Learn How to Make Coffee with a French Press

There is some argument on which device makes the ideal coffee, and most are rising an eyebrow to the simple Press pot coffee maker”. But, if you understand how to work with a French press coffee maker, and you discover how to fine-tune the brew and fix it, you will be compensated with a great coffee cup.

We’ve put together this comprehensive guide of Press pot coffee preparation, to guide you through your home barista journey.

Press pot Brewing – Art or Science?

The Press pot, also discussed as a cafetière, is a 19th century French innovation that makes remarkable “cup of joe. It covers the gap between the practicality of a American coffee maker and the robust tastes of espresso coffee. Although the French press coffee maker aromas are bolder than drip coffee, and it “gives ample body, compared to drip, it is not as strong as espresso coffee. This “brews it really appealing for coffee aficionados that value a strong coffee, however as bold as the espresso coffee.

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 enthusiast or a casual consumer, you can tell the difference between a poorly brewed caffeinated beverage and an expertly made one. There is no magic involved, you simply need to follow the recipe, and the modify it to your taste. Preparing a great coffee boils down to the: having the right tool, using the right method, and grasp how every coffee preparation element will alter your cup.

Cafetière Brewing – Device and Ingredients

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

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

If you are concerned about the investment, you could probably do without a few of the items in the list. Cafetière is among the most inexpensive coffee makers. However we’ll get to that in a little bit.

Let’s discover why it is better to have all the device 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 Press pot 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 coffee maker 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.

Grinding machine

A grinding machine is required tool for anyone who steeps coffee at home. Coffee freshness is required for a wonderful 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 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 suggest a burr grinder rather 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 Cafetière 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, because beans have different density, depending of the roast level, 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 however 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 bold flavors of pressed coffee.  There is also a technical reason why French press coffee doesn’t “actually over-extract, if you use 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 equipment.

Kettle and Thermometer

So a kettle is a nice kitchen appliance that ought to be in anyone’s kitchen. Nevertheless, if you are a on a tight budget, any pan on the stovetop must 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 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 find out I said Cafetière coffee doesn’t over-extract, nevertheless it does, if you insist. It likewise 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 joe, so it’s important to pay attention to both. Work with quality water. I am lucky enough to live in a place with fantastic tap water. However I have lived in places where tap water was in fact” bad. If that’s your case, use bottled water or utilize a filter to “troubleshoot your tap water.

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

Dose your Coffee Beans

I recommend starting with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, and adjust 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. Darker roasted beans had more time to expand during roasting. There will be less coffee for the same volume than lighter roasts.

So, if you measure beans, approximate to 7 tablespoons for very light roasted beans, 10 for very darker 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 stovetop, grind your coffee. Cafetière coffee calls for a coarse, even grind for a clear cup. My personal option for a stronger and flavorful cup, is medium-coarse. Several times I work with a medium grind, same size as drip.

• If it’s hard to press, that implies the coffee grind was too fine;
• If the plunger goes down to the bottom of the beaker, it suggests 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 utilizing 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 very fast in a glass Press pot.

Troubleshooting and Tweaking Cafetière Coffee

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

So if you don’t enjoy the coffee you literally crafted, you may have still done everything right. You actually 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 brewing guides. Can you drink the water? If the water aromas” good you can make coffee with it. If you need to buy bottled water for downing, then you ought to utilize bottled water for generating” coffee.

Coffee Freshness

Coffee is perishable. Coffee doesn’t spoil, and you can still drink it months from the roasting date, however 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 suggest buying from a reputable local roaster, “because you can have perfectly fresh coffee, and you will have the preference of buying a single origin.

Grind Size

The French press coffee maker 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, utilizing the commercial-grade coffee grinder 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 needs to own a burr coffee mill” so you can grind it yourself literally before brewing.

You might have read the majority of” Press pot 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 strong, just add less grounds. The main reason for grinding coarsely, is that coffee bits don’t get through. A decent coffee 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 American 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 wonderful 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 simply 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 coffee maker. Over-extraction it’s a thing, I am not denying it. However you get over-extraction when you combine two or more brewing factors wrong. If only the temperature is high, in a glass French press coffee maker won’t issue that much because 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 really “concentrated coffee, what is generally expected from a Cafetière. 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 French press, steep between 2 and 3 minutes.

If you want the traditional Press pot coffee, steep around 4 minutes. This is the the majority of popular brew time one of Press pot 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 method. That produces the closest brew to a drip. The major differences are that Press pot uses full immersion, whereas drip simply washes the grounds. Although drip coffee can utilize a screen filter, the majority of often we associate drip with a paper filter. The paper filter removes all of the oils from the coffee.

Dose

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 issue of personal option and as I said, it is dependent on all other brewing parameters. If your grind is extremely 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 likewise need to lower your dosage.

One thing to remember is that a lot of recipes on the Internet assume you want a rich coffee. As such, they are created to fulfil that expectation. If you are new to Cafetière, you might find coffee from a standard recipe 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 concentrated coming out from a French press, the caffeine content is not too much higher. We may extract mildly more caffeine with a press pot however not by much.

As a reminder, I advise 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 recipe is a 1:15 ratio. Literally to avoid any confusion, I advise 2 degree tablespoons for 4 oz. and Bodum recommends 1 rounded tablespoon for the same 4 oz.