Italian AeroPress Championship 2026: Winner and Finalist Recipes

Silvio Rascioni won the 2026 Italian AeroPress Championship in Rome with a slow, cool, upside-down brew: 18 g of coffee, 250 g of soft water at 85 °C (185 °F), flipped at 2:30. Mattia Maculotti came second and Gianni Dylan Caputo third. All three finalists brewed inverted, and all three recipes are below with exact amounts and times. Silvio goes on to the World AeroPress Championship in Mexico City on December 6, 2026.

In September I went to the Italian AeroPress Championship in Rome. Lots of coffee, a few nerves, a pile of different recipes, and the moment when an ordinary AeroPress almost turns into sports equipment.

It’s why I love the AeroPress. It looks simple: coffee, water, a couple of minutes. But change the recipe, the grind or the temperature, and you get a different coffee in the cup. A championship shows it better than anything: everyone has the same beans, and every cup comes out different.

After the championship I wrote to the finalists, and they shared their competition recipes with me. The amounts and times below are theirs. I took all the photos in this piece.

How the championship went

It was the second time the national championship was held in Rome, this time at the newly opened Coffee Tech Lab on Via del Mandrione. There were 24 competitors. Even at calibration, the practice brews with the competition coffee before the heats, it was clear how differently everyone approached the same beans. Many played with cold water: some mixed it with hot, some brewed with cold water alone, to bring out sweetness and cut bitterness.

Three judges tasted the cups: Davide Spinelli, Alberto Battisti, the 2025 Italian AeroPress Champion, and Chiara Panichi. The head judge was Gianni Olimpo.

How an AeroPress championship works: the rules

Every national championship runs on the World AeroPress Championship rules. The format is simple: competitors brew side by side with the same coffee, the judges point at the cup they like best, and the winner goes through. There’s no score sheet and no presentation. Only the cup counts. These are the main rules from the 2026 edition.

• Heats: two or more competitors brew at the same time, in a knockout. The winner of each heat goes through to the next round; the others are out. Rome used heats of three.
• Time: five minutes for everything on stage: preheating, grinding, brewing and pouring into the judges’ vessel. A cup that isn’t served in time isn’t judged.
• Before the clock: competitors may sort their beans, weigh the doses, heat the water and put the filter in the cap. They may not rinse the filter, warm the brewer or grind until the time starts. Sorting by hand, as Silvio and Mattia did, happens here.
• Brewer: one genuine AeroPress Original or Clear, with its chamber, plunger and filter cap. The Flow Control cap is allowed; the Go, XL and Premium are not. No other brewer may be used at any step.
• Filter: any material, paper, metal or cloth, as long as it fits inside the cap and tastes neutral. Silvio’s metal-plus-paper stack is within the rules.
• Coffee: only ground coffee and water. If the host supplies a competition coffee, as in Rome, it’s the only one allowed. At most 20 g per recipe.
• Water: competitors may bring their own unless the host supplies one. It must taste neutral, and the head judge can taste it and refuse anything sweetened. Mineral concentrates added on their own aren’t allowed. Ice is fine, and bypass water, added after brewing, can be any temperature. That’s the rule behind the cold water I saw at calibration.
• In the cup: at least 150 g of brewed coffee.
• Judging: blind. Names are written under the cups. Each judge tastes with a spoon, slurps, spits and decides alone, without talking to the others. On the count of three, they all point at their favorite. If every judge picks a different cup, the head judge tastes them all and decides.
• Who can compete: anyone, of any age and without a passport from that country, who has lived there for the three months before the event. If the national champion can’t travel to the world final, the place goes to second, then third.

In Rome, eight first-round heats of three made up the 24 competitors. The heat winners went into three semifinals, and the three semifinal winners met in the final.

The competition coffee

Everyone brewed the same coffee from Honduras. Esperanto supplied the green coffee. La Marzocco and Accademia del Caffè Espresso roasted it and organized the championship. Brita supplied the water, IMS Filtri the metal filters, and Oatly kept the guests in drinks all evening.

Grinders, kettles and recipes are the competitors’ own, and two of the finalists brewed with their own bottled water. That’s where the cups start to differ.

The three finalist recipes compared

All three brewed inverted: the AeroPress stands upside down on its plunger while the coffee steeps, then flips onto the cup for the press. Nothing drips through early, so the steep time is exactly what you set. Our AeroPress guide explains how to flip safely.

	Silvio Rascioni (1st)	Mattia Maculotti (2nd)	Gianni Dylan Caputo (3rd)
Coffee	18 g	15 g	18 g (9 g + 9 g)
Water	250 g	115 g, diluted to 150 g	200 g (100 g + 100 g)
Ratio	1:14	1:7.7 brew, about 1:11.5 with dilution	1:11
Temperature	85 °C (185 °F)	86 °C (187 °F)	–
Water brand	Levissima, 80 ppm	Maniva	–
Grinder	Pietro, Pro Brew burrs, setting 9	Timemore Chestnut G1, 19 clicks	–
Filter	IMS Ultra Fine metal + paper	AeroPress paper	–
Flip	2:30	2:15	2:15
In the cup	160 g	150 g	–

Two things stand out. The two finalists who shared their temperature brewed at 85–86 °C (185–187 °F), about 10 degrees cooler than our everyday AeroPress recipe. That matches what I saw at calibration: cooler water for more sweetness and less bitterness. And both sorted their beans by hand before grinding. Our ratio calculator scales any of these recipes to your mug.

1st place: Silvio Rascioni’s winning recipe

Silvio (@silvio_rascioni) has been in coffee a long time. He spent six years as a barista in Sydney, then worked as a certified trainer at Accademia Italiana Maestri del Caffè, then joined La Marzocco as a brand ambassador and after-sales specialist. In 2021 he judged the Italian AeroPress Championship. This year he won it.

He prepared mostly at home in Florence and flew in from London, traveling light, without his own grinder. Gianni, who went on to take third, told him not to worry and lent him his. Silvio barely tested the competition coffee beforehand, so as not to overthink it, and worked it out on stage.

His recipe is a long, gentle brew with soft water, a very coarse grind and a double filter. MixerPlanet described his cup as having a persistent sweetness and a really remarkable body. Before grinding, he kept only the largest beans. He told Comunicaffè it was for a more even grind. Brewing inverted let him stretch the pre-infusion: a small first pour that soaks the grounds before the rest of the water goes in.

Before you start

• Heat Levissima water to 85 °C (185 °F).
• Weigh 18 g of coffee and keep only the large beans.
• Grind on a Pietro with Pro Brew burrs at setting 9.
• Rinse the paper filter and put it in the cap with the IMS metal filter. Warm the server.
• Stand the AeroPress inverted on the scale and tare.

Brew

1. 0:00 Add the coffee, pour 50 g of water and swirl in small circles. (scale: 50 g)
2. 0:00–1:00 Leave it for a full minute: this is the pre-infusion.
3. 1:00 Pour to 250 g in total. (scale: 250 g)
4. 2:30 Fit the cap, flip onto the warm server and press.
5. Serve Pour 160 g into the cup. The rest stays in the server.

2nd place: Mattia Maculotti’s recipe

Mattia (@mattflavourwheels) brewed a strong concentrate and diluted it. He told me he wanted a balanced cup with good body and no bitterness. After the final, the judges told him his cup was very close to the winner’s, just a little more bitter.

Mattia took the 2024–2026 ITS Specialty Coffee course at Scuola Galdus in Milan, taught by Davide Franzini and Sergio Canetti. He graduated with honors in July and has worked with the school since September. The school runs its research and events at JoinUs Milano, its own space open to visitors. On weekends Mattia is behind the bar at Ditta Artigianale Milano Magenta on Corso Magenta 31, so if you’re in Milan, stop by for a coffee.

His cup measured about 1.20% TDS. That’s the share of the drink that’s dissolved coffee. The Specialty Coffee Association’s Golden Cup standard for brewed coffee is 1.15–1.35%, so his cup sits right in the middle.

Before you start

• Heat Maniva water to 86 °C (187 °F).
• Weigh 15 g of coffee and pick out the defects: quakers (pale, underripe beans), scorched beans, broken beans and shells.
• Grind at 19 clicks on a Timemore Chestnut G1 (medium-fine).
• Put an AeroPress paper filter in the cap.
• Stand the AeroPress inverted on the scale and tare.

Brew

1. 0:00 Add the coffee, pour 115 g of water and give it 10 gentle stirs with a paddle. (scale: 115 g)
2. Right after Lift the kettle off its base and open the lid so the water cools. You’ll dilute with it.
3. 2:15 Fit the cap, flip onto the cup and press over about 15 seconds.
4. About 2:30 You’ll have 90–95 g of concentrate. Top up with the cooled water to 150 g. (scale: 150 g)

3rd place: Gianni Dylan Caputo’s recipe

Gianni (@gianni___dylan) took third with the most unusual recipe of the three: he added his coffee in two doses, the second one halfway through the brew. He’s also the one who lent the future champion his grinder. He describes his cup as very balanced and sweet, with gentle acidity and notes of milk chocolate and yellow fruit.

Before you start

• Weigh two doses of 9 g of coffee.
• Grind the coffee and heat the water.
• Stand the AeroPress inverted on the scale and tare.

Brew

1. 0:00 Add the first 9 g of coffee and pour 100 g of water. (scale: 100 g)
2. 0:45 Pour another 100 g. (scale: 200 g)
3. 1:30 Add the second 9 g of coffee.
4. 2:15 Fit the cap, flip onto the cup and press.
5. 2:40 Finish pressing by now at the latest.

Which recipe to try at home

Mattia’s is the easiest to copy: a standard paper filter, a popular hand grinder and four steps. Silvio’s needs a metal filter and soft water to taste the way it did in Rome. If your tap water is hard, a bottle of low-mineral water is the cheap way to get closer. No Pietro or Timemore? Our grind chart shows what medium-fine looks like.

Pro tip: change one thing at a time. Brew the recipe as written once, then adjust only the grind. Sour means grind finer; bitter means grind coarser.

Next: the World AeroPress Championship in Mexico City

Silvio will compete for Italy at the World AeroPress Championship final at Frontón Bucareli in Mexico City on December 6, 2026. It’s in our coffee events calendar, with the other big coffee events of the season. According to CDMX Secreta, the season started with nearly 8,000 competitors in more than 60 countries, across over 230 regional and national events. It’s the first time the world final has been held in a coffee-producing country.

Italian AeroPress Championship 2026 FAQ

Sources

• Comunicaffè, Parlando con Silvio Rascioni, campione AeroPress 2026 (September 22, 2026).
• MixerPlanet, Il vincitore del Campionato Italiano AeroPress 2026 è Silvio Rascioni (September 22, 2026).
• World AeroPress Championship, Rules and Regulations of Competition (2026 edition, updated June 9, 2026).
• CDMX Secreta, World AeroPress Championship CDMX 2026.
• World AeroPress Championship, 2026 event listings.
• Specialty Coffee Association, SCA Standard 310-2021: Golden Cup (brew strength 1.15–1.35% TDS).
• Recipes and comments from the three finalists, in correspondence with Sasha Pavlovich.

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Published October 9, 2026