Pushing for Gold

The World AeroPress Championship is not your typical coffee competition. It’s a global event that celebrates creativity, community, and the unique AeroPress brewing method. What started as a small gathering of friends in 2008 has grown into a worldwide competition, with national champions competing for the title of World AeroPress Champion.

The competition encourages participants to push the limits of coffee brewing by showing off their unique techniques, recipes, and ways of using the AeroPress. The atmosphere is fun and laid-back, but the skill and creativity on display can be truly impressive. The focus is less on strict rules and more on enjoying the process of making coffee, whether you’re a professional barista or a home brewer.

Why are we writing about Aeropress Championship?

Well, the World Championship happened over the weekend in Lisbon, Portugal with 64 countries represented and the newly crowned Champion is a home brewer and enthusiast from Romania. George Stanica is an “emerging technology enthusiast” – looks like he’s an emerging coffee legend now too.

This is a fun, casual, community-driven event that has become an important part of the coffee world.

One of the best parts, the poster designs that come regional and national comps come up with

Dave’s Take;

As a coffee competition coach, I often hear from baristas and coffee lovers who want to try competing but feel nervous about the pressure. My advice? Start with the AeroPress Championship. It’s a low-risk way to enter coffee competitions.

Unlike other contests that need speeches or big themes, AeroPress competitions are all about brewing. It’s a relaxed and fun space for both coffee professionals and home enthusiasts to join in. Whether you’re looking to improve your skills or just enjoy making coffee, AeroPress is a great way to get started without feeling overwhelmed.

Even better, the latest World AeroPress Champion, George Stanica, isn’t a coffee professional—he’s a home brewer who beat over 6,000 competitors from 64 countries. This shows that anyone can succeed, making it an amazing way to connect with the coffee community.

Cole’s Take;

I competed twice in the Aeropress Championship in Canada back in the day and was eliminated in the first round both times. I also twice judged, once the Nationals and, I was pretty stoked last year to judge the World Championship in Vancouver.

I’ve also support a few colleagues as they embark on their conquest of this fun and informal competition. Overall, I believe a healthy competition is a great way to build community and further education – not just in coffee, but in all sorts of formats, from board games to trivia.

The casual natural of the Aeropress Championship is what makes it so fun. This same point, however, to me makes it a touch frustrating, as the judges are often more casual than the competitors. There’s no true criteria or structure to follow to score the best cup, just subjective personal preference followed by a judges countdown, “1, 2, 3, point at your favourite cup”. This style of evaluation leaves competitors without any platform for feedback, therefore, not knowing how to improve or grow as a brewer.

If we’re not getting feedback and growing from competing, what’s the purpose?

The year I judged the Nationals, beers were flowing and it was a full on party! I’d argue the judges might have had more beers than anyone in the crowd and, well, let’s just say we weren’t all that calibrated after a few rounds (a few round of competition and a few rounds of beers…) Drinking sour beers maybe wasn’t conducive to judging Aeropress extractions… That year one of our colleagues at Rosso placed 2nd in Canada – yay, Paul Stephens, and, well, to this day I’m reminded that I, 1, 2, 3, pointed at not Pauls cup.

What are your thoughts on the Aeropress? Do you brew with this device at home? If you do, respond to this email, or comment on the web version with your recipe.

Reading: Many people have been asking us how to start running and we’re still in the learning phase ourselves… If you’re new to running, this article is a great guide for training for a 5K, and here’s another about running slow, to run fast. Both provides simple tips to help you build distance and stay consistent.

Watching: In this episode of Buy the Drip, we sit down with Hunter Tedman, who dives into the controversy surrounding infused coffees and the strict rules governing Panama’s coffee competitions. He sheds light on the importance of transparency and maintaining the integrity of Panama’s renowned Geisha coffees and the award-winning Chiroso! Don’t miss the full conversation—now available in video format on our YouTube channel!

Listening: The Sounds of Space: NASA’s Voyager Recordings. These eerie, otherworldly sounds captured by the Voyager spacecraft are strangely mesmerizing and inspiring. The odd hums and cosmic noises feel like something from a sci-fi movie, yet they’re real recordings from deep space.

Brewing: This week Dave and I are in Japan doing some consulting work. One night while prepping to take off I was watching the Lamastus Family Auction and well, I got involved in the action… Very excited to report that I secured a beautiful washed Geisha (ELIDA GW ASD RF1D AGUACATE 0503-190324) and we are going to release this coffee through the Buy the Drip referral program (see the bottom of this email for current referral offers). We’re going to start dropping some limited release coffees here, just like this one, so stay tuned and tell a friend to tell a friend 👀

this week, Cole used ChatGPT with a prompt; “Make the most complex looking brewer possible, in a Rube Goldberg-style coffee brewing system. It’s filled with whimsical, exaggerated mechanisms working together in a convoluted but fascinating way.”

when’s the World Championship on this brew method launching?

Oh it’s easy to use, you’ve just got to bop it, twist it, pull it, flip it and then dip it.

respond with a photo of your brew bar or get creative with an AI generated scene and we’ll feature and share in an upcoming week of BTD

Distance: Buy the Drip run club. Clocking some kilometers. This week, we covered the distance from Toronto, Canada to Detroit, Michigan, USA

”Push yourself because no one else is going to do it for you. Every rep, every step, you’re one step closer to the best version of yourself.”

Want to join us as we hit the road? Let’s connect on Strava! or, join our Whoop group – just respond to the email and let’s grind together!

^ limited coffee drops coming soon to the referral program // start stacking refs ^