To enjoy a refreshing glass of cold brew coffee, you actually don't need complicated equipment—a French press will do the job easily. The French press uses immersion extraction, which has a high tolerance for error and a low barrier to entry, so almost anyone can master it. This article will use the practical experience of Front Street Coffee as an example to explain in detail how to make cold brew coffee with a French press, including suitable coffee bean selection, grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, steeping time, as well as filtering and storage methods. Whether you prefer floral and fruity notes or a sweet and mellow flavor, you can find beans that suit you. Follow the steps, and you can make a clean, sweet, and smooth cold brew coffee at home.

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Making cold brew coffee is actually not complicated, and the barrier is low—you can use any clean container, and a French press happens to be a very handy tool among them. Next, Front Street Coffee will demonstrate how to make a delicious cold brew coffee with a French press.

Advantages of the French Press

The French press uses immersion extraction. This method has two obvious benefits: First, there is a relatively large margin for error. During the steeping process, as the concentration of the coffee and water gradually approaches equilibrium, the rate at which substances inside the coffee are released naturally slows down. So even if the parameters are set rather extreme, over-extraction is unlikely to occur.

Second, it does not require precise pouring techniques at all. Making a good cup of coffee is about as difficult as brewing a cup of tea. We only need to set the parameters, pour the water and coffee grounds into the press together to steep, and when the time is up, we can filter out a delicious cup of coffee.

What coffee beans are suitable for French press cold brew coffee?

To be honest, like other extraction methods, any coffee beans can be used to make cold brew, but to make it taste good, Front Street believes you still need to put some thought into selecting them.

When making cold brew coffee, Front Street prioritizes beans with floral and fruity flavors, usually choosing light to medium roast types with floral aromas and fruity acidity. Recommended are Front Street Huakui Coffee, Front Street Red Cherry Coffee, and Front Street Guodingding Coffee. If you prefer a prominent juicy feel, you can choose fruit-forward beans like Front Street Strawberry Candy Coffee, Front Street Little Tomato Coffee, and Front Street Mozart Coffee; if you prefer a sweet and mellow mouthfeel, we suggest Front Street Queen's Estate Coffee and Front Street Huilan Coffee. All of the above can be ordered from the Front Street Tmall flagship store or Front Street Taobao store.

How to make cold brew coffee with a French press?

Generally speaking, how much coffee grounds to use depends on how much coffee liquid we want to extract, while also considering the capacity of the French press. The French press Front Street bought has a capacity of about 300ml. If calculated at a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio, it can just hold 30g of coffee grounds. When making French press cold brew coffee, Front Street uses Front Street Strawberry Candy Coffee Beans, a Costa Rican specialty coffee with aromas of strawberry gummy candy, berries, dried grapes, and nuts, suitable for various extraction methods.

Cold brew coffee is a very easy method to master. Taking Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s cold brew method as an example, based on 1:10, prepare 30g of Front Street Strawberry Candy Coffee Beans, ground to a fineness of 85% passing through a No. 20 standard sieve.

Pour the coffee grounds into the French press, add 300ml of room-temperature water, stir the coffee grounds and water evenly with a stirring rod, then seal it well and place it in the refrigerator.

After placing it in the refrigerator for 8 to 16 hours, pull out the filter, first filtering out the large coffee grounds, then use a piece of filter paper to remove the fine coffee powder, so you get a clean coffee liquid, and then it is ready to drink. If you find the taste too strong, you can add a small amount of ice cubes to dilute it; you can also put the coffee liquid into a clean sealed bottle and refrigerate it for about 4 hours before drinking, and the taste will be even sweeter and smoother.

After filtering, cold brew coffee can be sealed and stored in the refrigerator for 5 days. Although the longer cold brew coffee is stored, the richer the flavor becomes, the refrigerator environment itself is relatively "complex" (especially household refrigerators), and it is hard to completely avoid bacterial intrusion. Also, every time the bottle cap is opened, air has a chance to enter. So for health reasons, Front Street does not recommend drinking it after a week or even a month.

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