Everyone has their own preferred brewing methods for coffee. We want help you to be the best home barista you can be, so we’re sharing tips and tricks for each of the more common methods. There’s plenty of little tweaks to help your coffee taste even better.
Up first, we’ve got the coffee press or French press. In the history of coffee, the coffee press is a relatively new brewing method. The first patent for a coffee press was filed in 1852 (yes, in France.) French press is a great option when you want a fuller bodied coffee since this method preserves the coffee oils in your cup. Because they come in different sizes, it’s also a great choice if you drink more than one cup of coffee each day.
Basics
Remember our three things that affect the taste of coffee?
- Water Temperature: we recommend about 207°
- Grind size: coarse ground is best for coffee press
- Coffee to water ratio: at BCR our preferred ratio is 17:1 water to coffee. For an 8oz coffee press, that would be about 14g of coffee; for a 32oz press about 56g. (A great opportunity to use that kitchen scale we talked about.)
For brew time, we like 3.5 minutes. Shorter than that will result in a more acidic or sour coffee (which you might be into). Longer will be a more bitter coffee (you could be into that instead). Play around with the timing to find the sweet spot for your tastes.
Here’s a few things to keep in mind when using a French press:
- Coarse ground coffee is best partly because finer grinds can get past the filter screen and into your cup. Finer grinds will also extract quicker, so you would need to shorten your brew time when using fine ground coffee. They also can be tougher to push down when pressing the coffee.
- When making more than one serving at a time, any coffee left in the press will continue to extract until it’s poured out. This remaining coffee can get bitter. To avoid that, try pouring your 2nd serving into an insulated mug instead of leaving it in the press.
- French press is great for those who like a big bodied, almost chewy mouthfeel coffee. This is because it does not filter out the coffee oils. If you prefer a lighter bodied coffee, but want to continue using a coffee press, you can pour the coffee through a paper filter.
Need more coffee? We think these taste great in a coffee press!