Exploring French Pressed Coffee

If we’re being honest, we’re not complete coffee snobs. The goal here is not to define what type of coffee you ought to be drinking and how you ought to be brewing it.

While we strive to roast the best damn beans in the state of Florida, we’re an experimental crew and love to mess around with the brewing process. Much like your favorite piece of meat (or veggies), how you prepare it makes a big difference in how it tastes.

Coffee is no different. There are a variety of ways you can prepare it and brew it. It can be daunting at times, especially to those who mindlessly committed to their drip machine way back in the day and never looked back.

Like we said, no judgement. We back the drip.

If, however, you are looking to experiment with different coffee prep methods, our first recommendation is to get yourself a grinder. You don’t need anything special. Make sure it is a burr grinder – conical if/where possible. You can pick one up for ~$50 and if you’re into learning more about coffee, it will lead you to a place from which you may never return.

La Presse Française

The French press was actually patented by an Italian bloke by the name of Attilio Calimani back in the late 1920s. Calimani’s original design was further improved upon in France a couple of decades later, where the name finally stuck, despite being the brainchild of another Italian. The cafetière, as it is now known, was perfected and mass produced by Faliero Bondanini in the late 1950s under the Melior name, which is still in use today.

The French press method produces more caffeine per cup than a shot of espresso, if you’re into that sort of thing. We are.

Equipment

Like much of anything else on the planet, there is good, bad and ugly. When selecting a new press, always go with something of decent quality. Given that you will be using a larger grind (see below), you’ll want to ensure that when you finally get to the moment of plunging that goodness, the grinds stay where they belong – in the bottom of the press.

While we have absolutely no problems with living gritty, we’d rather our morning coffee not be.

(Grind) Size Matters

If you are traipsing around the rabbit hole that is different coffee brew methods, you’ve undoubtedly been informed of the purpose of the right grind size. In the event that you haven’t, we highly suggest it.

When it comes to selecting the right grind size for French pressed coffee, bigger is usually better. You might not need to go as coarse as something you might use for a cold brew, but in our opinion, you should get pretty dang close. Think breadcrumbs.

Method

To recap some of the above and add in some additional direction, here’s how we’d put together the perfect cup (or cups) of French press coffee:

1. Get your grind on. Coarse is good, coarser is better.
2. Add boiling water. A good rule of thumb is a 3:1 ratio of tablespoons of coffee grinds to the hottest water you can get.
3. Stir it up. Little darling, stir it up.
4. Let it mellow. Also known as steeping. If you let this go on for longer than four minutes you are flirting with the thin line between tough and crazy. Most coffee will brew in under that time, any longer and you’ll likely end up with a subpar cup of coffee. And after parsing through a 600-word article filled with mediocre insight and bland humor, you certainly don’t want that.
5. It’s all about how you use it. Make sure you take it slow and let the filter do the work. Watch as it slowly caresses the walls carafe on its way down, keeping those grinds at bay. When done, served immediately. The instant gratification is all yours.