Local barista ready to take the plunge as Vancouver hosts World AeroPress Championship

At his day job as abarista at Vancouver's Nemesis Coffee, Jeremiah Macadam usesa Slayer-brand espresso machine, which weighsaround 100 kilograms.

On Friday, Macadam will takepart in an international coffee-making competition equipped with a plastic, syringe-like objectthatweighsaround 400 grams.

Macadam will represent Canada at the World AeroPress Championship, taking place in Vancouver through Saturday.

The main event, which happensFriday at The Pipe Shop in North Vancouver, will see competitors from around the world try to make the best cup of coffee with an AeroPress, a cylindrical tube with a plunger and a silicone seal.

The AeroPress was created in 2005 by toy inventorAlan Adler,who was looking for a wayto manually make a single cup of coffee.Macadam sayshe usually uses the AeroPresswhile camping or backpacking and has grown to appreciate itsversatility.

"There's a bunch of different styles or ways that you can brew an AeroPress and that creativity really gives the barista the opportunity to highlight different flavoursor really bring out what they want in that certain coffee," he said.

Several variables go into using anAeroPress, he said,including grind size, the quantity andtemperature of the water,how long youlet the coffee steep, how much youstiror agitate the coffee, and how hard you press down on the plunger.

What's Macadam's style?

"I love a fairly coarse grind and a lot of agitation," he said.

Captain Canuck

Grant Gamble, one of the championship's co-organizers, describes the event as afast-pacedelimination tournament where competitors have five minutesto make coffee using the same type of beans and an AeroPress beforepresenting their creation toa panel of three judges.

He says it differs from manycoffee competitions that allow people to use different equipment and beans.

"It's a pretty even playing field, unlike many other coffee competitions where a lot of times it kind of feels like Formula Onewhere [if] you have more money, more resources, you can tend to do better in competition," he said.

Once a champion is crowned,competitors will visit10 coffee shops around Vancouver on Saturdaytobrewthe winner's recipe.

Gamblesays the championship started in 2008when agroup of friends in Norwaywanted to see who could make the best cup of coffee.

From there it's grown to feature more than 3,500 competitors annually from dozens of countries.Hesays the championship does receive support from AeroPress, but is its own independent organization.

This year's championshipin Vancouver will host competitors from 39countries including some from countrieswho are competing for the first time, including Uganda, Moroccoand Oman.They're not allbaristas, butcome from all walks of life, Gamble says.

Macadam says he loves the competition. In this case, he'll be in the rare position of vying for a world titlein front of a hometown crowd.

"My family isgoing to get to come watch. My wife will come watch ... and my close buddyis coaching me here," he said."They called me Captain Canuck," he said.

So what advice does a competitive AeroPress userhave for the average Joe looking to up their game?

Macadam recommends using a scale to measurecoffee grounds. Those who don't have a scale should aim to fill their AeroPress with about an inch-and-a-half to two inches of ground coffee.

"Pourhot water over top, all the way to the top, give it maybe threestirs, put the cap on, let it sit 'tilabout a minute-and-a-half ortwo minutes, and then press it," he said.

"That'llprobably produce a pretty decent cup of coffee."