Learn How to Make Coffee with a French Press

There is some dispute on which device makes the excellent coffee, and a lot of are rising an eyebrow to the modest French press coffee maker”. Nevertheless, if you understand how to use a Cafetière, and you know how to adjust the brew and tweak it, you will be compensated with a ideal coffee cup.

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

French press Brewing – Art or Scientific research?

The Cafetière, likewise known as a cafetière, is a 19th century French creation that brews remarkable “cup of joe. It covers the gap between the ease of utilize of a drip coffee maker and the robust aromas of espresso. Even though the French press aromas are bolder than drip coffee, and it “gives adequate body, compared to drip, it is not as bold as espresso coffee. This “brews it very appealing for coffee lovers that value a strong coffee, however as concentrated as the espresso.

Brewing coffee is a recipe 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 enthusiast or a casual consumer, you can tell the difference between a poor cup and an skillfully brewed one. There is no magic involved, you just need to follow the procedure, and the modify it to your taste. Preparing a great coffee boils down to the: having the right tool, utilizing the right procedure, and knowledge how every coffee preparation aspect will change your cup.

French press coffee maker Brewing – Equipment and Ingredients

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

• French press coffee maker
• Coffee mill
• Thermometer
• Timer
• Scale and measuring cup
• Kettle
• Perfect 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 coffee maker is among the many economical coffee makers. But we’ll get to that in a little bit.

Let’s learn 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 Press pot 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 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.

Grinder

A grinding machine is needed device for anyone who brews coffee at home. Coffee freshness is essential for a great cup. Coffee loses its aroma exponentially, after grinding, due to the reality that 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 coffee grinder at the moment, basically 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 mill 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 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 work with a spoon to measure the coffee grounds, but it’s a little bit trickier, due to the truth that beans have different density, depending of the roast degree, and origin. Darker beans expand more during the roasting procedure, 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 French press coffee maker, over-extraction is less of a problem, “because we love the strong flavors of pressed coffee.  There is also a technical reason why French press coffee maker coffee doesn’t “actually over-extract, if you work with the right temperature. We’ll get to that during the technical details. You can work with 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. But, if you are a on a tight budget, any pan on the stovetop needs to execute it. But 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 French press coffee maker coffee doesn’t over-extract, but it does, if you insist. It also depends on your taste; some people love a little 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 wonderful 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 Use a French Press: Step-by-Step

Dosage your Coffee Beans

I advise 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 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 light roasted coffee beans.

So, if you measure beans, approximate to 7 tablespoons for really light roasts, 10 for really darker roasts. If you measure ground coffee is trickier due to the truth that 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. 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 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 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 very fast in a glass French press.

Troubleshooting and Tweaking Cafetière Coffee

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

So if you don’t love the coffee you literally brewed, you may have still done everything right. You basically need to modify 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.

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 extensively on all coffee preparation 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 downing, then you needs to 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, however 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 fact that 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 option of buying a single origin.

Grind Size

The Press pot 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 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 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 grinder it’s not good). Ideally, you ought to 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 mill, there in fact” is no need to grind that coarse. If coffee “flavors too bold, truly add less grounds. The main reason for grinding coarsely, is that coffee bits don’t get through. A decent grinder provides 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 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 best 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 French press is truly 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. 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 won’t question that much due to the fact that glass loses the temperature fast. This indicates 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 very “concentrated coffee, what is primarily expected from a French press coffee maker. 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 French press coffee, steep around 4 minutes. This is the the majority of popular brew time among French press 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 tastes 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 Cafetière uses full immersion, whereas drip just washes the grounds. Even though drip coffee can use 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 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 issue 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 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 Cafetière, you might find coffee from a standard technique too concentrated. Try to lower the dosage 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 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 process is a 1:15 ratio. Literally to avoid any confusion, I suggest 2 degree tablespoons for 4 oz. and Bodum recommends 1 rounded tablespoon for the same 4 oz.