How to Make French Press

[MntnMan62]

I am very excited. After breaking my Bodum Bistro french press carafe, my two replacements arrived today, a day early. I've been making Moka Pot coffee the past few days, interspersed with Keurig coffee. Tomorrow I'm going to make myself a couple mug of french press. Can't wait.

 

[PinkRose]

I am very excited. After breaking my Bodum Bistro french press carafe, my two replacements arrived today, a day early. I've been making Moka Pot coffee the past few days, interspersed with Keurig coffee. Tomorrow I'm going to make myself a couple mug of french press. Can't wait.

Fantastic news! I hope you totally enjoy your coffee!

 

[MntnMan62]

Fantastic news! I hope you totally enjoy your coffee!

I did. Only issue this morning is I took my eye off the milk heating on the stove and the next thing I knew the thermometer was pinned to the hottest reading. It wasn't burnt. But it wasn't as sweet as it should have been. But the coffee was still delicious.

 

[LeahHodges]

• Measure the coffee beans. Measure out the 1/2 cup coffee beans. ...
• Grind the coffee beans. Grind the beans on the coarsest setting in a burr grinder. ...
• Heat the water to boiling, then cool for 1 minute. ...
• Add the water to the French press. ...
• Stir the brew. ...
• Steep for 4 minutes. ...
• Plunge the press.

thanks for your recipe

 

[MntnMan62]

thanks for your recipe

What, I don't get thanks for mine? Geez. Knock a guy while he's down why don't 'cha?

 

[Coffeenarr]

This is helpful. I agree that you don't want to burn the coffee so let the water calm down before pouring. I use a kitchen scale to weigh my coffee and water and use a 1:13 ratio of coffee to water. So, 23 grams of coffee to 300 grams of water makes me two mugs of cafe au lait or one large mug of black coffee. As you say, brew time is important. 4 minutes tends to be a good starting point. Where I differ is once your done with the initial 4 minute brew. I stir the crust on top and remove the foam and any floating grinds. I then let it sit for another 7 minutes or so. This actually mellows the coffee. Not sure why. And I do not plunge at all. I just keep the plunger at the top of the liquid and use the screen as a filter. Plunging can result in bitter coffee because you can stir up all that stuff on the bottom. There is no need to plunge. This approach has worked for me now for years and makes me some delicious coffee.

I'll be following your advice here thanks!

 

[Ronaldooo]

Leave it longer, if the bitterness isn't solids getting into the cup it's most likely a flat spot beneath terminal extraction.

I don't really find a big difference in mouthfeel with French press (compared to any other method using a metal filter), my philosophy is: if I can tell that the brew was made in French press due to silt/mouthfeel, I did something wrong I use the one by beyondtheembrace.com
I use 50g/l with dark roasts, but medium/light roasts would be a bit weak for most at that ratio. I also use 60g/l or a tad under for a long steep.

 

[Elsiel]

Is it true that french press coffee is considered unhealthy?

 

[Wlad]

And what is it? I do not know. Please tell us more.

 

[MntnMan62]

Is it true that french press coffee is considered unhealthy?

There have been studies. First of all, french press coffee filters the grounds from your drink with a metal filter. That filter allows more to make it into your cup than coffee brewed using a paper filter. Specifically, the oils from the beans containe cafestol and kahweol. These two compounds have been linked to increases in LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. But here's the thing. 5 cups of french press coffee were shown to increase LDLs and Tris by 7mg/dL and 11 mg/dL respectively. In addition, the roast factors into this equation. The darker the roast, the less cafestol there is in your coffee. Dark roast is said to have about 60% of the cafestol of lighter roast coffee. One last thing. The 5 cups mentioned above refers to 4 oz. cups, not 8 oz. cups. So, if you already have issues with cholesterol and drink a fair amount of french press coffee, you might want to consider reducing how much you drink, change your brew method to one that involves paper filters or mix different brews together. Otherwise, the changes in levels are relatively minor. Is it bad for you? Maybe a little bit bad.