Introducing 2023 World AeroPress Champ: Tay Wipvasutti
NZ exclusive interview with the best 'presser in the world
Nau mai, hoki mai. Welcome back to The Magic Roast.
This post has been made possible by the generous ‘The Magic Roast Members’.
If you love what you read, support The Magic Roast by becoming a member!
The World AeroPress Champs is a crazy, weird and wonderful corner of the competitive coffee world. It celebrates the best AeroPressers that this fine world has to offer, and it does it in a fun and accessible way.
The competition has come a long way from it’s humble beginnings in the back of a cafe in Scandanavia, with three dudes, an AeroPress and an idea.
2023 was huge for the AeroPress champs. Across the year, over 5,000 people across 178 national and regional events competed to represent their country at the Worlds. In December, 61 national champs descended on Melbourne to press for glory.
There can only be one winner, and Tay Wipvasutti, representing Thailand, took it out.
Tay is co-founder of Brave Roasters, based in Bangkok, who have been focusing and still chasing the beauty of Specialty Coffee since 2013.
On his Instagram following his victory, he said:
Sounds like an incredible brewer!
Tay was amazing enough to spend some time sharing a few thoughts with The Magic Roast.
Introducing Tay Wipvasutti
The Magic Roast: Kia ora my bro! Congrats on winning the 2023 World AeroPress Championship. How does it feel?
Tay: “I feel grateful and still feeling it. I’m the second Asian who took over the Gold of this World Stage and technically the first Asian country of this. Yes, I’m absolutely proud!”
TMR: Tell everyone a little bit about your competition experience.
Tay: “I have participated many times mostly in Brewers Cup and other competitions, only got a Silver and never grabbed a Gold in my hands before but, I’m still enjoying the competition moments.
So, my World AeroPress Champion trophy this year is such a big reward to me and my team for a long time dedication of coffee journey.
Somehow, I hopes this will inspire to many people and friends out there around the globe.”
TMR: You sure are an inspiration! I think people can be inspired by your passion and your ability to innovate. Tell us a bit about your competition method - you added some additional coffee after your initial pour. That’s not something I’ve seen often.
Tay: “I figured out the weak point of my national routine [is that I] can’t control the concentration level [the percentage of total dissolved solids] of the coffee before bypass.
From my practice sessions with so many coffees from other Roasters, sometimes I got too strong coffee and too strong coffee you need more water to adjust to the right concentration level and the result will be very sad cups of coffee so I need to manipulate it.
Later I found out less coffee mass, same ratio of water can lower the concentration level. So, I deconstructed my own recipe to a better one by dividing it to 2 portions as 16:2.
The last 2 grams at the end will give an extra concentration with sweeter and juicer mouthfeel.
TMR: Amazing that you were able to deconstruct that and adjust it to a coffee that you had limited time with.
Now that you have the Gold press in hand, what’s next?
Tay: “Success is sweet but not last long. I’m still keeping myself on pace and to be a better one everyday.
Some of my small sharing sessions is coming in 2024 here in Thailand, I can’t wait to inspire to other people.”
TMR: Finally, describe one of your favorite coffee moments or memories.
Tay: “Probably in the Coffee Harvest season here in the Northern part of Thailand. I used to visit and spent a week or more than that with coffee producers every year and I realized some of the beauty parts (both good and bad) of human being from Coffee.”
TMR: What a legend. Thanks for your time!
The winning method
Tay is an absolute winner. I have been smashing this method in the last few weeks and I can see why it took out the gold.
Check it out and brew a world class AeroPress for your next coffee!
The key dets
Brewer Position: Inverted
Dose: 18g total; 16g in step one and 2g in step three
Grind: 1ZPresso ZP6, 65 clicks (fine/medium grind. French Press range)
Water: 100g Perfect Coffee Water @ 81.5% strength, 89°C. A further 40g at room temp for bypass; a further 40g of hot water for bypass.
Filter: 1 Paper Filter, rinsed
The method
Put 16g coffee into the AeroPress and pour hot water for 100g
At 0:30, use 1 side of a chopstick and stir for 5 seconds
At 0:45 put in another 2g of coffee
At 0:55 stir for another 5 seconds
Press down the AeroPress to bring the plunger up and remove any excess air.
Close the cap
At 1:35 flip carefully and press down for about 30 seconds. Your yield should be around 75g +/-.
Bypass with room temperature water to 115g.
Bypass with hot water to a total of 155g +/-.
Taste, and serve.
Become the 2023 World AeroPress Champion.
You can check out all the winning brews over at the World AeroPress website.
Made this brew?
Let me know if you make this brew! I think its an banger, and keen to see if you do as well.
Post it up on instagram, or drop a comment below.