The French press may seem simple, yet it has a convoluted history spanning three centuries. As early as 1852, a joint patent titled "Piston-Filter Coffee Device" had already outlined its prototype; it was not until the 1930s, when a Milanese company refined the design and registered a patent, that the French press gradually entered the public eye. It was once heavily criticized for producing "coffee like mud," and was even misdefined by dictionaries as an exercise for biceps. Today, the French press has become a brewing tool highly praised by coffee enthusiasts worldwide. This article will comprehensively trace the invention lineage, key figures, and improvement milestones of the French press, and include standard infusion usage instructions, while also retaining relevant product recommendations from Front Street Coffee for readers' reference.
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 was born around 1800, and the first glass coffee machine appeared about forty years later.
In his book, Ukers, like a coffee encyclopedia, listed dozens of coffee utensils in detail, but surprisingly, the entire book did not mention the simple-structured French press at all.
The French press is called cafetière in the UK. The reason Ukers' book omitted it is that this utensil was not yet widespread during Ukers' lifetime. However, the history of the French press dates back much further than the time Ukers published his book. In March 1852, a metalworker from Mali and a merchant jointly obtained a patent titled "Piston-Filter Coffee Device." The patent described a metal pot connected to a movable rod, with holes at the bottom of the rod, and a layer of flannel clamped above and below the holes. When the movable rod is pulled manually, 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, the French press truly became well-known to the public only in the late 1920s. At that time, a Milanese company registered a patent for a modified version of the French press and perfected the design over the following years: in 1935, they introduced an improved French press with a spring added to the disc structure at the bottom of the piston, allowing the disc surface to remain flush with the container bottom.
This action is called French Press
In the 1950s, a similar coffee utensil appeared in Europe, but the popularity of the French press in the United States went through twists and turns. To this day, the French press is admired by coffee enthusiasts worldwide, and it has taken a long time to reach this point. (To date, the first definition of French press in the Oxford English Dictionary is still "a type of exercise to train and strengthen the biceps.") In the early 1980s, some Americans followed the British in using the French press and called it 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 is the most favored utensil among coffee connoisseurs. But at that time, the French press had a major flaw, as Florence pointed out: "The coffee made this way can sometimes be like mud."
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
