Learn How to Make Coffee with a French Press

It’s no secret that I am partial when it comes to compare coffee making methods. French press is the excellent way to prepare your morning coffee, and there is nothing like it, if you ask me. Instead of taking a detour to your local coffee shop, in your way to work, grab a bag of great Arabica whole bean coffee and brew a delicious cup of pressed coffee at home. You can even brew it at work, for a mid-day caffeine dosage.

There is some debate on which device brews the ideal coffee, and many are rising an eyebrow to the humble French press coffee maker coffee maker”. But, if you understand how to work with a Cafetière, and you know how to tweak the brew and adjust it, you will be rewarded with a great cup of joe.

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

Placing the lid on a French press before the steeping

Cafetière Brewing – Art or Research?

The French press, likewise known as a press pot, is a 19th century French innovation that makes an amazing “cup of joe. It covers the gap between the ease of use of a filter coffee maker and the robust tastes of espresso coffee. Though the Press pot tastes are bolder than filter coffee, and it “gives sufficient body, compared to drip, it is not as strong as espresso coffee. This “brews it very appealing for coffee enthusiasts that value a bold coffee, but as strong as the espresso.

Brewing coffee is a process that straddles the line between science and art. Manual brewing techniques such as French press, more so. Whether you are a coffee fanatic or a casual consumer, you can discriminate between a poorly crafted coffee cup and an skillfully brewed one. There is no magic involved, you basically need to follow the method, and the adjust it to your taste. Preparing a fantastic coffee boils down to the: having the right device, using the right recipe, and grasp how every coffee brewing factor will change your cup.

French press coffee maker Brewing – Equipment and Ingredients

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

  • Cafetière
  • Mill
  • Thermometer
  • Timer
  • Scale and measuring cup
  • Kettle
  • Great coffee beans
  • Water

If you are worried about the investment, you could probably do without a few of the items in the list. Press pot is one of the the majority of low-cost coffee makers. But we’ll get to that in a little 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 French press is a beaker with a plunger, a lid, and filter to press the coffee grounds. If you have the indicates 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 grinder

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

If you can’t invest in a grinder at the moment, literally ask your coffee roaster to grind it very coarsely for you. And you need to buy small quantities, because once ground, it will go stale faster.

I recommend a burr mill quite than a blade one. Burr grinders can produce a uniform grind size while a blade grinder 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 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, but it’s a little trickier, due to the reality that 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 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 love the strong aromas 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 utilize your smart phone’s timer for this, no need for fancy device.

Kettle and Thermometer

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

If you conduct 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 discover I said Cafetière coffee doesn’t over-extract, nevertheless it does, if you insist. It likewise depends on your taste; some people love 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 coffee cup, 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. But I have lived in places where tap water was in fact” bad. If that’s your case, utilize bottled water or utilize a filter to “troubleshoot your tap water.

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

Boil the Water

Bring enough water to fill the French press coffee maker to a boil. For a 17-oz press, you’ll need about 12 ounces of water, (1 and a half cups).

For the perfect taste, use fresh water that “gives not been boiled before. Water has dissolved gases that make the water taste better. Boiling removes the gases and the water will taste “flat“.

Dose your Coffee Beans

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

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

Let it Bloom

Place the 50 grams of coffee in the beaker, and then gently pour some of the water over the grounds. Give it a stir to make sure all the grounds are immersed in the water. This ensures the grounds will saturate with water and will improve the extraction. Allow the coffee to bloom for about 30 seconds. Use a wooden stick, to avoid touching the glass with a metal spoon.

Wooden stick stirring in coffee during blooming in a French press coffee maker beaker

Soaking Time

Pour the rest of the water and gently push the plunger in, simply so it touches the water. Don’t plunge completely just yet. Screw the lid on gently. Let the coffee steep for four minutes.

You can get a slightly stronger brew, by infusion longer. At the other end of the range, there are people who use the no steep time method. But the trick with the no steep “recipe, is to work with a medium grind.

Placing the filter at the water degree before steeping

Filtration

Place the coffee press on the counter and carefully and uniformly press the filter down.

The ideal pressure is about 15-20 pounds. If you don’t learn how pressing 15 pounds feels like? Press your plunger on your bathroom scale. More than 20 pounds is not necessarily bad, however beyond this point you don’t have control over the plunging, and grounds could easily spill up in the collector chamber.

Press The Plunger Down
  • If it’s hard to press, that means the coffee grind was too fine;
  • If the plunger goes down to the bottom of the beaker, it implies 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 really fast in a glass Cafetière.

Troubleshooting and Tweaking Press pot Coffee

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

So if you don’t love the coffee you literally made, you may have still done everything right. You just need to tweak 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.

However, 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 extensively on all coffee creating 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 guzzling, then you must utilize bottled water for generating” coffee.

Coffee Freshness

Coffee is perishable. Coffee doesn’t spoil, and you can still ingest it months from the roasting date, but that is not coffee anymore, it’s basically 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 truth that the big roasting houses have special packaging like nitrogen flushing, or vacuum packing.

I recommend 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 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 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, utilizing 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 grinder. (The blade coffee mill it’s not good). Ideally, you must 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 extremely coarse. If you have a decent coffee grinder, 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 grinder provides you an even grind size.

The most 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 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 very 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. Darker 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 Cafetière. Over-extraction it’s a thing, I am not denying it. Nevertheless 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 question that much because glass loses the temperature fast. This means it will only brew at a high temperature for a short time.

Brewing Time

As I said, French press is versatile. Brew longer and you get really “concentrated coffee, what is primarily expected from a Press pot. 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 French press, steep between 2 and 3 minutes.

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

If you want a bomb, steep for 6 minutes.

The problem with long infusion 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 just washes the grounds. Though American 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.

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 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 using an insulated coffee press), you will likewise need to lower your dose.

One thing to remember is that many 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 process too strong. Try to lower the dosage 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 coffee maker, the caffeine content is not too much higher. We may extract slightly more caffeine with a cafetière 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 method is a 1:15 ratio. Literally to avoid any confusion, I recommend 2 degree tablespoons for 4 oz. and Bodum recommends 1 rounded tablespoon for the same 4 oz.

We thought this article was worth mentioning, all the credit goes to Cafetière Coffee, a website that takes Press pot brewing seriously.

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