Wow!, what a difference a French Press makes...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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This afternoon, I went to the local grocery store to replenish our coffee supplies, while I was there, on a whim, I picked up a French Press, i’ve heard that FP coffee is better than drip coffee, it’s “REAL MAN!” coffee, coffee that sticks to your bones and puts hair on your chest, makes you irresistible to the opposite sex, cures dandruff, regrows hair, balances your checkbook and all those kinds of grandiose claims, and that drip coffee was widely regarded as “Wussy Coffee”, weak, thin, with no character, if FP coffee is “Chuck Norris/Vin Diesel/Mr. T” coffee, drip coffee is “Pee-Wee Herman/Richard Simmons coffee”

so, being the good skeptic that I am, I proceeded to put it to the test, I picked up a bag of freshly roasted micro-roasted Sumatran, ground up some for the drip machine, then some for the FP…

the first thing that struck me about FP coffee is the sheer simplicity of the setup, simple is good, dump grounds in the beaker (i also love the fact that it uses a beaker, very science-y, meep meep!!), let it sit for 4 minutes, then press down

right away, as I poured the water in, I noticed a difference, the coffee was thick and viscous, and had a nice light tan “head” on it as it brewed, once I pressed it and poured it out, it was a much thicker pour, it looked and smelled “hearty”…

i began to worry, I pictured a thick, bitter swill, that would require LOTS of sugar and cream to make it palatable…

moment of truth, I tasted it…

MMMMMMM, not bad at all, remarkably smooth and satisfying, not as bitter as I expected, yes I still needed a small amount of sugar, but only half what I normally used, and I needed NO creamer to smooth out the harshness, even black, the coffee was enjoyable, and I normally don’t drink black coffee, all my previous experiences with black coffee, even the stuff I ground and brewed myself, were intensely bitter experiences, thin, weak, and bitter

FP coffee is the exact opposite of drip, it’s thick, complex, and tasty even with no adjuncts or additives

If you’re a coffee fan and you haven’t used a French Press yet, go get one, the difference is amazing!

and as an added advantage, if we ever get into a nuclear war that kills the electrical grid (from, say an EMP detonation), I can still make coffee :wink: that’ll give me an advantage evading the Mutants and Radioactive Zombies that are sure to come…

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Coffee snob. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I totally dig my french press. You don’t have to leave the coffee in there 4 minutes though; a couple will do. Also, you may find that those groovy beakers break easily. I use a Bodum Columbia is stainless steel, so my fumble fingerered-ness won’t keep me from having my java.

Bonus: you can make tea in them, too.

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And I thought this was going to be about better reporting in Paris than Washington.

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FP coffee is a bit too dirty for my taste, but you do have to admire the simplicity.

On the other hand, if you’re going for coffee meets SCIENCE, the FP is the mere beginning. My preferred brewing method is the Chemex manual drip, which was even designed by a chemist, who clearly started out by taking a funnel and putting it on top of a flask in the lab. :smiley: It makes a very good, clean cup, although, as something of a control freak, I sometimes wonder if the water is staying in the right temperature range throughout the brew. (Admittedly, I have the same concern for FP brewers.)

Another notch up would be the vacuum-style pots, which likely represent the pinnacle of elegant coffee prep. I have a Bodum Santos in the cupboard; if ever I get around to getting an old-fashioned glass filter rod to use with it, I’d like to experiment a bit. (The filter mechanism it ships with tends, IME, to clog too easily.)

Good luck in your coffee adventures… :slight_smile:

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I have a French Press and a Chemex. (total coffee snob) We used the French Press for years but then read somewhere that unfiltered coffee can raise cholesterol and since my hubby’s cholesterol has been a bit on the high side we decided that we should go for the best filtered coffee we could find hence the Chemex.

I have to say, though, that the coffee brewed in the Chemex lacks some of the complexity of French Press brewed coffee.

Interesting point Lemur Catta about the water temperature. My husband has always asserted that insufficient water temperature is the reason drip coffee is inferior.

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I love my French Press, but I don’t use it everyday because of the hassle of cleaning it. I brew the coffee 6 miniutes and use a mild “breakfast blend.” The result is something that doesn’t even compare to mere coffee.

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I love my french press. The coffee it makes is goooooooooood. I drink it black, unlike the coffee at work.

I use Trader Joe’s Bay Blend. Good quality beans, decent price.

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Sigh. Stupid coding. It’s not THAT important, but if a bored mod could fix that, I’d be obliged.

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I think most coffee snobs would agree that it’s at least part of the problem; there are, IIRC, expensive auto-drip machines available that do use the proper near-boiling water. Other things that come to mind include the fact that most auto-drip machines are infrequently cleaned, and difficult to clean completely in any event. (I could add concerns about over-extraction and bad beans, but since this is a coffee snob sort of thread, we’ll assume that the proper amount and quality of coffee is being used :)) All of those months or even years of built up coffee and water deposits can’t have a positive effect on the flavour.

But any filtered method is going to result in fewer solids making it into your cup than a FP, and that’s always going to have a significant positive or negative impact on the flavour, depending on personal preferences.

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I take offense (ot really, but for the purpose of this thread offense will suffice :wink: ) at being called a coffee snob, I’m not a coffee snob, i’m a coffee geek…

why else would I be checking the consistency and darkness of the brew by shining my SureFire A2 Aviator’s incandescent beam through it to check the strength/darkness of the brew…

if the 75 lumen incan beam is absorbed by the liquid halfway into the press and the visible light is a dark reddish-brown, it’s ready…

yes, admittedly, I’m using fancy, locally microroasted beans that I grind myself moments before brewing, but my scientific side is wondering if the FP could even improve normal non-fancy coffee like Dunkin’s whole bean stuff

I just realized that I forgot to change the grinder from the drip setting to the coarse FP setting, the coffee still tastes great even with the finer grind, maybe grind isn’t as much of a factor as I thought…

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I have a FP (from IKEA) and use it every day. I love the simplicity - mainly, no wasteful and expensive filters to fuss around with, and I can make exactly as much coffee as I want.

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We like them so well, we have three. One for our weekend coffee, one for frothing hot milk, and one for the RV (my idea of roughing it is no TV reception).

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Frothing hot milk? Oh, do tell… How is this done? (I love the idea of having frothing hot milk to add to hot tea, or even hot cocoa…)

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I love ours. The coffee has more of a coffee “bite” to it, and drip coffee now tastes “muddy.”

Yes, cleaning is a bit of a pain. But it’s worth it. I’ve also found that once the water boils, taking it off the burner for fifteen seconds before pouring it into the press prevents burning the grounds.

Get good coffee, fresh ground coarsely, and filtered water.

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That’s why I have two of them. One for coffee and one for tea.

French Presses RULE!

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Either the FP or a stitched paper cone filtered is fine by me. Haven’t seen the chemex, but wonder how thier filters compare to “normal” Malita cone filters? The Malita filters seem to work fine no matter how finely I grind the beans.

I live at ~5,000’ MSL so full-tilt boil seems to work fine for me.

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I agree that the French Press produces a superior cuppa. Trouble is the small servings. I need to drink 6 or 8 servings of coffee before I leave for work, so that translates to two press-fulls. What a hassell. I’ve stuck to my Braun Drip-o-matic for years, but it (sadly) just gave up the ghost, so now I’m percolating cofee (which is also superior to drip coffee, but not FP-class coffee).

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Chemex filters, or the variety of them that I happen to use, are a fairly heavy unbleached paper square folded into quarters. You open it up to make a cone. I’m sure you could use more standard filters, but I’m not sure how they’d stand up strength-wise.

Grind mostly affects the time it takes to extract, and (in drip methods) how quickly the water drains through. In an FP, a coarse grind is preferred so that you wind up with less sludge in your cup; if the screen is doing its job with the grind you’re using, then just adjust the brew time and stick with what you’ve got.

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Yep, with a FP it is all about the grind. If your coffee is sludgy, your grind is too fine.

Cleaning? I rinse it out well after every use and throw it in the dishwasher once a week. Much less hassle than a drip maker, IMO.

I love my FP.