French Press Brewing Guides
The classic French Press is known for its ability to brew a consistent, heavy bodied black coffee.
What you’ll need:
- French Press
- 20g ground coffee (approximately 3 tablespoons)
- 240ml water (2 teaspoons less than 1 cup) at 94°C (1:50 minutes off the boil)
- Tablespoon
- Cup
- Kettle
- Scales, if possible, otherwise follow eye measurements
Brewing recipe:
- Add 20g of coffee into your French Press.
- Pour 40ml of hot water.
- Stir 10 times to wet the ground coffee, and leave it for 30 seconds on the timer.
- Pour the remaining water.
- Add the lid and leave for 3 more minutes.
- Stir a few times until the grinds fall to the bottom.
- Then, very slowly, plunge over 1 minute.
- Serve into cups straight away to avoid over extracting the coffee.
Pro tips:
- Darker roasts require lower and cooler temperature water. If the water is too hot, the brew will easily over extract and taste bitter.
- Lighter roasts require higher temperature water. Light roasts are more dense and need hotter temperatures to extract the flavours.
- Slow plunging is key! Always allow 45 seconds to 1 minute for plunging. Plunging too fast will make a gritty, unclean cup.
- For lighter to medium roast coffees, a few stirs of the brew just before plunging reduces sourness.
- Do not stir before plunging with dark roast coffees since this coffee has very little sourness and this will bring out over extracted, roasty notes.