The French press is potentially one of the most recognisable and accessible pieces of coffee equipment in the world. However, it is rarely used to its full potential, often left sat on a shelf as decoration or bundled into the back of a kitchen cabinet.
The method in this article is designed to give consistent, repeatable, delicious brews with great clarity of flavour and reduced turbidity (more on that in a second). Let’s get brewing.
A brief history
Dating back to the mid 19th century, patents by two French inventors, Mayers and Delforge displayed the first iteration of the French press, though none made it to production. Followed 50 years later by one L. Forest, a cafeolette designed to brew ground coffee with milk instead of water, on the stovetop.
A major turning point arrived in 1929, when an Italian, Ugo Paolini patented a screw-to-plunge design that in 1935 was built upon by Bruno Cassol solidify the method of plunging your brew with a tightly fit wire mesh that pressed against the inner walls of the carafe, still used to this day.
The French press or cafetière is a full immersion brewer, that means the ground coffee and water stay in constant contact for the duration of the brew, using diffusion and erosion to extract solubles, aided by agitation, this brew style can produce consistent, silky, well extracted brews time and time again.
You can learn more about the long history of French press here.
How to make French press coffee
Equipment you will need to make great French press
- French press (glass, double walled plastic or insulated steel)
- A good quality burr grinder
- Kettle, digital or regular
- Spoon
- Scales
- Timer
- Freshly roasted coffee beans
- Filtered water (ideally)
What ratio should we use for our French press?
We recommend a ratio between 1:14.2 / 1:16.6.
This is equal to 60-70g of coffee and 1000ml of water.
This ratio can scale up or down accordingly.
We’ll be using a small 300ml press for this recipe which is enough for approximately 2 cups of brewed coffee. Using the ratio above, we’ll need 18-21g of coffee for our 300ml of water.
Step-by-step French press recipe
1. Weigh 18g of your coffee beans and grind medium coarse. We recommend a setting of 50 on the Niche Zero and 60 on the Niche Duo
- Your grinder is going to have the biggest effect on your brews in any method, so making sure you have a grinder that can achieve a good consistent grind size is important.
- Blade grinders typically produce a range of big chunks and tiny powdered fines, which will make your brew taste muddy and unbalanced.
- Burr grinders will produce a much narrower range of grind sizes, closer to your chosen size (number on the dial) which yields a cleaner cup, clarity of flavour and better mouth feel. You can learn more about the different burr types here.
2. Boil your kettle using filtered water
- We’re aiming to use water just off the boil or if you have a digital kettle set it to 94º.
- The hotter the water the more it will extract (this can lead to harsher flavours).
- The colder the water the less it will extract in your chosen time, leading to sour, under extracted, dull flavours. Anything below 90º is not recommended.
- Preheating your French press can ensure better thermal stability throughout your brew time.
3. Add your ground coffee
- Place your empty vessel on your set of scales, add your coffee and tare the weight back to 0.
4. Add your hot water
- Start your timer and pour in all 300ml of your water vigorously to fully saturate all dry coffee
- If there are any little islands of dry coffee break them up as quick as you can, then stop stirring completely.
5. Wait 5 minutes
- Waiting for 5 minutes allows a thick crust to form on the surface of the liquid.
6. Break the crust
- At the 5 minute mark we want to break the crust, but also stir the bed of coffee at the same time, so using a long enough stirrer, mix back and forth, side to side for 8 total movements.
- This may sound overly specific but the more physical agitation we add during this stage, the more likely harsher unbalanced flavours will occur.
7. Add the lid and wait another 3 minutes
- After stirring we want to add the lid and wait a further 3 minutes for the suspended grinds to settle back down to the bed below.
- The large chunks that originally formed the crust should also be drifting down after we broke the crust.
8. Now plunge
- Pressing carefully, not too fast and not too slow, until the mesh just reaches the top of the coffee bed.
- Being careful to not press any further as this will overly agitate (negative flavours) and also force through very fine particles into the filtered brew above, causing you to have a silty cloudy coffee.
9. Wait 2 more minutes
- Resting for 2 more minutes helps everything settle and provides better flavour clarity and reduced turbidity.*
10. Decant
- Finally, pour into your serving vessel being cautious towards the end of the last quarter of liquid as this will impart more and more fine particles if you keep pouring.
11. Enjoy!
What is turbidity?
The aforementioned turbidity* is the distinct cloudy and silty characteristic resulting from suspended solids in a liquid, a common characteristic of some immersion brewers.
Reductions in turbidity happen at a couple of stages throughout this method;
- Waiting 3 minutes after breaking the crust for solids to float down and settle.
- Plunging carefully and not pushing too much more into the bed will reduce the amount of fine particles kicked up and back into the filtered brew above.
- The final 2 minutes of settling will help mitigate further turbidity.
- Keeping an eye on the last quarter of liquid in your French press as you pour, you’ll notice many fine particles tipping out into your cup, the more you add the cloudier the brew will be.
Tips to make my French press even better
Here are some simple but effective tips that can make a big difference to your brew. From dialing in your grind size to adjusting the ratio to accommodate milk, these small tweaks will help you get the most out of every cup.
Improving your French press equipment
Scales with a timer are useful to reduce the amount equipment.
Insulated stainless steel presses have the highest extraction rates due to much better thermal retention, double walled plastic being second best and glass cooling down the quickest, resulting in slightly less extraction.
Adjusting your grinder and ratios for tastier French press
If you're experiencing bitter, heavy flavours, try grinding coarser, reducing water temp or lowering the amount of coffee used by a gram or so.
If you’re experiencing sour, flat flavours, try grinding finer, increasing water temp or increasing the amount of coffee by a gram or so.
You can find out more about finding the perfect grind setting on your grinder here.
Higher altitude (1700-2400 m.a.s.l.) or lightly roasted coffees typically benefit from hotter water, finer grind, or longer brew times.
Lower altitude (800-1700 m.a.s.l.) or darker roasted coffees typically benefit from slightly cooler water, coarser grind, or shorter brew times.
Using a stronger ratio like 75/80g : 1000 (1:12.5/13) may be preferable if you plan on adding a dash of milk to the brew.
As with all coffee brewing methods the grinder is what makes the biggest difference to the final outcome, so ensuring that you use a high-quality grinder like the Niche Zero or Niche Duo, in combination with this method, will help you to get the best possible brews out of your French press!
Make sure you’re using good quality single origin beans that are within a month of their roast date, filtered water (water makes up 98% of your total coffee, so the better the quality the better your brew!) precise scales and clean equipment. This combination will set you well on your way to making better French press at home!
