French Press or Moka Pot: Which Brewing Method Suits Your Beans?

The French press and the moka pot are both simple home brewers, but they extract differently. The French press, introduced in France around 1850, uses a glass body and a metal plunger filter, and its immersion method comes closest to cupping results, keeping oils, aroma and a smooth, sweet body. The moka pot pushes water up through the grounds under pressure for a denser cup.

Bean choice follows the method. For the French press, a coarse grind and a controlled coffee-to-water ratio matter more than origin, since immersion pulls flavor evenly. The moka pot rewards a finer grind and a careful fill. Both devices are often called lazy-person coffee gear because the routine is short and consistent.

The French press and the moka pot are both easy-to-operate coffee brewing devices that are simple to use at home, but the two differ in their extraction principles, suitable coffee beans, and flavor presentation. In this article, Front Street Coffee will introduce the characteristics and specific brewing steps of the French press and the moka pot respectively, focusing on answering which coffee beans are suitable for the French press, how to determine the grind size and coffee-to-water ratio, and the details to pay attention to when using a French press. It will also explain bean selection suggestions and the operating process for the moka pot, helping coffee enthusiasts choose a more suitable device according to their own taste, and make a cup of rich or smooth good coffee.

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee)

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) stores focus mainly on hand-brewed single-origin coffee. There are more than 50 kinds of single-origin coffee beans from different producing regions alone. How to use hand-brewing equipment to present the most perfect flavor of these beans is also a question Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) needs to consider. After comparative brewing experiments at Front Street, we chose to use a simple hand-brewing method for brewing.

Of course, there are many ways to brew coffee beans, and it is not limited to the hand-brewing method mentioned by Front Street. There are also other coffee brewing devices on the market, such as the moka pot, French press, and so on. In this article, Front Street will introduce these two coffee brewing devices.

French Press

The French press, called French Press in English, can also be called a French filter press pot in Chinese. The French press originated in France around 1850. It is a simple brewing device composed of a heat-resistant glass body and a metal filter mesh with a plunger.

The French press and the moka pot are also called "lazy person's coffee devices." They are simple and convenient to operate, and can also preserve the complete flavor of a good cup of coffee. In fact, French press extraction is the brewing method closest to cupping results. It can fully bring out the oils, aroma, essences, and various flavor elements in coffee. Its smooth, sweet, and rich mouthfeel makes it a very good choice of coffee device.

How to make coffee with a French press

Step 1: First, select the beans.

Suitable for single-origin coffee beans, or coffee beans with a strong fruity acidity, and suitable for medium to dark roast coffee beans.

Step 2: Determine the grind size and coffee powder ratio for French press coffee beans.

You need at least about 20g of coffee powder. The coffee powder should be slightly coarse (because hot water directly contacts the coffee powder, and if it is too fine, it is easy to over-extract). You can use a medium grind, about 5-6 degrees. If the powder is too fine, the coffee powder will escape through the holes of the filter mesh, and the coffee will become cloudy. You can also follow Front Street Coffee's (FrontStreet Coffee) grind size:

Front Street Coffee grind size coarseness standard sieve passing rate: Cold Brew > Hand Brew Siphon 80% > Moka American Drip 75-80% > Cupping 70-75% > French Press 65-70%.

You can start by trying a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio. For 2 servings, for example, that is 20g of coffee beans with about 200g of water. As for the final ratio, it depends on your taste. The resting time is about 3-4 minutes. The longer the steeping time, the stronger the taste, and the heavier the acidity. The taste of each coffee bean and personal preference are different, so you need to try them one by one. During the resting time, there is no need to press down the filter mesh; let the coffee and water have more time and space to contact.

Step 3: Start making coffee with the French press

1. First grind the coffee beans, then pour them into the French press. At this point, ignore what many people say about grind size. Do not grind too coarse; medium grinding is enough.

2. Boil the water. The recommended water temperature is 93°C, then pour in the appropriate amount of water. We used 20g of coffee powder and poured in 200g of hot water. Stir with a spoon so that the coffee powder and water fully blend.

3. Put the lid on the French press, leave the filter mesh at the highest position, and let it sit for 4 minutes.

4. Before pressing down the filter mesh, you can open the lid and use a spoon to scoop out the foam and small fragments floating on top, then press the filter mesh all the way down.

5. Once brewing is complete, immediately pour it out into another insulated container! Do not delay, because the coffee powder is still steeping in it. Then pour it into a cup and enjoy it slowly.

Issues to note when using a French press

In addition, you can also prepare an electronic scale. But even if the French press has markings and a measuring spoon, it is still recommended to prepare an electronic scale, because coffee beans will change density due to many factors such as growing altitude and roasting method, and the weight and lightness of each type of bean are different. In addition, if you make a very delicious cup of coffee and want to reproduce that flavor, you must record the ratio. Conversely, if you make a terrible cup of coffee, based on the data you will also know how to make adjustments.

Use fresh, clean soft water. Do not use water that is too hard for extraction, and do not use unfiltered water. If the water itself is not good, it is difficult to make delicious coffee. The French press is elegant and gentle, so when pressing, you must be slow. If at this critical moment you violently stir the coffee, it is equivalent to speeding up the extraction process at the last moment, and by then your coffee has already released all the good things, and what is summoned next is bitterness.

If you want to upgrade it into a milk coffee, the French press can do that too. Prepare a clean French press, pour in 1/3 warm milk, slowly insert the filter, and push and pull repeatedly until the milk is frothed to twice its original volume. At this point the milk has been fully frothed and has a silky mouthfeel. Add it to the coffee and you are done.

Moka Pot

According to Front Street's understanding, the moka pot is spelled Moka pot in English. The most common explanation is that mocha began when the first batch of coffee entered Venice in the 17th century. It can be said that in northern Italy, mocha is equivalent to the meaning of coffee. Therefore, the moka pot is actually also called a coffee pot, meaning a brewing device that can give you a rich cup of coffee at home.

The moka pot is divided into three parts: the upper pot, the powder basket, and the lower base. The lower pot is the water tank that holds water, the powder basket is used to hold more finely ground coffee powder, and the upper pot is used to hold the extracted coffee liquid. The principle of moka pot coffee extraction is very simple: it uses the steam pressure generated in the lower pot. When the steam pressure is large enough to penetrate the coffee powder, it pushes the hot water up to the upper pot, brewing a rich and aromatic coffee.

The brewing process of the moka pot

Coffee brewed with a moka pot is relatively rich, so Front Street suggests choosing coffee beans with a darker roast, which can better express that mellow feeling of coffee. Front Street Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans are recommended.

1. Pour purified water into the lower pot of the moka pot. The water level should be about 0.5cm below the pressure relief valve.

2. Choose a coffee grind size slightly coarser than espresso. You can refer to the size of the gaps in the powder basket filter mesh to ensure that the coffee particles will not fall into the lower pot. Slowly pour the coffee powder into the powder basket, tap gently to distribute the coffee powder evenly, and when the coffee powder forms a small hill shape, level the coffee surface by distributing the grounds.

3. Put the powder basket into the lower pot, tighten the upper and lower parts of the moka pot, then place it on an electric ceramic stove and heat over high heat;

4. When the moka pot rises to a certain temperature, when it makes an obvious "hissing" sound, set the electric ceramic stove to low heat and open the lid of the upper pot.

5. When half of the coffee liquid has come out into the upper pot, turn off the electric ceramic stove. The residual heat and pressure of the moka pot will "push" the remaining coffee liquid into the upper pot.

6. When the coffee liquid has all been extracted into the upper pot, it can be poured into a cup and tasted. Coffee extracted with a moka pot is very rich, and can even extract Crema. It can also be mixed with an appropriate amount of water or milk for a better flavor.

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