How to make a French Press

In continuing our brewing series, today we will be focusing on the French Press.

French Presses create a delicious, strong cup of coffee. They are wonderful brewing devices because you can just as easily brew them at home or camping in the outdoors. They are what is known as a full-immersion style brewer, meaning the coffee grounds are fully submersed in water for an amount of time (in this case four minutes total) before straining. This differs from pour overs and home coffee brewers—both of which constantly let the coffee strain through a paper filters. Full immersion style methods can really extract the most flavor out of coffee grounds, assuming you do so correctly.

Some tips: if your coffee tastes too bitter using this method, you either used too many grounds or too hot of water. Both of these factors can create a bitter brew. Moreover, if you leave the coffee in the press after pressing, it will continue to get stronger and potentially more bitter. It is best to move the brewed coffee into another vessel or carafe to enjoy at your leisure. If your coffee tastes sour, you most likely didn’t use enough coffee or brewed at too low of a temperature.

Here is a recipe we used at the shop!

Step 1: Boil 850ml of purified water. Ideal water temperature is 206 degrees.

Step 2: Grind 70 grams of coffee on coarse.

Step 3: Pour 70ml of hot water over grounds, stir with wooden stir stick, and leave for 30 second bloom.

Step 4: Fill French Press to 770ml of water, stir, and leave for an additional 3.5 minutes.

Step 5: Press and enjoy!