Brew It Yourself: French Press

A very simple guide to one of the best coffee brewing techniques

I won't bother going to much into the philosophy and history of the French Press, but here's some useless facts: it is also known as the сafetière à piston, and it was invented in the 1850s in France (duh).

The french press has a cylindrical body with a mesh 'filter' that separates your coffee from the grinds once ready. It's really that simple. But the important thing to note is the flavor profile created by the french press is something very acquired, it's got a gritty consistency and has a higher bitter to acidity ratio.

However, if you do it right then you should be able to enjoy a very nice cup of café.

Things you will be needing:

A french press!

Coffee - I'm using 100% arabica beans from Casa Ruiz, Panama (I highly recommend using Central American coffee for this since they have a subtle sweetness to them)

A kettle (or something you can use to control the pour of water) - I'm using the Hario Buono Kettle

A mug, or just about anything you drink out of

A timer of some sort - I am actually using the app Brewseful that's great for brewing coffee. You pretty much set up all your different coffee presets, which include coffee:water ratio, grind fineness, etc.

A scale - measure everything. I cannot stress how important it is to measure your coffee and water. I have a standard scale you'd find at home however I would love an Acaia Lunar scale (hint hint, mom)

Let's begin!

1. Weigh out the mass of coffee corresponding to the brew ratio of your water. As you can see, my grind ratio is 1g of coffee to 20g of water. Now this may be very gasp-worthy to some baristas out there, but after a lot of experimenting this is the ratio I found ideal. A very important note is to make sure your coffee is medium-coarse ground. If you don't have a burr grinder at home then I suggest asking your coffee supplier to do it for you. Since I'm using a mug that holds around 330ml, I'll be using16g of coffee.

This is the ideal grind you're looking for

2. Boil your water. However, do not use boiling water to brew your coffee. If you have a thermometer, you're looking for around 60-65ºC, if not just let the water sit for a minute or so.

Steamy

3. Make sure you heat all your equipment. This isn't 'vital' but it plays a decent role in preparing the good stuff.

the cup

the press

4. Add your coffee grounds to the press, then add the water. You can now start your timer. The ideal brew time for one cup of coffee is around 3:30 to 4:00 minutes.

Adding the coffee

Aesthetic

5. At the 45 second mark you can start stirring your coffee -this submerges all the grinds - and you can let it brew for longer.

Stir the coffee

6. Just before you plunge, you need to scoop up that small layer of foam (crema, whatever you wanna call it) at the top with a spoon.

Scoop the grounds up - you should be using two spoons technically but I have a camera in hand

7. Then, you can gently push the plunger down - and here you'll know if your grind is good. If there's
too much resistance then your grind is too fine, if there's no resistance at all your grind is too coarse.

A very unflattering selfie

8. Pour, then drink! (note: make sure you leave that small bit of the coffee at the bottom. This would make your coffee taste horrific)

Wonderful

Now time to start writing

Let us know what you think of this recipe!

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Sarah and Tanya are lifestyle bloggers, writing as a form of procrastination.

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