Which Ratio and Grind Suit French Press Coffee?

The French press, designed around 1850, is a glass carafe with a plunger and metal mesh filter, and it is the most forgiving brewing device for beginners. Grind coarse, use a consistent coffee-to-water ratio, steep fully, then press slowly. Its extraction rate sits close to cupping, so oils and aromas come through in a smooth, sweet cup.

The article answers the common question of how much water suits 30 grams of ground coffee, and lays out six steps from bean selection and grinding to pressing and pouring. It also covers pitfalls such as grind control, preheating the carafe and pressing speed. As for what kind of sugar do you put in coffee, that is a separate choice from brewing.

The French press is regarded by many coffee enthusiasts as the top choice for a beginner's brewing device thanks to its simple operation and consistent results, but when it actually comes time to use one, details like the coffee-to-water ratio, grind size, and steeping time often leave people scratching their heads. Drawing on the hands-on experience of Front Street Coffee, this article systematically sorts through the origins and extraction characteristics of the French press, focuses on answering the common question of how many milliliters of water should accompany 30 grams of ground coffee, and lays out a complete six-step method covering everything from bean selection and grinding to pressing and pouring. It also compiles the pitfalls to watch out for—such as grind size control, preheating the carafe, and pressing speed—so you can consistently brew a full, smooth cup of French press coffee at home.

Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

Among all kinds of pour-over coffee gear, the French press is arguably the most hassle-free. Many enthusiasts buy one excitedly and bring it home, only to be completely confused about how to actually use it—just how many grams of coffee should go in, and how many milliliters of water? Below, Front Street Coffee will walk you through the coffee-to-water ratio for French press brewing, as well as how exactly to use a French press.

What is a French press?

The French press originated in France, is written as "French Press" in English, and is also called a French press pot. It was designed around 1850, and its structure isn't complicated: a heat-resistant glass carafe paired with a plunger rod fitted with a metal mesh filter. In its early days it was mostly used to brew black tea, which is why some people also call it a tea press.

Front Street Coffee also learned that the French press is often called the "lazy person's coffee device," because its difficulty of operation is almost the lowest among all brewing methods, and its extraction rate is very close to that of cupping. It can fully release the oils, aromas, and various flavor compounds in coffee, giving a smooth, sweet, and rich mouthfeel. It's a device well worth picking up, and that's why it's so popular among people.

So how do you use a French press to brew coffee?

Step one: You first need to select your beans.

What kind of coffee beans are best for making French press coffee? Front Street Coffee recommends using single-origin specialty coffee beans, or beans with pronounced fruity acidity, and medium to dark roast beans are suitable. This is because the French press works by immersion—releasing the essence of the coffee through a steeping method in which water comes into full contact with the grounds. If you use light-roasted beans, the brewed coffee may not taste as good.

Step two: Determine the grind size and coffee-to-water ratio for the French press.

You need at least about 15g of ground coffee, and the grounds should be somewhat coarse (because hot water comes into direct contact with the grounds—if they're too fine, over-extraction easily occurs and makes the coffee more bitter). In addition, if the powder is too fine, the grounds will escape through the holes of the filter mesh and the coffee will become cloudy. Because the French press extracts differently from today's popular filter-style pour-over method—it extracts coffee liquid by steeping grounds in hot water—the grind size should be coarser than for pour-over. Front Street recommends a grind size for French press steeping of 75% passing through a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve.

Some friends who don't have a grinder at home might think about asking Front Street to grind the beans for them when placing an order, but once coffee beans are ground into fine powder, the flavor compounds tend to evaporate, greatly shortening the window of peak flavor. Therefore, Front Street recommends that friends who have grinding equipment at home buy whole beans and grind fresh right before brewing.

The brewing ratio is the ratio of coffee grounds to water. Common brewing ratios range from 1:13 to 1:15. A 1:13 ratio means 15 grams of coffee needs 195 grams of water to brew. If you're using a French press at home, you can adjust the brewing ratio to your own taste. Within the 1:13 to 1:15 range, if you're using 30 grams of ground coffee for extraction, that means you'd need 390 grams to 450 grams of water to brew.

Of course, Front Street Coffee didn't come up with these figures without basis—they're derived from the SCA Golden Cup extraction theory regarding the taste differences produced by different pour-over coffee-to-water ratios, specifically as follows:

[Bold flavor] 1:10–1:11, i.e., 1:12.5–1:13.5 under the Golden Cup standard

[Moderate flavor] 1:12–1:13 (i.e., 1:14.5–1:15.5 under the Golden Cup standard)

[Light and bright] 1:14–1:16 (i.e., 1:16.5–1:18.5 under the Golden Cup standard)

A ratio of coffee grounds to brewing water of 1:14.5–1:15.5 is the easiest way to hit the golden range of 18%–22% extraction yield and 1.15%–1.35% strength.

Of course, you can also start by trying a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio. For a 2-person serving, that's roughly 20g of coffee beans with about 200g of water. As for the final ratio, it depends on personal taste. The resting time is about 3–4 minutes. The longer the steeping time, the stronger the flavor and the more pronounced the acidity. Every coffee bean tastes different, and everyone's preferences differ, so you'll have to try them one by one. While resting, don't press down the filter—let the coffee and water have more time and space to interact.

Step three: Start using the French press to make coffee. The specific steps are as follows: 1. First grind the coffee beans, then pour them into the French press. At this point, ignore what many people say about grind size—don't grind too coarse, just a medium grind, which is the 75% passing rate through a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve that Front Street recommends.

2. Boil the water; the recommended water temperature is 91°C, then pour in the appropriate amount of water. We used 20g of ground coffee and poured in 200g of hot water, then stirred with a spoon so the grounds and water fully combine. 3. Put the lid on the French press with the filter mesh resting at the top, then let it sit for 4 minutes.

4. After four minutes, gently press down the plunger, pressing only to about 1/4 of the way down the carafe, to avoid fine grounds at the bottom surging upward. 5. Before pressing down the filter, you can open the lid and use a spoon to scoop out the foam and small bits floating on top, then press the filter all the way down. 6. Once brewing is complete, immediately pour it out into another insulated container! Don't delay, because the grounds are still steeping in it. Then pour it into a cup and enjoy it slowly.

That covers the French press coffee ratio and steps. In addition, Front Street Coffee has noticed that quite a few coffee enthusiasts still make mistakes when using a French press, resulting in coffee with a poor flavor. Here's what you should pay attention to when brewing coffee with a French press.

After all that, of course you have to actually brew a cup with a specific coffee bean and taste it. But Front Street Coffee's bean list is so long that even veteran coffee drinkers find themselves agonizing over Front Street's menu. So this time, Front Street used Huakui coffee beans—a sun-dried coffee from Hambela, Sidamo, which in 2017 won over the TOH judges with its rich berry-cream flavor and took the championship in that year's natural category. Using a French press to steep and extract it makes its juicy character even fuller and more substantial.

After brewing Huakui coffee using the steps introduced above by Front Street, the coffee has a complex berry flavor, a long creamy finish, and a full body—overall like a glass of berry juice, very appealing.

Notes on the French press

1. Grind size To make coffee with a French press, set the grind coarser—generally the particle size of granulated white sugar is fine. If the grind is too fine, too many ultra-fine particles will pass through the metal filter, making the coffee taste less clean and affecting the mouthfeel. Front Street recommends a grind size for the French press of coarse sugar granules.

2. Preheat the carafe Front Street recommends preheating the carafe with hot water before brewing, because it's made of glass—if you don't preheat it first, the water temperature will drop fairly quickly.

3. Pressing speed The French press is elegant and gentle, so you must press slowly. If at this critical moment you stir the coffee roughly, it's like speeding up the extraction process at the very last moment—and by then your coffee has already released all the good stuff, and what gets summoned next is bitterness.

That's everything Front Street Coffee has put together on how to use a French press. We hope it helps coffee enthusiasts who want to learn about it.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of Front Street Coffee. WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

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