I drink 2-3 cups of coffee every morning - none after that. I use a Keurig with various pods - very convenient but the coffee is definitely “meh”.
So I want to up my game. I was thinking that maybe a french press was the way to go?
Questions:
French Press makes very good coffee, but it’s also a personal taste kind of thing. I personally find French Press tends to end up with some sediment in the coffee, and I don’t like the mouth feel of it as much. A lot of people don’t mind it, or prefer it, though.
I love my AeroPress. It produces a smaller, more concentrated dose of coffee. It’s not technically espresso, but it creates about that amount, and it’s stronger than regular drip coffee. I add some hot water to it, kind of like an Americano.
A good pourover is another way to go. Obviously, all these methods require a bit more commitment every day than a Keurig, but I don’t think any of them are too much work, and the resulting coffee is leaps and bounds better.
Always better to grind your own. The beans start losing flavor once you grind them (actually, they start losing flavor as soon as they’re roasted, but grinding them quickens it even more). A burr grinder is better than one of those cheap blade grinders.
Freezing is okay for long-term storage if necessary, but not really optimal. If you do freeze, take out what you need for a week or so. You DON’T want to be taking out of the freezer every day. Moisture is bad for coffee. Much better to buy a week of recently roasted coffee at a time.
In my experience, French press coffee does have a bit of sediment in it, but it’s only noticeable in the last few sips.
My suggestions:
I’ve never used a Keurig so no idea how this will compare or if it will produce what you are looking for. Mine is a basic guideline for reliably delicious coffee, but as with everything, experiment until you achieve something that suits your personal taste! This can include such things as adjusting the coffee-to-water ratio, the grind of the beans, whether you add milk, cream and/or sugar to your brew, etc.
I like a French press now and again, but I’ve never found anything to beat a manual, pour-over Melitta-style cone coffee maker. Have used one for nearly 50 years and never had any coffee better that impressed me such as to change my method.
I prefer a reusable steel filter. Don’t like the taste of paper.
Buy fresh, whole beans in smallish quantities from a reputable roaster. Freeze unused beans.
Grind beans as needed to your preferred grind, right before you make your brew. (I grind mine fine. I like strong coffee.)
Water temperature is important. Use water between 195-205F, closer to 205 if you can. Use a temperature probe until you’re familiar and comfortable with how long to let your heated water sit after boiling to cool to the correct temperature before pouring over.
Store any leftover coffee in a thermos until you’re ready to drink it. It will stay fresh for several hours.
Good luck!
I use the inexpensive Italian Moka brand stove-top “espresso maker” which does not make true espresso but does make a very good cup of coffee with no sediment. The sediment drove me away from the french press, just hated it.
It is fiddly though.
I’ve noticed a difference between grinding my own beans vs using pre-ground coffee. However the price difference and hassle made it not worth it for a mildly better tasting coffee.
Supposedly fresh roasted beans are important too.
Answers:
I hate keurig. I got one 2 years ago. Coffee too cold, the pods were expensive, the filters were expensive to replace and I have well water, so I had to get bottle water. Just too problematic. So I am back to the French press. I use a Mexican brand of coffee called Bustelo. It is a finer grind and makes a strong coffee with less sediment. I find after you pour boiling water in the press if you wait a minute most sediment settles, then use the press. Don’t pull the press up, and pour in your cup. I use a Yeti cup and pour all at once. But you can pour one cup at a time, but it cools really fast. So you’ll have to nuke it. I love my press.
I’m a relative newbie (~2 years), but I’ve always done pour-over (like the Melitta mentioned above). Extensive research and actual, limited Keurig experience helped me make the decision.
I’ve never used a french press, but I’ve drank from one. Just fine.
No, don’t freeze the beans unless you’ll not open the bag for ~ month. I buy freshly roasted (light to medium), and grind in the morning for use that day.
Tip: If you’re going to use paper filters in a pour-over, be sure to fold and crease those seams :eek:
After seeing recommendations here, I asked for an Aeropress a couple of Christmases back. It makes good coffee, all right, but uses nearly twice as much coffee per cup as my drip coffeemaker and needs some modest cleanup afterwards. My Krups coffeemaker brews two tasty cups in about four minutes and needs no cleanup other than discarding yesterday’s filter and grounds.
Way back when, I got into grinding my own beans. I really could not tell the difference. We tried our friends’ Keurig in Connecticut. It was nice, but really, we just use a Mr. Coffee drip coffee maker. That’s great coffee.
I don’t find a French press hard to clean. Just a rinse. I always rinsed my decanter when I used any other coffee maker, too! You do have to use a certain ammt. of coffee, I experimented til I got it right. I like strong coffee so I use no more than I would in a Mr. Coffee, set to 4 cups.
Another big Aeropress fan here, I use a steel filter so no paper filter required. I usually buy a big bag of whatever medium roast beans I find at Costco and grind 3 scoops with my cheapy blade grinder. While the kettle is boiling (you DO have a kettle, right OP?) I pour 1/2 cup of milk into a jamjar and microwave it for 1min. Then I put the lid on the jar and shake well (with one hand) while I push down the Aeropress plunger with the other. Delicious and costs much less than a comparable flat white at Starbucks.
Warning: thesis-length preaching imminent!
I consider myself a coffee snob, others have told me I’m just a pretentious jerk who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. So take the following advice with a very large grain of salt. 
First, regarding the Keurig. Since you asked for advice, I’ll tell you that, IMO, absolutely anything is better than a Keurig. The crap down at the local 7-Eleven is better than a Keurig. The Wal-Mart shit from the Navy percolator that the guys at the AA meeting make is better than a Keurig. Their only redeeming feature is their speed and ease of use. As I posted in a recent thread the one I had made my coffee taste like plastic. Yuck. I would honestly prefer instant over the stuff from a Keurig—at least instant doesn’t taste like plastic. For people who love their Keurig, great. It’s just not for me.
See, the secret to good coffee is threefold: good beans that have been freshly ground, clean and very hot (about 195-205f) water, and time—about 3-4 minutes spent in contact with the grounds. Add in a carafe of some sort that doesn’t produce weird tastes (i.e., no plastic) and you’ll have good coffee. Obviously, the Keurig fails on all three counts. A French Press meets all the requirements with one simple device. But it does take a bit of attention to detail to make a good cup.
A French Press is easy to use, the messy part is cleaning it out. Obviously, you have to do something with the grounds. I have a strainer that lives under the kitchen sink. After I’ve had my morning dose I pull out the strainer, line it with a square of paper towel, and dump the grounds (they’ll have a bit of water left in them, making it a kind of slurry) into the paper-lined strainer. Rinse the pot out, pour that into the strainer, then clean the press with soap and water as you would any other dirty dish. Come back in 10 minutes after the water has drained out of the strainer and dump the whole mess into the trash. I know someone who had the basket from an old drip maker and a supply of coffee filters just for that purpose. Another option, frowned upon by plumbers, it to rinse it out in the bathroom sink, dumping the coffee grounds down the toilet. Also, of course, you’ll need to invest in a kettle which will take up stove or counter space. This was a consideration when I lived in a small flat with a tiny stove and only one outlet in the kitchen.
The French Press does produce some sediment in the final brew. Usually that’s more noticeable with pre-ground coffee, and usually it settles to the bottom of your mug which makes it less noticeable. But it does change the “texture” of the coffee, making it a tiny bit thicker if that makes sense. It really isn’t noticeable unless you have a mug of filtered brew to compare it to.
Either way, something to consider.
If you want a really good coffee easily you need to pony up for a good drip maker. The best is probably the Technivorm Moccamaster. It looks and works like your average drip coffee maker. Beware, however, that the price tag is steep. Over $300US. But what this gets you is a machine that gets the water truly hot and is engineered to let the water soak through the grounds for the requite time. The final brew is deposited in a stainless steel vacuum carafe, so the water is in contact with plastic for a very short time. Bonavita also makes some almost-as good drip machines that cost less. However, the coffee isn’t quite as good as the stuff from the Technivorm.
Whole beans are always the way to go. Different brands have different taste profiles, and things like Dark Roast, French Roast, Breakfast Blend, and the like taste wildly different between roasters. It’s fun to experiment. If you buy them in bulk freezing is kind ok if you have to, but do it small batches with the air removed—a vacuum sealer is best. Once the beans are thawed put them in an airtight container like a mason jar or similar. Ideally you’d find a reputable local roaster and buy a week’s worth at a time. For most people, me included, this is too big a PITA to actually do.
If you do grind your own get a good burr grinder. These work by feeding the beans through two grinding surfaces, similar to the way stone-ground flour used to be produced. This ensures that the grinds are of uniform size. The small grinders with a spinning blade at the bottom of the hopper creates grinds of wildly different sizes as well as produces heat, which can affect the taste of the final brew.
Finally, whether or not this is all worth it depends mightily on how you take your coffee. I drink my coffee black. A lot of the nuances that I like are lost when one adds sugar and especially milk or cream, and double especially if it’s powdered or flavored. A cousin of mine told me she wants to try different coffee blends. I told her she wouldn’t notice the difference because she fills her cup about 2/3 with coffee, adds two spoons of sugar, then fills the cup the rest of the way with Coffee Mate vanilla flavored creamer. I told she’s just drinking weird chemicals, not coffee. I took a sip and honestly couldn’t taste a single molecule of coffee. She likely could’ve doctored up a cup of skim milk with the same junk and it would’ve tasted the same. That’s when I was informed of my apparent pretentiousness. However, I maintain that if your cup of coffee contains anything besides black coffee how you make it, the brand of coffee you use, and pretty much anything else I’ve just pontificated about is meaningless.
Being a coffee snob is like being a wine snob, only more fun and less damaging to the wallet.
[/thesis]
Another vote for the AeroPress combined with fresh roasted beans that are ground using a burr grinder just before brewing. The oils that give coffee the distinctive flavor will oxidize quickly after grinding, hence while pre-ground coffee, however stored, will always taste ‘flat’. The AeroPress will clean up at least as easily as a french press or Moka and won’t retain the residues of a percolator or drip maker, and you can graduate the concentration by how much grounds you put in and adding hot water after. It isn’t really an espresso or Americano (which have a particular bite owing to the rapid extraction and aeration of the espresso process) bit is about as rich. It also works well for travel and backpacking along with a hand grinder.
The Keurig is an abomination of all that is good and holy. Blow that thing up with 500 g of C4 and bury the residue a mid-ocean trench.
Stranger
Lancia, why do you strain your waste grounds? I just dump the whole mess in my compost bowl and throw it in the compost heap with my other daily veggie leavings. And, I rarely wash my French press with soap, I just rinse in hot water. It never has had any residue that I have seen.
I don’t have a garden or really, a yard that would benefit from compost. At least, not enough of one for me to actually make compost. I’ve threatened before to start a container garden growing different varieties of hot peppers. If I ever do that I’ll likely start a compost pile.
Oh, okay, that’s understandable.
Like most things, it’s a series of trade-offs.
For me, convenience trumps all, so I happily enjoy every tasty cup out of my Keurig.
That said, whenever I visit a friend who uses a French press, and he asks if I would like a cup of coffee, I rub my hands together with glee and respond, “yes, please!”.
mmm
I only use a French press. It’s not that heard to clean, just rinse it out and dump the contents into a metal sieve in the sink, when it drains either toss out, or compost the grounds. I don’t get sediment in my coffee, but I have noticed it with cheaper presses. If you grind your own beans, it will taste better, but even if you don’t, the press will still make a far superior cup of coffee than drip or those pods. Another factor is the environmental impact of the pods and the cost.
I have two presses, a double walled aluminum press from Bodum and a press made by Stanley, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072N3RF2B/ref=asc_df_B072N3RF2B5326144/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=394997&creativeASIN=B072N3RF2B&linkCode=df0&hvadid=216514765124&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1452010988082068318&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008169&hvtargid=pla-351004419071.