Learn How to Make Coffee with a French Press

There is some debate on which equipment makes the great coffee, and most are rising an eyebrow to the modest French press coffee maker”. However, if you discover how to utilize a Cafetière, and you discover how to tweak the brew and troubleshoot it, you will be compensated with a excellent caffeinated beverage.

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

Press pot Brewing – Art or Scientific research?

The Cafetière, also called a French press coffee maker, is a 19th century French innovation that steeps remarkable “cup of joe. It covers the gap between the ease of work with of a filter coffee maker and the robust flavors of espresso coffee. Even though the French press aromas are bolder than drip coffee, and it “gives sufficient body, compared to drip, it is not as concentrated as espresso. This “brews it very appealing for coffee lovers that appreciate a strong coffee, however as bold as the espresso coffee.

Brewing coffee is a procedure that straddles the line between scientific research and art. Manual brewing techniques such as French press coffee maker, more so. Whether you are a coffee connoisseur or a casual consumer, you can discriminate between a poorly made caffeinated drink and an skillfully made one. There is no magic involved, you literally need to follow the process, and the fine-tune it to your taste. Preparing a excellent coffee boils down to the: having the right equipment, using the right technique, and understanding how every coffee brewing factor will alter your cup.

Cafetière Brewing – Device and Ingredients

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

• Press pot
• Grinding machine
• Thermometer
• Timer
• Scale and measuring cup
• Kettle
• Wonderful coffee beans
• Water

If you are anxious about the investment, you could probably do without a few of the items in the list. French press is one of the most affordable coffee makers. However 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.

French press coffee maker

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 indicates and you are willing to invest in a more expensive Press pot 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.

Mill

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

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

I advise a burr mill rather than a blade one. Burr grinders can produce a uniform grind size while a blade grinding machine 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 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 use 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 recipe, 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 bold tastes of pressed coffee.  There is also a technical reason why Press pot 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 needs to be in anyone’s kitchen. Nevertheless, if you are a on a tight budget, any pan on the stove must conduct it. Nevertheless 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 understand I said French press coffee doesn’t over-extract, however it does, if you insist. It likewise depends on your taste; some people love 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 work with 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 caffeinated drink, so it’s important to pay attention to both. Utilize quality water. I am lucky enough to live in a place with best tap water. But I have lived in places where tap water was in fact” bad. If that’s your case, work with bottled water or use a filter to “troubleshoot your tap water.

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

Dosage 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 approximated to about 8 leveled tablespoons, if you don’t have a scale.

Light roasts are denser, so you will need less tablespoons for the same amount. Darker roasts 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 really light roasted coffee beans, 10 for extremely 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. 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. Most times I use 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 drink, 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 Press pot.

Troubleshooting and Tweaking Cafetière Coffee

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

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

Nevertheless, 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 consume the water? If the water aromas” good you can make coffee with it. If you need to buy bottled water for guzzling, then you ought to work with 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, 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, due to the truth 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 option of buying a single origin.

Grind Size

The Cafetière 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 concentrated, 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 mill. (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” Cafetière brewing guides recommending grinding really coarse. If you have a decent coffee grinder, there in fact” is no need to grind that coarse. If coffee “flavors too concentrated, 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 greatest 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 excellent 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 just off a boil. If you need to measure that with a thermometer, is 195-205 F, (90-96 C).

If you utilize 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 Cafetière. 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 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, Press pot is versatile. Brew longer and you get really “concentrated coffee, what is generally 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 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 procedure. That produces the closest brew to a drip. The major differences are that French press coffee maker uses full immersion, whereas drip just washes the grounds. Though drip coffee can utilize a screen filter, many 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 very 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 likewise need to lower your dose.

One thing to remember is that the majority 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 French press, you might find coffee from a fundamental method too bold. Try to lower the dose and see how you enjoy” it that way.

One think to remember is that even though coffee is so bold coming out from a French press coffee maker, the caffeine content is not too much higher. We may extract slightly more caffeine with a French press coffee maker but 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 method is a 1:15 ratio. Just to avoid any confusion, I suggest 2 level tablespoons for 4 oz. and Bodum recommends 1 rounded tablespoon for the same 4 oz.