Memories in Coffee - The French Press

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 Yesterday I gifted myself a coffee grinder, the fancy kind, one that creates many different grinds. And then this morning, I brought out my 15 year old French Press and brewed myself a delicious cup of java!! It is so very satisfying, the aroma, the flavor, the body, and the heady caffeine!

French Press

So, how do we make the perfect French Press coffee? This is my experiential recipe:

1. Bring water to boil, but then let it wait for a bit. The best temperature for water to brew coffee is about 200F (Boiling point of water is 212F). If you have a thermometer, use it!

2. For French Press coffee, the needs to be coarsely ground. Like flaky sea salt. This grind allows for proper extraction, also the plunger holds the coffee grinds down at the end of the brew.

3. Add about 10 tablespoons of coarse ground, pour a little bit of the hot water over it, just enough to cover it and swirl it. Let it rest for 30 seconds or so. Doing this allows the brewing to be consistent. You will notice that there is a "bloom", that is bubbling. This is carbon dioxide escaping. Swirling allows the gas to escape and prime the grounds ready to receive the hot water. (If you want a lighter coffee, use less coffee. I often do only six tablespoons, the picture above, when I do not want that heavy load of caffeine.)

4. Add the 200F water onto the grounds, upto about the middle of the top metal band. Leave a freeboard of about an inch.

5. I usually take the plunger couple times up and down, this allows a bit of turbulence in the press and also prevents a crust forming at the top.

6. Set the timer for FOUR minutes. Let it brew.  After the time is up, pour and savor!!

Secret to good French Press coffee are the following:

  • Use the right grind. Coarse for French Press.
  • Water temperature NOT at boiling, 200F is just perfect.
  • Time of contact to be about 4 minutes.
  • Water to Coffee grind ratio to be 12:1 to 16:1. It is best if you do this on a weighing scale. 
In 2005 - 2006, my ex-husband and I were in a serious experiment mode. We had a large kitchen and had set up six different methods of coffee machines. We used to source beans from different specialty coffee roasters and then test the coffee with different brewing methods. We kept detailed tasting and method notes, trying to find the best combination of roast, beans, grind, and method. It was a lot of fun. I do not have those notebooks anymore, but I remember some of the lessons learned. Today, 15 years later, I am much mellowed in how I do things - I am not as aggressive about my experiments, and my palate has improved much more, it is way more sensitive.

Since I moved to San Diego in 2009, we had bought a Saeco automatic machine. It used to grind and brew cups for us, fresh with a beautiful crema. The machine brought joy in my life everyday for 11 years and then early this year, during the pandemic, it died. I was very disappointed. I thought of buying another expensive machine, did some research. Then I took a three month hiatus from coffee altogether! Ha! And then I suffered for six weeks of Keurig pod coffee. I have nothing against Keurig coffee, but it is not pleasure inducing, it is mostly for a caffeine injection. I feel I deserve the joy of a good brew in the morning, so I am back to the old school method. I brought out my French Press and Espresso pot. I will be doing coffee the old school way for a few months. And if I still miss the convenience of my  Saeco, I might then go shell out the $1,200 for a new machine. Let's see!!

Next post will be about Espresso.

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