Learn How to Make Coffee with a French Press

There is some debate on which device steeps the perfect coffee, and most are rising an eyebrow to the modest Cafetière coffee maker”. But, if you understand how to utilize a Cafetière, and you understand how to fine-tune the brew and fix it, you will be repaid with a best caffeinated beverage.

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

French press coffee maker Brewing – Art or Science?

The Press pot, also known as a French press coffee maker, is a 19th century French innovation that brews an amazing “cup of joe. It covers the gap between the convenience of a filter coffee maker and the robust tastes of espresso. Although the Cafetière flavors are bolder than American coffee, and it “gives sufficient body, compared to drip, it is not as strong as espresso. This “brews it really appealing for coffee lovers that appreciate a strong coffee, but as strong as the espresso.

Brewing coffee is a method that straddles the line between scientific research and art. Manual brewing techniques such as Cafetière, more so. Whether you are a coffee fanatic or a casual consumer, you can discriminate between a poor cup and an expertly crafted one. There is no magic involved, you just need to follow the recipe, and the fine-tune it to your taste. Preparing a fantastic coffee boils down to the: having the right equipment, utilizing the right process, and grasp how every coffee creating aspect will change your cup.

French press coffee maker Brewing – Equipment and Ingredients

In a wonderful world, where you take coffee preparing very seriously, this is the tool and ingredients you will need:

• Cafetière
• Coffee grinder
• Thermometer
• Timer
• Scale and measuring cup
• Kettle
• Excellent coffee beans
• Water

If you are worried about the investment, you could probably do without a few of the items in the list. French press coffee maker is among the most 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.

Press pot

Of course, a French coffee press is the first “device you’ll need to purchase. A Cafetière is a beaker with a plunger, a lid, and filter to press the coffee grounds. If you have the suggests and you are willing to invest in a more expensive French press 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 essential tool for anyone who makes coffee at home. Coffee freshness is necessary for a fantastic cup. Coffee loses its aroma exponentially, after grinding, due to the truth that 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 coffee mill at the moment, just ask your coffee roaster to grind it really coarsely for you. And you need to buy small quantities, because once ground, it will go stale faster.

I advise a burr grinding machine rather than a blade one. Burr grinders can produce a uniform grind size while a blade 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 Press pot 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 on. 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, however it’s a little trickier, due to the fact that beans have different density, depending of the roast level, and origin. Darker beans expand more during the roasting technique, 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 Press pot, over-extraction is less of a problem, “because we enjoy the bold aromas of pressed coffee.  There is likewise a technical reason why French press coffee maker coffee doesn’t “actually over-extract, if you use the right temperature. We’ll get to that during the technical details. You can utilize your smart phone’s timer for this, no need for fancy equipment.

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 ought to execute it. However 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 perform decide to invest in a kettle, an electric variable temperature kettle is the perfect. It allows you to control the brewing temperature, so you don’t over-extract your coffee. I understand I said Press pot coffee doesn’t over-extract, however it does, if you insist. It also depends on your taste; some people enjoy a little 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 utilize 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. Work with quality water. I am lucky enough to live in a place with great tap water. Nevertheless I have lived in places where tap water was in fact” bad. If that’s your case, work with bottled water or work with a filter to “troubleshoot your tap water.

How to Utilize a French Press: Step-by-Step

Dose your Coffee Beans

I suggest beginning with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, and fine-tune it up or down to your choice. This comes to 35 grams of coffee grounds for 500 ml of water. Coffee people work with 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.

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

So, if you measure beans, approximate to 7 tablespoons for extremely light roasted beans, 10 for very darker roasted beans. If you measure ground coffee is trickier due to the fact that 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 choice for a stronger and flavorful cup, is medium-coarse. Lots of times I use a medium grind, same size as drip.

• If it’s hard to press, that suggests the coffee grind was too fine;
• If the plunger goes down to the bottom of the beaker, it means 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 French press coffee maker.

Troubleshooting and Tweaking French press Coffee

Let me put it this way: French press coffee maker brewing is very forgiving. Unlike espresso, or pour-over, the expectations are to get a thick, bold coffee. If you are creating a “no-steep” French press, then that is a bit more complex, but for a full immersion full time soaking process”, all is relatively “humble.

So if you don’t love the coffee you just brewed, you may have still done everything right. You just need to modify it to your own taste. As I said, Cafetière is pretty versatile, as such you can get various “effects basically 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 making guides. Can you consume the water? If the water aromas” good you can make coffee with it. If you need to buy bottled water for downing, then you must work with 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, but that is not coffee anymore, it’s just 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, due to the reality that 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 choice of buying a single origin.

Grind Size

The Cafetière brewing process” uses a coarse grind size, coarser than drip coffee. If the grind is too fine, coffee grounds might slip through the filter into your cup. Your coffee will be too strong, 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 grinding machine in the store, or ask your local roaster to grind it for you, if you don’t have a good coffee grinder. (The blade coffee 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 coffee maker brewing guides recommending grinding really coarse. If you have a decent coffee 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 grinding machine offers you an even grind size.

The the majority of significant 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 drip 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 Press pot is just off a boil. If you need to measure that with a thermometer, is 195-205 F, (90-96 C).

If you work with a lighter roast aim for a brewing temperature close to 205 F. Dark roasts 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 coffee maker. 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 due to the truth that glass loses the temperature fast. This suggests it will only brew at a high temperature for a short time.

Brewing Time

As I said, Cafetière is versatile. Brew longer and you get extremely “concentrated coffee, what is primarily expected from a French press. Brew shorter, and you have a brighter cup, with less body. Closer to a filter 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 Press pot coffee, steep around 4 minutes. This is the many popular brew time among Cafetière baristas.

If you want a bomb, steep for 6 minutes.

The problem with long steeping times is that the body overwhelms the flavor. So, delicate origin flavors 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 French press uses full immersion, whereas drip just 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 eliminates all of the oils from the coffee.

Dose

Getting the dose 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 dose,

The dosage is a question of personal choice and as I said, it is dependent on all other brewing parameters. If your grind is really fine, you want to lower the grounds quantity per cup. If your water is too hot for too long, (you are utilizing 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, you might find coffee from a standard procedure too concentrated. Try to lower the dosage 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 mildly more caffeine with a cafetière however not by much.

As a reminder, I recommend 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 technique is a 1:15 ratio. Simply to avoid any confusion, I recommend 2 level tablespoons for 4 oz. and Bodum recommends 1 rounded tablespoon for the same 4 oz.