French Press

French press is a great method for people who like to add milk to their coffee. With its strong body and sweetness, it resists tasting washed out and helps emphasize the creaminess of dairy (or non-dairy, if you prefer.)

We suggest this method if you have a blade-style grinder, or if you need to make coffee for a few people. Because you aren’t working with water flowing through a bed of coffee, you can manipulate the amount of time and agitation (stirring) you use when brewing and help compensate for uneven grind size.

Make sure you pay attention to the amount of time you let your coffee brew for. Too short a brew time, and you’ll have a sour cup. Too long, and you’ll have a bunch of bitter in your mouth. As an aside, a handy aspect of the French press is there’s a limit to how over-extracted your cup can get. After about six or seven minutes, the water both cools down too much and becomes too saturated to continue pulling any solubles out of your coffee. So hurray for that!

For This Brewing Method You Will Need

Coffee/Water Ratio

3-Cup Press: 22 g of coffee to 340 g of water
8-Cup Press: 55 g of coffee to 850 g of water
12-Cup Press: 82 g of coffee to 1250 g of water

Brew Time

4 minutes

Grind

GRIND: 9 on a 1-10 grinder, 30 on the Baratza Encore (coarse)

Directions

Grind the coffee and put it into the French press.
Bring filtered water to a boil.
Carefully pour suggested weight of water into the French press. Start 4 minute timer!
After one minute, gently stir to fully saturate the coffee grounds.
Set the lid/filter on top of the French press. Be sure the filter is submerged just below the surface of the water to ensure the coffee is fully saturated.
After 4 minutes, slowly press the lid/filter down. Be sure to decant the brewed coffee from the French press as soon as you are done brewing to prevent over extraction.
Pour into mugs and enjoy!