# Bought grinder, french press - what am I doing wrong?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-grinder-french-press-what-am-i-doing-wrong/755164>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 19, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-grinder-french-press-what-am-i-doing-wrong/755164 "2016-05-19T15:21:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-grinder-french-press-what-am-i-doing-wrong/755164/21 "2016-07-27T16:39:02Z")

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**Israel Regardie** , huh?

> **[Israel Regardie](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Regardie)**
>
> Francis Israel Regardie (/rɪˈɡɑːrdi/; né Regudy; November 17, 1907 – March 10, 1985) was a British-American occultist, ceremonial magician, and writer who spent much of his life in the United States. He wrote fifteen books on the subject of occultism.
> Born to a working-class Orthodox Jewish family in the East End of London, Regardie and his family soon moved to Washington, D.C., in the United States. Regardie rejected Orthodox Judaism during his teenage years and took an interest in Theosophy, H...

Y’know, Crowley put all kinds of tricks and booby-traps into his grimoires to screw over you acolytes of his.

Chapter 28 of _Magick in Theory and Practice_, “How to Make a Great Cup of Coffee,” includes the phrase “Always use fresh water, freshly-ground coffee, and make sure to place a small dog turd in the bottom of the filter before adding the ground beans.”

This may be the bit that’s tripping you up.

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**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-grinder-french-press-what-am-i-doing-wrong/755164/22 "2016-07-27T17:31:44Z")

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My experience with a blade grinder is to think of the grinding process like mixing pancake batter. You do as much as you can in a tiny short window of time and deal with any lumps. Mixing the pancake batter too much gives you leather hockey pucks, whereas a few small lumps are hardly noticeable.

My grinder is a Starbucks brand, but was only $15, and it had instructions that are just about right for French press. Basically, six one-second pulses and you’re done. No matter what it looks like, walk away. (Even fine grind is only 10-15 seconds continuous on that model).

All that said… after spending a fair bit of time and effort mastering my French press, it wasn’t all that much better than my drip system. I can taste a subtle difference in flavor, but I wouldn’t call that difference better, necessarily.

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