The French press is a brewing tool familiar to today's coffee enthusiasts, yet its origins are far more convoluted than one might imagine. From a joint patent in 1852, to a Milanese company's improvement of the spring piston structure, to its gradual acceptance by the American market in the late 20th century, the French press has traveled a long evolutionary road. The French passion for coffee brewing once prompted Ukers' admiration, yet his coffee encyclopedia makes no mention of the French press at all. This article will trace this history and explain what coffee beans the French press is suited to pair with, while retaining the relevant recommendations from the Front Street brand.
William Harrison Ukers wrote in his 1922 book "All About Coffee": "From the beginning, the French have shown more enthusiasm for how to brew coffee than any other nation." According to Ukers, the first French-made coffee machine appeared around 1800, and forty years later, the first glass coffee machine was born.
In his book, Ukers listed dozens of coffee machines like a coffee encyclopedia, but surprisingly, the entire book never once mentions the simple French press.
The French press is called a cafetière in the UK. The reason Ukers' work makes no mention of it is that in Ukers' time, few people used this device. However, the history of the French press goes back much further than the time of Ukers' book. In March 1852, a metalworker and a merchant in France jointly obtained a patent titled "Piston-Filter Coffee Device." The patent described a metal container connected to a movable rod, with holes at the bottom of the rod and a layer of flannel clamped above and below. After manually pulling the rod, the rod moves within the cylindrical container. The inventors wrote: "Press the rod all the way down, and the filtered coffee remains above the rod, clean and clear."
However, it was not until the late 1920s, after a Milanese company registered a patent for a modified version of the French press, that this device gradually became known. The company continued to refine the design in the years following the patent registration: in 1935, they introduced an improved French press, with a spring installed on the disc structure at the bottom of the piston, keeping the disc flush with the bottom of the container.
This action is called French Press
In the 1950s, a similar coffee device appeared in Europe, but the French press's popularity in the United States went through a tortuous path. To this day, the French press is revered by coffee lovers around the world, and it has taken a long time to get here. (To this day, the Oxford English Dictionary's first definition of "French press" is still "an exercise that strengthens and builds the biceps.") In the early 1980s, some Americans began to follow the British in using the French press, calling it a cafetière, while others called it a "French piston-type coffee maker." In 1993, Florence Fabricant introduced this "French press method" to readers in The New York Times, stating that the French press was the most beloved device among coffee connoisseurs. But the French press at the time had a major flaw, Florence said: "The coffee made this way can sometimes be like sludge."
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
