5 Reasons Blooming Makes AeroPress Coffee Taste Amazing

With an Aeropress machine, you can brew a perfect cup of coffee in just a few steps. One essential step that can drastically improve the taste and aroma of your brew is blooming. But what is blooming, and how does it work?

Blooming is a method of increasing coffee flavor by adding a few ounces of warm water over the grounds and steeping for 30 to 40 seconds. Letting your roast bloom allows a quick release of carbon dioxide as the grounds soak in the water and release their rich flavor. This helps the potent flavor spread when you add the remaining water. 

Read on to learn more about how blooming works, why it’s important, and the 5 ways in which it helps your coffee taste amazing.

Key Take Aways:

You can expect a smooth and rich-tasting cup of coffee should you bloom AeroPress. It is a quick and easy way to get the most out of your coffee beans and brewing experience and takes less than one minute.

How Does Blooming An AeroPress Work?

These 4 points describe how blooming an AeroPress works to bring out the best coffee flavor. Blooming is easy, and the information here will help provide some background on how the process works so that you can fine-tune your blooming skills and become better over time, making each cup of coffee taste even better than the last.

1. Releases Carbon Dioxide

Carbon dioxide is the major gas produced during roasting, with darker roasts containing higher values of the gas than lighter roasts. Some of this gas is released during the grinding process while the rest remains trapped within your coffee grounds.

When it comes to processing and packaging, this CO2 plays a vital role, preventing the coffee from oxidizing and extending its shelf life. But that doesn’t mean it adds a pleasant taste! Expert baristas recommend giving your fresh roasts time to degas before brewing them.

Blooming your coffee allows the grounds to release some of this trapped carbon dioxide. As the warm water seeps into the grounds, the brew will start bubbling, and the intensity of this process will depend on the freshness of your roast.

But how does this affect the flavor of your brew?

Carbon dioxide has an unpleasant, sour taste. If you don’t take the proper steps to bloom your grounds before brewing your Aeropress coffee, it will take a bitter aftertaste.

Half a minute to let the coffee bloom adds a welcome depth of flavor to your cup. The sourness from the gas is released before it can get a chance to ruin the flavor of your brew.

2. Draws Out A Burst of Initial Flavor

In addition to removing the sour taste, blooming also helps draw out the rich flavor of your chosen blend. Carbon dioxide has a lot of properties that interfere with the brewing process. The gas repels water, making it incredibly difficult to extract the flavor from the grounds.

When you leave your AeroPress to bloom, the water seeps into the grounds drawing out the rich flavor from the oils and aromatics. If you don’t bloom your coffee grounds, you’ll actually lose a large percentage of the rich flavor that could have been extracted.

As long as carbon dioxide is trapped within your fresh roast, your Aeropress will not be able to extract solubles from your specialty blends. The process will simply infuse an unpleasant sour taste into your brew, ruining its delicious flavor.

Letting your roast breathe and let out its gases is an essential step in the brewing process. But sadly, one that many newer home brewers tend to skip. If you want to make professional quality coffee at home and capture all the delicate notes trapped in your coffee grounds, then you must bloom your coffee!

3. Helps The Potent Flavor Spread

After the blooming process is complete, you’ll end up with a concentrated, potent brew. Generally, blooming involves adding coffee grounds and warm water in a 1-to-2 ratio. Then you let it steep for 30 to 40 seconds when the grounds release carbon dioxide.

The bloom time also ensures all the grounds are soaked and porous. Once the gas is removed, the water begins pulling out the rich flavor from the oils and aromatics. When you add the remaining water to your brew, it becomes easier for the potent flavor to spread. 

This speeds up the extraction and gives your coffee a stronger taste. Using an Aeropress method will give you coffee that’s stronger than a pour-over but weaker than espresso. Of course, other aspects of the brewing process also add to the final result.

For example, your stirring techniques play a role in the final taste of your Aeropress coffee. Stirring too much will make your coffee bitter, but stirring too little will make it weak!

A good strategy is to stir your coffee once during the blooming stage to ensure all your coffee grounds get wet and a second time after the steeping to help extract as much flavor from the grounds as possible.

4. Brings Out Better Flavor Notes

Most coffee lovers spend hours picking out their favorite roasts. Perhaps you like your coffee with a rich chocolate base flavor and lighter fruity notes? Or a spicy blend with citrusy undertones? Well, if you want to taste all those complex flavors in your home brewing, you’ll need to start blooming your coffee.

Although standard practice in cafes and coffee houses, home brewers often overlook the value of blooming. The result is a weak, uneven extraction that doesn’t taste nearly as good as the flavorful brew from your favorite barista.

When you don’t let your coffee grounds bloom, you never give your Aeropress the chance to grab all those delicious flavors. Instead, the water passes through the grind too fast to pick up more than the slightest hint of flavor.

Start blooming your coffee and enjoy an even extraction with a full range of flavor and scent notes. You’ll be surprised at the difference a minute of care and attention can add to your coffee.

If you want to taste the floral, fruity, or citrus notes in your roast, you must start blooming today! Enjoy an even extraction and strong flavors in your favorite coffee grinds.

5. Tests The Freshness Of Your Roast

Blooming only works when your roast is fresh and has still trapped carbon dioxide. If you leave your coffee grounds to bloom and they don’t fizz or bubble, that’s a bad sign.

Normally it means that your coffee has already degassed. There are several reasons why this can happen. The first is if the seal on the packaging was broken or the bag wasn’t sealed correctly. Exposure to air allows your coffee beans to oxidize, which results in a weak or bad brew.

In this case, you should ask your barista for a new bag. They should have no problem replacing your bag if it’s a friendly roaster.

This could also point out an issue of storage. If you aren’t storing your coffee in an airtight container, they may degas before you can brew them. In this situation, you will need to adjust your storage practices, buy a new container, or purchase smaller quantities of coffee at a time.

If your AeroPress coffee isn’t blooming, it can also mean your beans are old or over-roasted. Either way, your supplier is providing you with a mediocre coffee, and you need to shift to a more reliable company.

Blooming your AeroPress is a great way to ensure the freshness of your roast. Often home brewers struggle with poor-tasting coffee despite following all the right steps and techniques. But if you’re brewing oxidized beans, it won’t matter how great your Aeropress is or how perfect your techniques are; you simply won’t get good results!

So Should You Bloom AeroPress Coffee?

At the end of the day, blooming makes your Aeropress coffee taste amazing, and skipping out on this step means doing yourself a disservice. It’s easy, so why not take 30-40 seconds and bloom your AeroPress for the best possible flavor? I mean, why not?