How To French Press Coffee

This guide is a quick how-to on getting the best out of your french press coffee. It is definitely pretty straightforward to make coffee this way, but these steps will help you make it right every time.

French Press is the French technique of making some delicious coffee. It is also known by the name “press pot.” The French Press was invented in the nineteenth century and since then, it has been able to bridge the gap between people who love drip coffee and espresso in isolation. Not many people can make authentic French press coffees, however, if one really wants to know how to French Press coffee, is ready to put in some serious effort and look into the details of the procedure, then making this authentic and ancient coffee is not that difficult at all.

Water is the source of coffee

The process starts with water. The water for the coffee must be hot but it should not be boiling hot. If the water is boiling severely, then it should be given a couple of minutes to cool off slightly. If the person does not have those couple of minutes, then he can pour adequate amount of cold water into the hot water. The water should be fresh and it should have not gone through the boiling procedure before. Water straight from the tap is aerated and has a mixture of gases that makes the water fresh and also gives a unique taste to it. With repeated boiling, the water would be freed of these gases and it would end up tasting pretty bland.

All about the beans

When it comes to the coffee beans, these need to be grinded manually. The ones that are available readily in the market would not give the taste and aroma of freshly grounded coffee beans. This approach towards the procedure would give a better taste, aroma, and flavor from the coffee. The size of the coffee beans does not matter much. It is its freshness and grinding that really matter the most when it comes to the final output.

The grinds used should be coarse and it must ensure uniform grinding. It must be ensured that the coffee beans do not slip through the coffee grinding procedure and end up in its original size. It is therefore recommended that the grind should be big; however, it must not be very big as that could lead to the coffee tasting bland and weak.

For every single cup of water, two tablespoons of grounded coffee must be used. This is the standard proportion; however, it is not mandatory and one can add more grinds if he prefers the coffee to be sharper and stronger. People who like their coffee to be stronger than normal can go for even three spoons. These measurements need not be very accurate, just an approximate measure is enough to determine the taste.

The hot water must be poured on the grinded coffee beans and it must be stirred till each and every ground is covered in the cup. If the coffee is served in glass, then metal spoons should not be used for stirring as that could lead to cracks in the glass. If possible, chopsticks can be used. The chopsticks would not only ensure zero cracks in the inside walls of the glass but it would also help a great deal with the stirring process.

The steeping should be done carefully here. If the individual prefers a stronger brew, then ten minutes of steeping would be fine. However, for the smaller presses that cover three to four cups, a couple of minutes of steeping would be more than enough. There are some people who do not like to steep their coffee. As a result, they are able to get a French Press coffee that is less bitter in taste comparatively.

Finish off with a straight plunge

The plunger must be kept straight throughout; otherwise, it can lead to the grounds slipping through the filter sides. The pressing of the plunger must be done smoothly and slowly. The pressure must be exerted only from the arms as it would ensure that the minute grinds do not go past the filter mesh. Once all these things are done, the coffee is ready to be consumed. There is lot of attention to detail throughout the process and there could be people who might think whether so much effort and attention to detail was really worth it. However, once the coffee passes through the lip, one would realize the worth.