How does French Press brewing prepare coffee in a coffee maker style?

To prepare coffee in a coffee maker or a French Press, control four core parameters: coffee-to-water ratio, grind size, water temperature, and steeping time. The French Press, a classic immersion device from 19th-century France, relies mainly on steeping, so time is the most critical variable. Longer steeping extracts more soluble material and produces a stronger taste.

A French Press has a simple structure: a heat-resistant glass carafe and a metal filter with a plunger rod. Brewing takes three manual steps, adding grounds, pouring water, and pressing the plunger. The same device also works as a cupping tool, a tea maker, and a milk frother, and a complete iced coffee method can be made with it as well.

The French Press is a classic immersion coffee brewing device originating from 19th-century France. It has a simple structure and is easy to operate, yet it can extract rich, well-balanced coffee. This article starts from the four core parameters—coffee-to-water ratio, grind size, water temperature, and steeping time—to break down the key points of French Press brewing in detail, and also introduces its many other uses, from a cupping tool to a tea maker and even a milk frother. In addition, it shares a complete method for making iced coffee with a French Press, along with coffee bean recommendations suitable for the French Press and cleaning and maintenance tips, helping you fully master how to use a French Press.

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The French Press originated in 19th-century France. Its English name is French Press, and in Chinese it is also often called a "French-style press filter pot." There is no exact historical record of when it first appeared, but in 1852 the Frenchmen Mayer and Delforge founded the "Smith" company, applied for a patent for a piston-type coffee filtering device, and named it "French Press." This is generally regarded as the starting point of the French Press becoming commercialized.

The French Press is simple and convenient by design

It is called simple because the French Press is not complicated in structure, principle, or operation. The whole device consists of a heat-resistant glass carafe and a metal filter with a plunger rod. When brewing, you simply put coffee grounds and hot water into the glass container to steep, then use the metal filter to press and filter out the coffee grounds, and you get a relatively clean cup of coffee. The only manual actions required in the whole process are three steps: add grounds, pour water, press the plunger.

How to use a French Press to brew a good pot of coffee

Because the French Press mainly relies on immersion to extract coffee, with the carafe capacity fixed, a certain amount of water will evenly dissolve the soluble substances in the coffee grounds. The most critical variable in the extraction process is time—the longer the steep, the more substances are dissolved, until saturation, or until it reaches a state where further extraction becomes difficult. In other words, the longer it steeps, the stronger the taste.

So the first step is to determine the coffee-to-water ratio. Front Street usually recommends a ratio of 1:15 to 1:16. This range has a high tolerance for error, and most coffees can show good mouthfeel and flavor at this ratio.

Next, determine the grind size. Front Street recommends using a coarser grind for the French Press, because the French Press relies on a metal filter, and the mesh holes can be seen with the naked eye, so a coarser grind helps with better filtration. Beans of different roast levels also differ in grinding: measured by the pass-through rate of a No. 20 standard sieve, medium-light roasted coffee beans can be ground finer (pass-through rate 72%–75%), while medium-dark roasted coffee beans should be ground coarser (pass-through rate 68%–71%).

Then comes the water temperature. The French Press uses immersion extraction, and the coffee grounds and water are basically in a relatively static state, so the water temperature needs to be set higher. For the same bean, the brewing temperature used for a French Press will be 2–3°C higher than for pour-over. Specifically, brewing medium-light roasted coffee is recommended at 91–94°C, and brewing medium-dark roasted coffee is recommended at 88–91°C.

Finally, the steeping time. As mentioned earlier, time is crucial for the French Press. After repeated brewing comparisons, Front Street believes that, according to the parameters recommended by Front Street, most coffee beans perform best in taste and mouthfeel when steeped for about 4 minutes. You can also use this set of parameters as a basic template and then develop your own preferred brewing method.

The actual operation is actually very easy. Taking 15 grams of coffee grounds as an example, pour the ground coffee into the carafe, add 225–240 milliliters of hot water, lift the plunger, cover with the lid, and let it sit for 4 minutes. After that, slowly press down the plunger so that the metal filter stops about one quarter above the bottom of the carafe. This can prevent the fine grounds at the bottom from surging upward.

The French Press is not just for simply brewing coffee

It can also be used as a cupping tool

The process of making coffee with a French Press is very similar to cupping; both complete extraction through static steeping, so many people use a French Press to evaluate the quality of coffee beans. The French Press brewing method recommended by James Hoffmann, author of The World Atlas of Coffee, is almost identical to the cupping method.

It can also be used to brew tea

The French Press combines steeping and filtering in one, with a simple structure. It can brew coffee, and of course it can also brew black tea, and it is equally convenient to use. If you look closely, you will find that the tea makers sold on the market are very similar in structure to the French Press.

It can even froth milk

The French Press can also be used to froth milk. If you want cold milk foam, you need a manual milk frother, and the structure of a manual milk frother is actually very similar to a French Press. By pumping the French Press plunger up and down, you can also froth milk.

Some people ask: Can a French Press make iced coffee?

Front Street was quite surprised when first hearing this question, but since a friend asked, we will share the French Press iced coffee method we obtained after many experiments.

Concept

The principle of the French Press is immersion extraction. Under the same bean conditions, hot coffee made with a French Press is usually more balanced and has a fuller mouthfeel than pour-over. Therefore, we can borrow the idea of Japanese-style iced pour-over to make French Press iced coffee—first use a small amount of hot water to steep the coffee and extract a concentrated hot coffee liquid, then pour it into ice cubes to dilute and cool it, thereby forming iced coffee.

Because ice needs to be added to dilute the concentration, high-acidity light-roasted coffee is not suitable for making iced coffee. On the one hand, the mouthfeel tends to become thin after dilution; on the other hand, steeping light-roasted coffee with acidity can easily produce unpleasant flavors such as almond and peanut skin. In the end, Front Street chose Honduras Sherry coffee beans. Its characteristics are full body and rich vanilla and sherry aromas, making it very suitable for immersion extraction.

Extraction plan

① Preparation stage: Prepare the French Press, electronic scale, glass cup, hot water, and ice cubes. Use 15 grams of coffee. In order to obtain a more concentrated hot coffee liquid, the ratio of coffee grounds to hot water is 1:8, and the water temperature is 94°C. As for grind size, because the French Press uses a metal filter, it is not recommended to rely on a finer grind to increase the extraction yield. A medium-coarse grind is sufficient (pass-through rate of a No. 20 standard sieve: 65%).

② Grind the coffee and pour it into the French Press, add 120 grams of hot water and start timing. Pour the water directly from the center.

③ After 30 seconds, stir the coffee grounds layer with a stirring rod to increase the extraction yield. At this point, a three-layer structure of coffee liquid, coffee grounds, and coffee foam will form.

④ Cover the French Press lid and wait until 3 minutes. During this time, you can put 105 grams of ice cubes into the glass cup.

⑤ After 3 minutes, slowly press down the plunger and let it sit for 1 minute to allow the coffee grounds to settle.

⑥ At the 4th minute, pick up the French Press and pour the coffee liquid into the glass cup containing ice cubes.

In this way, a cup of iced coffee made with a French Press is complete. Because it is filtered with a metal mesh, a good amount of coffee oils remains on the surface, and the vanilla note of the Sherry coffee beans also performs very well. It is refreshing yet still full-bodied.

So, how should the French Press be disassembled and cleaned?

As mentioned earlier, the French Press uses a metal filter design, which can retain coffee oils. It is environmentally friendly and allows you to enjoy a pot of coffee without consuming extra filter paper, but for this reason it also needs to be cleaned more carefully. If you are lazy and do not wash it properly, the coffee oils remaining on the carafe will affect the taste of the next cup of coffee.

The structure of the French Press is not complicated. It mainly consists of a glass carafe, a metal filter, and a plunger rod. The part that needs to be disassembled is mainly the metal filter, because it is made up of several layers, and it is difficult to clean the inside thoroughly without taking it apart.

First, hold the head of the plunger rod firmly with one hand, and with the other hand twist and loosen the metal filter part. Then clean the remaining components. After draining the water, it can be reassembled.

What are some recommendations for delicious coffee beans suitable for the French Press?

Taking Front Street's coffee beans as an example, the Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) bean list covers coffee beans from more than 50 producing regions, and each bean has its own characteristics. The ones most suitable for the French Press are Indonesian Mandheling coffee beans, Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans, and Honduras Sherry coffee beans. Whether in mouthfeel or flavor, these coffees are all very suitable for brewing with a French Press.

Front Street suggests that when choosing coffee beans for the French Press, you might consider beans with better balance, such as Front Street Blue Mountain No. 1, Front Street Bird of Paradise, Front Street Huila, and Front Street Brazil Cerrado, whose flavors lean toward dark chocolate and nutty notes. As for beans with relatively rich layering in mouthfeel, such as Ethiopian coffee, Front Street does not recommend them very much. Because the French Press is an immersion extraction method, if the bean's flavor is mainly floral and fruity, it is relatively difficult to show rich layering with a French Press.

Unlike pour-over, the French Press is not affected by many factors such as temperature, technique, and circling speed. It is a coffee device very suitable for beginners, as long as you control the brewing time well. Because the longer the steeping time, the more substances are dissolved from the coffee, until saturation, or until it reaches a state where extraction becomes difficult. In other words, the longer it steeps, the stronger the taste.

In addition, when tasting French Press coffee and pour-over coffee at the same time, you will find that the coffee brewed with a French Press has a layer of oil floating on the surface, while most pour-over methods using filter paper will filter out the oils. Therefore, compared with pour-over, the French Press has a fuller mouthfeel, but you may also taste tiny coffee grounds, since a metal filter will always let some "slip through the net." Everyone does not need to mind this too much.

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