For me, a press hits exactly the right spot for better coffee with no extra time or investment. Like you, there’s no way I’m roasting my own beans and I don’t want a bunch of new gadgets on my counter. I like the simplicity of a press, it’s pretty much just a tea pot.
I keep a bag of beans on hand and have a small grinder. When I want to make a pot, I grind the beans and I’m ready to go. It’s not more labor intensive than a drip, nor is the cleanup harder. I do find that glass presses don’t keep the coffee hot enough for a second cup, which is why I use the one in my link. Alternatively, they do make glass presses with an insulating sleeve, or you could wrap it in a towel.
In the resale/thrift-store buy of the millenium, my brother-in-law found a pretty much brand-new perfectly functional Jura semi-automatic espresso machine at a Goodwill in Austin for $13. $13!!.
They do make a very good cup of coffee, even with marginal beans. Now to get him to buy better beans…
I’m currently a pour-over guy. When I was give the holder as a gift I thought it might be more time consuming, but it’s actually less time than the drip brewer. The only drawback is that you can’t set it up the night before.
I’ve heard about adding salt before. Does it matter whether you add the grounds or salt first?
I’ve also heard using distilled water helps. I’m not sure if I’m experiencing much of a difference, but we actually have pretty good water here in the Seattle area.
Recently I read that one should rinse out the paper filter before using it. I haven’t tried this yet.
Lastly, if you use half/half, avoid the fat-free stuff. At the store recently there was only the FF available, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I found that I had to use 2-3 times more than if I were using the whole stuff, and it seemed like the real coffee flavor was being masked. I won’t make that mistake again.
Anamorphic’s answer is excellent, but here’s my take: a Chemex IS a drip brewer, but it’s just a really, really good one because it’s so simple.
Super easy to clean. Just toss the filter and swirl some water in it and you’re done.
Extremely nice, sturdy filters. Never had one tear or twist on me, spilling wet grounds onto my floor or, Heaven forbid, into my brew.
Absolutely no plastic comes in contact with your water or coffee, allowing old stale coffee residue to creep back into your fresh brew.
No parts to break. No pump tube to clog with limescale, screwing up the pour. No heating element to wear out and stop producing consistent heat (almost all drip brewers do this before too long).
It’s just a really, really good bang for the buck, especially paired with a simple electric kettle to heat the water.
We have a French press made of double-walled stainless steel. Keeps the coffee hot for hours, no waste, no disposable filters. If you’re disciplined, you can even compost the coffee grounds.
(We ended up with the stainless steel one after we broke 2 or 3 glass ones through overly enthusiastic washing/scraping out grounds. I love it.)
We also buy good beans and grind them every morning with a really solid KitchenAid adjustable coffee grinder. That thing is built like a tank - expensive, but worth it. A couple of lesser ones burnt out within a year or two, and we finally decided we wanted something that was built to last. Boris the big dumb lunky cat knocked over the glass carafe for the grounds and shattered it, but we just replaced it with a more solid Pyrex food storage container, which is actually an improvement over the original carafe, and just the right size. I think that whenever possible, I want to buy electrics that can actually be repaired.
Another French Press user here. IMHO, the three most important things are:
Grind your beans fresh. I use a burr grinder set to coarse.
Accurate measurement. I use a small cheap digital scale. I like 50g for a liter of water.
Control temp. I have an electric kettle with several preset temps. I prefer 190 degrees for 4 minutes.
The nice thing about having the tools for accurate measurements is the ability to find your sweet spot and hit it consistently. I find the above steps to be more important than the beans, though fresher is always better.
Have tried a couple home roasting techniques, never done better than palatable.
Felt the need to chime in to champion the awesome cup that can be made with the simple Aeropress.
I started with a French Press and hated the difficulty in clearing out the grounds from it, once I got the Aeropress (grounds-puck straight into the trash/compost and rinse) I got rid of my french press.
Going from Coffee Casual to Fiddler has led me to the following statement: Fresh Coffee that is Freshly Ground with the Right Temp and Time gives you the best cup.
My Process:
Buy a bag of Intelligentsia beans that have a roast date that is closest to today. While I’m not a fan of the ‘hipster vibe’ in there I tried other fresh roasters in the L.A. area and none of them have that amazing ‘fresh baked bread’ smell.
Seal 3/4 of the bag in 1/2 pint mason jars with a vacuum pump and freeze for later (freshly roasted beans can maintain freshness when frozen this way per a link that I can’t find right now).
Use a Burr Grinder for even surface area (I have a cheap one)
Use an electric kettle that can have a specific temperature dialed in (I like 200)
Use the Inverted Method to steep the grounds longer.
Pour slowly and stir to be sure that all the coffee grounds are touching water.
Extract super-strong coffee that can stand up to 1/2&1/2 and Sugar or be transformed into an Americano-esqe drink with water.
That’s pretty much my method. What’s your grounds/water ratio? I use 18g/320g. Inverted, fill half way, let it bloom a bit, stir, fill to top. Cap and steep 1:30. Press slowly, then top off with more hot water for the Americano style.
Inverted
24oz ground fine with the plunger out past the 4 on the press.
Fill half way and stir the heck out of it to be sure it’s all exposed to water
Slowly fill and top off as I gently stir
Rinse the stir spoon with the last bit of water poured in
Cap and steep for 3 min
Press really hard on a sturdy cup (that fine ground coffee puts up a fight)
Add 1/2&1/2 and sugar for my sweet strong latte-esqe cup.
Ha, I do that too! I always feel a little silly, but every precious ground counts…
And it just dawned on me, the water ratio I gave is really for when I do pourover. Obviously, I don’t put 320g in the Aeropress. I go through phases of what method I use, and right now it’s pourover, so 320g is on my mind.
I must be missing something… my french press, a Bodum “Brazil” or another Bodum french press very similar to it (it’s like 8 years old) is easy to clean- just rinse out the carafe part, and then rinse out the screen- nothing much really gets stuck. Then throw it in the dishwasher.
The only reason I don’t make more french press coffee is because it’s fiddly, and generally on weekday mornings, I’d rather have the drip machine loaded and starting on a timer, rather than having to fiddle with temperatures and what-not when I’m half-awake and trying to get ready for work. On weekend mornings it’s easier, but I usually have a toddler(almost 2) and a young boy (4.5) underfoot.
I WANT to like French Press coffee; but I think it’s going to have to be a weekend only thing.
I just watched a few YouTube videos on making the best cup of coffee with a French press.
It would take way to long for when I’m trying to get out of the door in the morning. "barely cover the grounds and set a timer for 90 seconds. Then add the rest of the water and the lid [?] and let brew for 4 1/2 more minutes. At least with my drip coffee maker I put the ground in there the night before. I push the button in the AM as I’m walking past it to take my dog out. I walk back in the house and there’s enough coffee for me to pour a cup.
There’s definitely a graph that needs to be made with Simplicity on one axis and taste on the other axis.
I have always enjoyed my coffee black. I’m sure there are people who will disagree with me, but I have a hypothesis that for most people who do NOT drink their coffee black, they would not be able to differentiate different brewing styles after they’re all loaded with cream/sugar.
Generally, if things are getting “stuck” in your french press filter, your coffee is ground too fine. I’ve done some experiments with this, and it’s totally true - using a very fine grind not only makes it annoying to press, but you get junk all up in there between the layers of the plunger that you don’t get with a more coarse grind.
It’s funny, because for me, the french press is low fiddlyness option; The aeropress takes slightly less time, but I need to be interacting with it the ENTIRE TIME - no “and then you let it steep for 3-4 minutes” stuff.
I don’t “fiddle with temperatures” though - boil in the electric kettle. Let the bubbles stop. Pour.
I use four scopes of grounds, (each scoop is 1.5 tbl) for each pot of coffee. I don’t stir, but what I do is pour the water into the press from high up so that it agitates as it pours. Let it steep for four minutes.
I just tried the salt, and I can’t say I’m impressed. I’ll try it again with a different coffee, but I don’t think it’s really doing anything for me (and I’m supposed to be cutting down on my sodium as it is).
For me it’s a ‘grounds in the sink’ mess that I’m avoiding with the Aeropress.
Popping that puck-o-grounds into the trash/compost is such a wonderful feature. Then there’s a single swipe of a finger over the rubber plunger under a trickle of water and the thing’s clean.
