About French Press, with passion and good coffee

* photo credit: rogersfamilyco.com / grindsandgraphite.tumblr.com

*Article written with passion by Espressoman forum user Eugenm

Like any coffee preparation method, the biggest «secret» to obtaining a perfect cup with the French press is the patience to experiment. There are several variables that contribute to obtaining a perfect French press coffee: water temperature, water quality, grinding degree, infusion time and quantity.

If this is your preferred method of brewing coffee, I recommend documenting your «experiments,» otherwise, as time passes, the fine adjustments become forgotten, at least in my case. For any type of coffee, in general, I have different approaches and then I try to write them down. The only variable I set to a constant value is the quantity of coffee18-19 g for two cups of approx. 130ml each.

Grinding degree it’s an aspect that requires experimentation depending on the type of coffee, how fresh it is, how it is roasted and what flavors you want to highlight. In the past I bought freshly roasted coffee and asked for it to be ground for the French press, this «arrangement» worked for a while until I discovered that: (1) once ground, the coffee loses its aroma every day so much so that after a maximum of 5 days it becomes «platy» to taste and (2) you are in the hands of the grinder so it is difficult to «discover» the perfect grind level for that type of coffee. That’s why for the last year I’ve been grinding my own coffee, using an amazing Turkish coffee grinder inherited from my in-laws, since it’s no longer made. I don’t have much to complain about this grind, because I was able to get as much out of it as possible, but unfortunately the «coarsest» but still fine grind was for the French press. I therefore had to radically modify the infusion time, arriving at around 2:45 minutes, keeping in mind that I have not yet managed to completely eliminate that bitter note which slightly overshadows the characteristic aromas of the respective variety, but at least I managed to create a routine for grinding the coffee daily and I forced myself to leave my comfort zone and try to get the most out of the «tools» I have at my disposal. At the moment I am VERY happy, Orphan Espresso USA has finally completed the assembly of the LIDO 2 coffee grinder I ordered in April, so in a maximum of 10 days I will start a new chapter in my life as an amateur coffee maker.

I have used it for a long time What bottled, changing many brands depending on the characteristics reported on the label (we were looking for waters with a minimum content of Ca and Mg) and unfortunately I was still dissatisfied! Until one day I purchased an activated carbon filter from a well-known brand in these parts and started using only tap water. Since then, I have maintained my opinion that the best water is tap water (at least in the case of Bucharest, sector 1), as long as you make sure to eliminate any rust residues and reduce the residual chlorine resulting from the water treatment process as much as possible. Apa Nova’s supply parameters can be found here.

In order to «bring out» the maximum of freshness of coffee beans, I also purchased a container with 2 valves, which manages to «extend» the life of my coffee beans by a few more days: here is the opinion of Seattle Coffee Gear, for those interested. Otherwise there is also a discussion about it on the forum.

So as not to influence water temperature I use a Bodum press with double stainless steel walls and I am VERY satisfied. I used to use a regular French press and cover it with a very thick towel to keep the water temperature as constant as possible. This is the model that, in addition to the double walls, also has an additional silicone seal on the sieve, so I have never had the displeasure of waking up with the grounds in the coffee cup.

The rest is small details:
– I never pour the water all at once on the grind, but I use the style for V60, gradual saturation of the coffee;
– I never wait for the water to boil, when I see that the moment of boiling is approaching I turn off the stove and count to 10;
– After about a minute, I «break» the crust and slowly blend in order to obtain a bit of cream;
– I never press the sieve suddenly, but very slowly, so much so that it takes me 20-30 seconds to reach the «end of travel»;
– I always use a timer.

Carefulbecause depending on the degree of grinding it is necessary to add more water or reduce the quantity. The finer the grind, the amount of water needs to be increased slightly! A preparation tutorial was also written by user raudani, here.

I hope that lovers of this method will find some useful ideas in the above. The topic of the Espressoman Forum, dedicated to the French press method, can be found here.