The French Press

The French Press.

The cafetiere.

The legend.

Every kitchen has one of these guys, lurking in a cupboard somewhere.

This classic, and timeless brewer is capable of making some fantastic coffee, with a few simple, easily repeatable steps.

Works great for

Anyone wanting a full bodied, sweet cup with a great mouthfeel. With the French Press, you'll get more of those oils passing through the filter and into the brew, which will give you a fuller and more lingering flavour that can be really enjoyable with the right coffee.

Also a super easy way to make tasty coffee for multiple people.

Today, we're going to walk through our simple, no-fuss French Press recipe.

As with all coffee brewers, you can (and absolutely should!) experiment, tweak and fine tune as much as you want to.

But you shouldn't have to.

This recipe is designed to get you to a tasty French Press brew in a quick, simple, and easy to follow way.

How To Brew Great Coffee With A French Press

  • Our French Press Brew Guide

    Prep:

    - Weight out 30g of coffee, and grind medium (see pictures below for reference).

    - Boil kettle to 212F

    Recipe:

    1. Place your 30g of ground coffee into the French Press. Put the press on top of a scale and zero.
    2. Start a timer, and add 510g of water from your kettle. We want to get all of the coffee wet, so pour in a circular spiral motion. Once all the grounds are wet you can just pour into the center.
    3. Give it a short swirl.
    4. Insert the plunger and push it down to be just above the crust.
    5. Wait 4 minutes.
    6. Slowly plunge all the way to the bottom, but don't press hard. We want to use the mesh to filter it, but we're not looking to press/squeeze the grounds. If you press to hard, some of the finer solids will come through and you'll end up with a muddy, less clean cup.
    7. Optional step here: wait a minute or two. At this point, the extraction is mostly stopped. Waiting a minute or so here just gives any fines that were disturbed during the plunge another chance to settle at the bottom.
    8. Slowly pour the coffee into a cup or decanter. Leave the last bits in the press. The last 50g or so is going to be where most of the fines are. Leave that in your press and enjoy a much cleaner tasting cup with much less of that textbook French Press sludge.

  • Quick Overview

    Coffee Dose: 30g

    Water: 510g

    Ratio: 1:17

    Water Temp: 212F - straight off boil

    Grind Size: Medium (see below)

    Total Brew Time: 4:00+

    Additional Tips

    Pour slowly. Once all the coffee has settled and you've plunged, you want to avoid disturbing the bed as much as possible. Check this post on our other top French Press brewing tips, for more

French Press Grind Size

Ignore everything you might have heard before about French Press grind size.

Most people think you should grind coarse for French Press.

We're going to be grinding quite a bit finer - probably closer to where you would be for drip or even getting close to pourover range.

The picture on the left will give you an idea of our typical starting point.

For lighter roasts, adjust finer. For more developed roasts, go slightly coarser.

Single Origin Coffees For French Press

We recommend these great single origin coffees for French Press.

View all

FAQs

Troubleshooting & Dialling In

Should I stir my French Press?

You might notice that our recipe didn't use a stir at all.

We much prefer a short swirl rather than a stir. In our testing, swirling seemed to corollate with a nicer cup.

Your mileage may very on that though, so feel free to experiment with it if you want to and see what you prefer!

What temperature water should I use for a French Press?

We usually brew light to light medium style roasts, so our default is always 212F / boiling.

If you're using more developed roasts you may want to pull back a little bit on water temp, maybe even a 205F or something like that if you have a kettle that lets you do that. If not, just bring it to boil and then wait 2-3 mins and it should have cooled down enough.

Do you need to bloom a French Press?

We didn't use a bloom in this recipe, just because we're trying to keep things as simple and repeatable as possible.

We also find that a bloom isn't nearly as important with immersion brewing methods as it is with filter brewing, because all of the water is just in contact with the coffee grounds for much longer.

Again, if you want to experiment then you should absolutely go for it! Brew 2 French Press coffees side by side - 1 with a bloom and 1 without - and see if you can spot any differences.

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