How Do You Brew Refined Coffee in a French Press?

A French press can produce refined coffee without a full pour-over setup, but the result depends on three choices: bean type, grind size, and steeping time. Medium to medium-dark roasted beans with clear sweetness work well, a coarse grind keeps the mesh filter from clogging, and a steep of about four minutes extracts flavor without pulling out bitterness.

The French press counts among the simplest coffee extraction methods, using a piston and metal rod patented in the 1850s and refined in Milan in the late 1920s; early versions were used mainly for tea. Because the mesh is finer than a tea strainer, grind size and water temperature must be adjusted to avoid over-extraction and keep the cup clean.

Want to enjoy a good cup of coffee without hauling out a full set of pour-over gear? A French press might be the most hassle-free choice. It's simple to use with a low barrier to entry, but to brew a coffee that's full of flavor without bitterness, the choice of coffee beans, grind size, and steeping time are all crucial. This article draws on Front Street Coffee's brewing experience and uses Huakui coffee beans as an example to explain in detail what kind of beans suit a French press, how long to steep for best results, and how to avoid over-extraction by adjusting grind size and water temperature—so you can easily replicate a rich, delicious French press coffee at home.

Nowadays, discerning coffee enthusiasts who want to make a standard pour-over at home need to acquire quite a bit of equipment: a gooseneck kettle, a server, a dripper, filter paper, a thermometer... Setting it all up is quite a hassle, and storing it takes up space. Does that mean without a full set of pour-over gear, you're destined to miss out on refined coffee? If you posed this question to a barista at Front Street Coffee, they'd probably without a second thought dig out that neglected French press.

The French press, also known as the French press pot, goes by the English name French Press and is one of the simplest and most convenient coffee extraction methods. This device actually dates back quite early—around the 1850s, a craftsman and a merchant jointly obtained a patent for a "piston-filter coffee device": a metal container connected to a movable rod, with holes at the bottom of the rod, each side sandwiching a layer of flannel. By manually pressing the rod to the bottom, the coffee grounds are trapped at the base of the pot, yielding a relatively clean cup of coffee.

After a series of technical improvements, it wasn't until the late 1920s that a company based in Milan, Italy, registered a patent for a modified version of the French press, and the form familiar to the public today was finally established. From then on, it gradually gained widespread acceptance around the world.

However, in the early days, the French press was primarily used not for brewing coffee but for brewing tea. Generally speaking, the mesh used for tea is coarser, while that for coffee is finer. If you love drinking coffee but can't spare the time, or don't have an expensive coffee machine at home, a French press is a pretty good alternative.

Coffee brewed with a French press has a heavier mouthfeel and fuller flavor. Front Street uses Huakui coffee beans as an example to explain how to brew a good cup of coffee with a French press. As per usual, Front Street will first introduce some background information on this bean.

Huakui coffee beans come from the Buku Abel processing station in the Hambela sub-region of the Guji production area in Ethiopia, using the natural (sun-dried) processing method. In 2017, the Ethiopian company DW sent sun-dried coffee beans from the Buku Abel processing station to that year's TOH competition, where they won the championship in the sun-dried group of the TOH Ethiopia region with a rich strawberry-cream flavor. A green bean trader in Beijing imported the same batch of champion beans into China. Because that strawberry-cream flavor was so outstanding, and with continued optimization in post-processing, it had great potential to become the next explosively popular coffee bean. So with high hopes, it was named "Huakui," meaning "leader of a hundred flowers."

That same year, at the World Coffee Brewing Competition China region, almost all competitors were using Geisha varieties, but Li Jianfei chose the same batch of Huakui coffee beans and ultimately took second place. When people asked, they discovered it was Huakui coffee beans from Ethiopia, and Huakui's fame skyrocketed from then on.

Huakui coffee beans are named in the format "Huakui X.0," with the number increasing along with the year: 2018 Huakui 2.0, 2019 Huakui 3.0, 2020 Huakui 4.0, 2021 Huakui 5.0. With the arrival of 2022, it means Huakui 6.0 is about to be released. Front Street Coffee has already pre-ordered the batch, and it's believed that before long, friends will be able to see Huakui 6.0 on Front Street Coffee's bean list.

Currently, on Front Street Coffee's bean list of nearly fifty coffee beans, there are Huakui 5.0 and small-bean Huakui coffee beans. Front Street once discovered small Huakui beans among the 2018 and 2019 Huakui coffee beans. After comparison, Front Street found that these small Huakui coffee beans were precisely the main source of Huakui coffee's aroma. In 2020, DW processed the small Huakui coffee beans separately, giving rise to the small-bean Huakui brand.

After conducting a cupping comparison between Huakui 5.0 coffee beans and small-bean Huakui coffee beans, Front Street found that the flavor of small-bean Huakui coffee is closer to the strawberry-cream flavor of the 2017 sun-dried champion batch, while the flavor of Huakui 5.0 leans more toward the citrus, berry notes, and tea-like quality of the Guji production area.

After all, your own hands aren't a barista's hands. Even if the Huakui you drink at a café is delicious, when you brew it at home yourself, you just can't reproduce that flavor. Rather than the complex pouring method, friends turn their attention to the simplest brewing method—brewing Huakui coffee beans with a French press.

But problems follow: How do you brew to avoid Huakui coffee being bitter and astringent? How can you get a delicious cup of Huakui coffee?

Front Street Coffee French Press Brewing Tutorial

Brewing equipment: French press

Water temperature: 90°C

Coffee dose: 15 grams

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: 70% passing through a China standard No. 20 sieve

First, pour an appropriate amount of hot water into the French press to preheat it thoroughly, then pour the hot water out.

Add 15 grams of coffee grounds to the French press, then pour in 225 grams of 90°C hot water.

Pull the plunger to its highest position and cover with the lid, then steep for 4 minutes.

After 4 minutes, gently and slowly press the plunger down to one-quarter of the French press, pour out the coffee, and it's ready to enjoy.

The Huakui coffee brewed by Front Street following the above parameters and steps delivers a mixed-berry aroma on the first sip, with an obvious complex berry-juice quality and a creamy mouthfeel, full and rich overall.

Huakui coffee beans are a medium-light roast. When the coffee's flavor compounds come into contact with hot water, they dissolve at a slower rate, so Front Street recommends using a higher water temperature to accelerate the release of flavor compounds.

When producing coffee, Front Street generally uses a three-stage pouring method with a dripper for extraction. Because the hot water poured in contacts the coffee grounds for a relatively short time before finally dripping down into the server, Front Street usually uses a grind size of 80% passing through a China standard No. 20 sieve when brewing Huakui coffee, which is slightly finer than what's used for a French press.

However, French press brewing ultimately involves steeping coffee in relatively high-temperature hot water for a long time. To avoid over-extraction producing bitterness, Front Street recommends using a coarser grind size: 70% passing through a China standard No. 20 sieve. A coarser grind means larger coffee particles and less overall surface area in contact with hot water. If the grind is too fine, over-extraction easily occurs; if too coarse, under-extraction easily occurs, resulting in a watery taste and excessive sourness.

For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style) For professional coffee knowledge exchange, please add WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.