Learn How to Make Coffee with a French Press

There is some debate on which device brews the wonderful coffee, and many are rising an eyebrow to the modest French press coffee maker”. But, if you understand how to use a Cafetière, and you learn how to modify the brew and troubleshoot it, you will be rewarded with a best cup of joe.

We’ve put together this comprehensive guide of Cafetière coffee making, to guide you through your home barista journey.

Cafetière Brewing – Art or Science?

The Cafetière, likewise discussed as a French press, is a 19th century French creation that brews an awesome “cup of joe. It covers the gap between the ease of use of a filter coffee maker and the robust tastes of espresso coffee. Although the Cafetière flavors are bolder than American coffee, and it “gives adequate body, compared to drip, it is not as strong as espresso. This “brews it extremely appealing for coffee enthusiasts that value a strong coffee, but as bold as the espresso.

Brewing coffee is a procedure that straddles the line between research and art. Manual brewing techniques such as French press, more so. Whether you are a coffee connoisseur or a casual consumer, you can tell the difference between a poor cup and an expertly crafted one. There is no magic involved, you literally need to follow the recipe, and the fine-tune it to your taste. Preparing a fantastic coffee boils down to the: having the right tool, utilizing the right method, and grasp how every coffee brewing element will alter your cup.

French press coffee maker Brewing – Tool and Ingredients

In a excellent world, where you take coffee preparing really seriously, this is the equipment and ingredients you will need:

• French press
• Coffee mill
• Thermometer
• Timer
• Scale and measuring cup
• Kettle
• Best coffee beans
• Water

If you are concerned about the investment, you could probably do without a few of the items in the list. French press is one of the a lot of inexpensive coffee makers. But we’ll get to that in a bit bit.

Let’s find out why it is better to have all the equipment on the list first, and how that improves your final cup.

Cafetière

Of course, a French coffee press is the first “device you’ll need to purchase. A French press coffee maker is a beaker with a plunger, a lid, and filter to press the coffee grounds. If you have the implies and you are willing to invest in a more expensive Cafetière you can buy a metallic insulated one, or a ceramic one. The advantage is that they don’t lose the temperature as fast as the glass ones.

Coffee mill

A mill is required equipment for anyone who makes coffee at home. Coffee freshness is required for a excellent cup. Coffee loses its aroma exponentially, after grinding, because there is more surface exposure to the air. So in a wonderful world, you buy coffee beans and grind it minutes before brewing it.

If you can’t invest in a grinding machine at the moment, simply ask your coffee roaster to grind it really coarsely for you. And you need to buy small quantities, due to the fact that once ground, it will go stale faster.

I advise a burr grinder quite than a blade one. Burr grinders can produce a uniform grind size while a blade coffee mill will give you boulders and dust. All of that dust will pass through the screen filter into your coffee.

Scale and Measuring Cup

Measuring out the correct French press coffee maker coffee ratio is important for a consistent taste from brew to brew. If you approximate, and you put too little, or too much grounds for the amount of water used, you’ll end up with a disappointing cup. I’ll show you later in this guide, how coffee flavor is affected by the amount of grounds used.

Ideally, you’ll need a scale to weigh the coffee grounds, and a measuring cup to measure the amount of water. If you don’t have a scale, you could still utilize a spoon to measure the coffee grounds, but it’s a little bit trickier, due to the reality that beans have different density, depending of the roast degree, and origin. Darker beans expand more during the roasting process, so you will have less coffee than a light roast, if you measure by volume.

Timer

A timer is good o have but non-essential. You will read online about over-extraction, and how that ruins your coffee. With Cafetière, over-extraction is less of a problem, “because we enjoy the strong flavors of pressed coffee.  There is also a technical reason why Cafetière coffee doesn’t “actually over-extract, if you work with the right temperature. We’ll get to that during the technical details. You can use your smart phone’s timer for this, no need for fancy device.

Kettle and Thermometer

So a kettle is a nice kitchen appliance that ought to be in anyone’s kitchen. However, if you are a on a tight budget, any pan on the stovetop should execute it. But remember, boiling water in a pan on an electric stovetop is not efficient and it will cost you more in the long run.

If you execute decide to invest in a kettle, an electric variable temperature kettle is the best. It allows you to control the brewing temperature, so you don’t over-extract your coffee. I know I said Press pot coffee doesn’t over-extract, but it does, if you insist. It likewise depends on your taste; some people enjoy a bit more bite on their cup.

If you get a variable temperature kettle, you don’t need a thermometer.

Ingredients – Water and Coffee Beans

Always use freshly roasted, quality whole coffee beans. Beans can be stored in the pantry, in an airtight jar for 2-3 weeks. Buy coffee so it lasts you that long.

Water is as important as the coffee beans. There are only two ingredients that go into a cup of coffee, so it’s important to pay attention to both. Use quality water. I am lucky enough to live in a place with great tap water. But I have lived in places where tap water was in fact” bad. If that’s your case, use bottled water or work with a filter to “troubleshoot your tap water.

How to Work with a French Press: Step-by-Step

Dose your Coffee Beans

I suggest beginning with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, and tweak it up or down to your preference. This comes to 35 grams of coffee grounds for 500 ml of water. Coffee people utilize metric measurements, so to translate that for you, it will be 35 grams of coffee grounds and 16 oz. of water.

The 35 grams of coffee can be estimated to about 8 leveled tablespoons, if you don’t have a scale.

Light roasted coffee beans are denser, so you will need less tablespoons for the same amount. Dark roasts had more time to expand during roasting. There will be less coffee for the same volume than light roasted coffee beans.

So, if you measure beans, approximate to 7 tablespoons for extremely light roasted coffee beans, 10 for really dark roasted beans. If you measure ground coffee is trickier because the differences tend to even out.

Grind Your Coffee

While the kettle is on the stove, grind your coffee. French press coffee maker coffee calls for a coarse, even grind for a clear cup. My personal option for a stronger and flavorful cup, is medium-coarse. Numerous times I use a medium grind, same size as drip.

• If it’s hard to press, that indicates the coffee grind was too fine;
• If the plunger goes down to the bottom of the beaker, it indicates your grind is too coarse.

Keep the plunger perfectly vertical. If you accidentally angle it, coffee grounds will slip through the sides of the screen-filter. Push the plunger down slowly using the weight of your hand and arm for pressure. This way you minimize stirring up the coffee dust.

Now that coffee grounds are separated from your beverage, you can pour it in cups and serve it. Ideally, you conduct” not want to let it sit. Coffee gets cold extremely fast in a glass Cafetière.

Troubleshooting and Tweaking French press Coffee

Let me put it this way: French press brewing is extremely forgiving. Unlike espresso coffee, or pour-over, the expectations are to get a thick, strong coffee. If you are creating a “no-steep” Press pot, then that is a little bit more complicated, nevertheless for a full immersion full time infusion process”, all is relatively “humble.

So if you don’t love the coffee you just made, you may have still done everything right. You just need to adjust it to your own taste. As I said, French press is pretty versatile, as such you can get various “effects just by tweaking the brewing factors.

But, before you start tweaking, it is important to get the basics correct. Follow the steps below in sequence. If the water quality is poor, there is no pint troubleshooting the grind size.

Water Quality

This is covered widely on all coffee creating guides. Can you ingest the water? If the water aromas” good you can make coffee with it. If you need to buy bottled water for guzzling, then you needs to utilize bottled water for generating” coffee.

Coffee Freshness

Coffee is perishable. Coffee doesn’t spoil, and you can still consume it months from the roasting date, nevertheless that is not coffee anymore, it’s literally a way to get caffeinated.

As it ages, coffee loses its flavor. Dark roast coffee beans maintain their flavor up to 10 days to 2 weeks. Lighter roasted beans are still good 3 to 4 weeks after roast. Ground coffee loses its flavor way faster than whole coffee beans.

To sum up: the darker the coffee is roasted, the shorter the window of freshness is.

Coffee at the grocery store doesn’t have a roasted date, they have instead an expiration date. Typically, this isn’t a problem, because the big roasting houses have special packaging like nitrogen flushing, or vacuum packing.

I advise buying from a reputable local roaster, “because you can have perfectly fresh coffee, and you will have the option of buying a single origin.

Grind Size

The French press coffee maker brewing process” uses a coarse grind size, coarser than filter coffee. If the grind is too fine, coffee grounds might slip through the filter into your cup. Your coffee will be too bold, and you might have problems plunging in. If the grind is too coarse the coffee could taste weak and sour.

Grind it when you buy it, using the commercial-grade coffee mill in the store, or ask your local roaster to grind it for you, if you don’t have a good grinder. (The blade grinder it’s not good). Ideally, you must own a burr coffee mill” so you can grind it yourself just before brewing.

You might have read the majority of” French press brewing guides recommending grinding extremely coarse. If you have a decent mill, there in fact” is no need to grind that coarse. If coffee “flavors too bold, just add less grounds. The main reason for grinding coarsely, is that coffee bits don’t get through. A decent mill gives you an even grind size.

The biggest problem with bad grinders is that they produce dust and boulders. Historically, in order to avoid this, home baristas adjusted their grind to coarse, in order to avoid the dust. With an even grind, you can go as low as filter coffee grind size. The coffee grounds will expand when soaked in water, and they won’t pass through the screen.

Sure, my advice to grind finer than you would goes against the advice of great coffee houses. All I am asking is give it a try. If you “love it, please come back and comment about it. If you hate it, come back and complain about it.

Brewing Temperature

The brewing temperature for Cafetière is basically off a boil. If you need to measure that with a thermometer, is 195-205 F, (90-96 C).

If you use a lighter roast aim for a brewing temperature close to 205 F. Dark roasted beans are more soluble than lighter ones, so 195 F is more appropriate.

Here is the thing with the brewing temperature, it’s not that critical with a glass French press. Over-extraction it’s a thing, I am not denying it. But you get over-extraction when you combine two or more brewing factors wrong. If only the temperature is high, in a glass Cafetière won’t issue that much because glass loses the temperature fast. This indicates it will only brew at a high temperature for a short time.

Brewing Time

As I said, French press coffee maker is versatile. Brew longer and you get extremely “concentrated coffee, what is mainly expected from a French press coffee maker. Brew shorter, and you have a brighter cup, with less body. Closer to a American coffee if you want.

If you want a brighter cup, again, not your “normal Cafetière, steep between 2 and 3 minutes.

If you want the traditional Cafetière coffee, steep around 4 minutes. This is the many popular brew time one of Cafetière baristas.

If you want a bomb, steep for 6 minutes.

The problem with long soaking times is that the body overwhelms the flavor. So, delicate origin aromas will be masked by the boldness.

Let’s not forget the no-steeping process. That produces the closest brew to a drip. The major differences are that Cafetière uses full immersion, whereas drip very washes the grounds. Although filter coffee can work with a screen filter, the majority of often we associate drip with a paper filter. The paper filter gets rid of all of the oils from the coffee.

Dosage

Getting the dosage correct is the last step. The reason it is the last step is that the other steps tend to have more fixed rules. “though there is a recommended dosage,

The dosage is a question of personal option and as I said, it is dependent on all other brewing parameters. If your grind is very fine, you want to lower the grounds quantity per cup. If your water is too hot for too long, (you are using an insulated coffee press), you will also need to lower your dosage.

One thing to remember is that most recipes on the Internet assume you want a rich coffee. As such, they are created to fulfil that expectation. If you are new to French press coffee maker, you might find coffee from a fundamental method too strong. Try to lower the dose and see how you enjoy” it that way.

One think to remember is that although coffee is so bold coming out from a Cafetière, the caffeine content is not too much higher. We may extract slightly more caffeine with a French press however not by much.

As a reminder, I suggest my 25 grams of coffee for two cups of water. As a comparison, Bodum, the famous coffee maker manufacturer recommends 1 rounded tablespoon for every 4 oz. This a 1:20 ratio, whereas my procedure is a 1:15 ratio. Just to avoid any confusion, I advise 2 level tablespoons for 4 oz. and Bodum recommends 1 rounded tablespoon for the same 4 oz.