Ivylad and I are coffee snobs. Folgers will never do, we’re currently buying from Green Mountain Coffee. It’s gotten so bad we’ve actually taken all our coffee fixins’ (grinder, coffee, filters, etc) to hotels so we don’t have to drink the room coffee. I cannot stomach the breakroom coffee, and Ivylad grimaces when he buys coffee in restaurants.
Shopping at Target the other day we stumbled across a $15 French Press. I’d heard of them, but figured they were too much work. But hey, it was only $15, what the hell.
We made a cup. Oh my…it tastes crisper, cleaner, brighter, there’s more of a coffee “bite,” in other words, dayum.
Then, because I was in a hurry and didn’t want to press the coffee, I brewed it up in our drip coffeemaker while I rushed around getting ready for the day.
There is a difference, and my eyes have been opened. (Or tastebuds, as you will) The drip coffee is muddier, duller, plainer.
I didn’t know. And now, I fear I can never go back to my former, ignorant ways. Now, we’ll have to buy a bigger French press, and put more labor into our coffeemaking.
I don’t suppose there are automatic French presses out there?
I’ve been using a French press for a little over a year now - I love it. I really don’t find it that much extra work. I wake up, stumble into the kitchen, hit the coffee grinder button (which I’ve filled the night before), fill the teakettle and put the water on to boil, and meanwhile feed the cats. I get done with the cats and pour the gound coffee into the press. The water is ready soon after, and in less that ten minutes after waking up I’m drinking coffee.
Maybe get an electric kettle? Those boil fairly quickly.
That was my solution for coffee at work. Electric kettle + french press = no more shitty coffee made by co-workers who can’t make a decent pot with the drip coffee maker. Best money I ever spent.
Welcome to the French Press Club, ivycouple. You’ll be making the best-tasting coffee that there is, and there’s no more need to buy filters – so it’s ecologically sound.
You can even get French presss travel mugs that are more efficient in terms of space and weight if you’re on the road or the hiking trail.