Overview
There are different coffee makers which offer different ways of brewing and extracting your coffee from coffee grounds. One of the cheapest types yet popular in coffee brewing is the French Press. This coffee maker is very common to most coffee lovers because of its simplicity and easy to use that came from a cheap price. Its size, portability and few requirements to prepare your coffee makes French Press the best choice for your camping, travel or even at your workplace or office. Despite being cheap, you can still have a great coffee experience with French Press if you just follow a few rules in this blog. First, let’s define what a French Press is.
What Is French Press
A French Press is a type of coffee maker which uses a manual pressing mechanism to extract the coffee’s natural oils and flavonoids out of the ground coffee. The principle of brewing the coffee is as simple as pouring a hot water into coffee grounds then filtering them out later for consumption. Simply, your French Press is an immersion brewing type. Here’s the anatomy of a French Press:
There are two (2) major parts of the French Press; the glass container and the lid. The glass container or beaker is where the coffee grounds and hot water are placed for brewing. Attached to the beaker is the container case or frame with handle which prevents you from getting burned while handling the hot French Press. The second part is the lid. The lid holds the piston or metal rod which attaches both the mesh filter and the plunger at the opposite ends. This plunger is used to press the coffee grounds down to the bottom of the French Press to filter them will pouring out the coffee for serving. This kind of coffee maker works best for coarse coffee grounds as the mesh size is designed for this type of grounds. Fine grounds don’t work on French Press as they might jut get stuck in the filter or worst just slip right through it rending your filter useless.
The Coffee Ratio
Coffee brewing is an art of controlling the variables to achieve the best preferred taste of your own coffee. These variables are the quality of coffee beans, time of brewing and the ratio of coffee to water you use. Speaking of the coffee to water ratio, different coffee enthusiasts and lovers claim different golden ratio. Upon researching different resources, I have collected these different ratios and came up with a Golden Ratio which range between 1:15 to 1:18. These ratios imply that for every 1 gram of coffee, we need 15, 16, 17 or 18 ml of water. For SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America), they defined that for every 6oz cup, you need 10 grams of coffee. This is equivalent to 1:18 ratio or 10grams of ground coffee per 180ml of water. Yes you heard it right! There is measurement too in coffee brewing to get the best out it. You can explore which ratio of coffee to water is best for you and you can even live outside this ratio if you don’t find them good for your taste. It may be called as Golden Ratio but it doesn’t mean it applies to everyone else. Each one of us has unique preference in taste so you can experiment on the ratios of water and coffee as well as the brewing time to control the strength and balance of your coffee. That is why I called coffee brewing as an art because the greatness of coffee taste lies in the bud of the beholder. (just like “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder“).Again you can adjust all these measurements to suit your preferences. And this makes the French Press competitive among other coffee maker because it allows you to fully control the flavor and strength of your coffee by simply adjusting the brewing time, water temperature and amount of coffee grounds. Now let’s get on the preparation of your coffee using the French Press. Below is the list of items you need to prepare for Coffee French Press serving.
Requirements On French Press Preparation
- French Press
- Kettle/Hot Water
- Coffee Grounds in Coarse Grind (you can buy here)
- Weighing scale (or Tablespoon in the absence of it)
- Timer (or phone with timer)
- Spoon for steering
- Water thermometer (optional)
Here’s the step-by-step procedure on how to prepare your own coffee using your personal French Press:
How To Prepare Your Coffee Using French Press
This procedure aims to prepare 2 cups (1 cup = 237 ml) of coffee for two persons and follows the Specialty Coffee Association of America or SCAA’s coffee ratio of 1:18. So if you want to prepare more or less or try different coffee-to-water ratio, we have a Coffee Calculator after this procedure which guides you on the right measurement for your serving.
Step 1
First is to remove the top filter from the coffee maker. Be sure that your French press coffee maker is clean. There are some posts online which suggest preheating the French Press by just adding some hot water on it then removing it eventually once the coffee maker is warm enough (at least 30 seconds). Personally, I don’t do this because I can’t even tell the difference in doing so or not.
Step 2
Next is to add 26g of coffee grounds inside the coffee maker then gently shake it to level the grounds. Certified coffee lovers do really use weighing scale for this purpose as accuracy in measurement determines the taste of coffee. If you don’t have weighing scale you can use 4 to 5 tbsp of coffee (1tbsp = 5.4g) instead.
Step 3
Pour 474ml of hot water in a circular motion into the coffee. The hot water should be heated between 190 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit (or 87 – 93 degC). Some may use thermometer or a kettle with temperature control but you can still achieve this by allowing the boiling water (100 degC) to sit for 1 minute prior to use.
Step 4
Then stir gently and shortly using plastic or wooden spoon to avoid damaging the glass of your French press (You can use metal spoon as long as you use extra care in stirring). This stirring helps to ensure that all your coffee grounds are properly immersed in the hot water.
Step 5
Put the lid back onto the coffee maker then press the plunger down little enough to push the floating coffee grounds under water. This prevents the steam from escaping the container. Then start your timer.
Step 6
Let it brew for a maximum of four (4) minutes. Exceeding immersion of coffee grounds to hot water can result to stale flavor.
Step 7
Once 4 minutes time has passed, stir once again gently and shortly just before pressing the plunger. This will increase the body and flavor.
Step 8
Then press the plunger down gently and slowly all the way down to the bottom of the glass. Then immediately pour the coffee slowly into your cup. Don’t leave the coffee grounds still immersed to hot water as brewing continues in this way which could lead to over-extraction and may result for coffee to taste bitter.
Step 9
Then serve and enjoy!
Coffee Calculator
As your guide to get the perfect coffee for your taste, below is coffee calculator for your French Press according to the number of your serving. To use it, simply select the coffee-to-water ratio from the drop down menu then input the number of cup servings you want to prepare. The calculator will show you then the volume of water and mass of coffee as well as the equivalent number of tablespoon you need to prepare your servings. Aside from the Golden Ratio range (1:15-18), I also included here ratio down to 10 which is the strongest coffee ratio that can be used just in case someone really loves strong and pure black coffee.
Tips On French Press Brewing
Below are the important key points that you need remember when brewing using your French Press:
- Use freshly grinded coffee beans in brewing instead of using pre-grinded ones
- Brewing time in French Press ranges only between 2 to 4 minutes. After this time, pour your coffee immediately to your serving cup to avoid over-extraction that could lead to bitter taste of your coffee.
- Use the right hot water temperature so as to avoid ruining the overall flavor.
- 1 gram of liquid water is exactly equivalent to 1 mL of liquid water. So for ratio of 1:18, this means 1 gram of coffee is equivalent to 18 grams of water or 18 mL of water.
- In the absence of weighing scale, you can use tablespoon instead wherein 1 tbsp level of coffee = 5.4g of coffee. If it is for personal consumption, tablespoon would suffice. However, if you are serving your customers, it is recommended to use a measuring scale as different coffees regardless of same manufacturer have different density. Thus your measurement using tablespoon will always not be accurate and your coffee serving will be inconsistent in taste
- Weighing your coffee grounds is one of the keys to consistency of your coffee
Final Thought
I’m not a pure black coffee lover so I usually add my coffee with sugar and milk. Because of this added sweetener and dairy, I personally use a much stronger ratio which is 1:13. But if you are preparing a pure black coffee, I would suggest to use 1:17 or 1:18 ratio. Anyway you are free to experiment the calculator to get the best ratio of your taste.
Though there are 3-in-1 coffee sachets out there, I still prefer this kind of coffee preparation so I can get the kind of “strong” coffee blend I desire. There are coffee brands which claim to be strong, yet I still find them kind of sweet so I switch to brewing my own coffee using a French Press and newly roasted Barako grounds. You too can purchase these coffee grounds from our coffee store. We sell there variants of coffee like Arabica, Excelsa, Robusta and Barako that you can purchase either in whole beans, coarse grounds or fine grounds. For best coffee experience, it’s best to brew your coffee just right after grinding your coffee beans. This way, you can preserve the most exotic and fresh flavor of coffee right into your mug. And speaking of the freshly roasted beans, they are too available in our store.
By the way, just in case you are wondering, my personal French Press is a 800 ml coffee maker which is made from Polypropyplene Plastic, heat-resistant glass and stainless steel filter. This can make 3 cups of coffee best for group having a great time. It is easy to use, clean and also perfect for gift to other coffee lovers out there. You too can purchase this coffee maker from Omega Houseware. If you plan on buying your own French Press, you can also use the Coffee Calculator above to estimate the number of serving you can prepare in a given French Press volume capacity.
Aside from coffee preparation, French Press can also be used for tea brewing. Just clean the French Press thoroughly prior to brewing from coffee to tea or vice versa as different brew will spoil the flavor of one another.
