ever received: an Aeropress. Made by Aerobie, who used to primarily be a sports equipment manufacturer, Aeropress is an affordable, efficient sort of French-press style coffee contraption that makes amazing coffee. I’ve tried all sorts of different coffee making methods, and I’m always coming back to Aeropress because of its portability and ease-of-use—not to mention the great coffee and espresso you can make with it.

The Aeropress came about when its inventor Alan Adler, a Stanford professor who invented the Aerobie flying disc, was talking with someone at a dinner party about their frustration over having to brew a full pot of coffee all the time, and letting so much go to waste or stale. Adler, a coffee lover himself, was frustrated with this too and went to work on a single-cup coffee maker. It took a lot of studying about the brewing process and over 40 prototypes to get to the Aeropress we know and love today. 

The Aeropress is now a celebrated device in the coffee world with international brewing competitions and a sort of cult following. Its forced air and paper filter method allow users to extract great flavor in a short time, and its simple plastic design makes for easy cleanup. 

Just like the Aeropress itself was a bit of serendipity, the discovery that it makes great cold brew coffee seems to be as well. The Aeropress has long been lauded for its ability to produce the quality of espresso-based coffee drinks that a coffee shop’s $5,000 or $6,000 machines can, but hadn’t been talked about much in light of the recent cold brew craze. 

As it turns out though, cold brew in the Aeropress was on Adler’s radar, and the coffee-loving inventor has come through again.The same Aeropress I reach for multiple times a day can be used to produce cold brew, too, with just a few modifications to the standard method. 

Whether hot or cold, start with great coffee (I enjoy Intelligentsia’s El Diablo) and grind it at home.

As anyone who’s familiar with the Aeropress knows, there’s an incredible amount of different brewing techniques, and we deviate from the standard method ourselves, with a bit of a longer brew time and by using the inverted method so many of the Aeropress’ fans use. Here’s how we make our hot coffee in the Aeropress:

(Step by step instructions follow in the gallery below)