Is a French Press Worth Buying Compared With the Most Expensive Coffee Machine in the World?

A French press is worth buying for anyone who wants good coffee without pour-over skill. The device first appeared in France around 1850: a heat-resistant glass body plus a plunger with a metal mesh filter. It relies on immersion, so a longer steep releases more soluble material and a fuller taste. A basic model costs only fifty or sixty yuan.

Compared with the most expensive coffee machine in the world, the French press asks almost nothing of the buyer: beans or grounds, hot water, and a few minutes. Costa Rica Mozart beans brewed this way show how much body the method extracts. The trade-off is sediment and less clarity, which matters if a clean cup is the goal.

Want to easily make a good cup of coffee but aren't skilled at pour-over? Front Street Coffee recommends that beginners try the French press. This simple brewing device originating from France, with its easy operation and full-bodied flavor, has become the top choice for many coffee lovers just starting out. So is the French press really worth buying? Is it expensive? And what unique qualities does the coffee it extracts have? This article will start from the working principle of the French press, analyze its pros and cons and methods of use in detail, and use Costa Rica Mozart coffee beans as an example to demonstrate the specific operation and flavor performance of French press brewing, helping you fully understand whether this device suits you.

If you're new to coffee and haven't yet mastered pour-over techniques, what device should you choose to brew coffee? Front Street Coffee usually suggests that these friends give priority to the French press, because it's easy to learn and convenient to use. What exactly are the appealing qualities of the French press that make coffee fans who aren't good at pour-over favor it so much?

The Coffee Extraction Principle of the French Press

The French press first appeared in France around 1850, with a simple construction: a heat-resistant glass body plus a plunger with a metal filter mesh. At first it was used to brew tea, but later someone tried adding coffee grounds to it and discovered that the resulting coffee had a particularly rich mouthfeel. As the pores of the metal filter mesh kept getting smaller, the French press gradually became popular in the coffee world.

The French press mainly relies on immersion to extract coffee flavor. Within a fixed capacity, a certain amount of water evenly dissolves the soluble substances in the coffee grounds. During extraction, time is the most critical factor—the longer the steep, the more substances are released from the coffee, until saturation is reached, meaning the longer the immersion time, the stronger the taste.

Is the French Press Worth Buying? Is It Expensive?

Front Street believes that if you don't want to fuss around and don't want to overcomplicate coffee, then the French press is very suitable for you. You can buy one on e-commerce platforms for just fifty or sixty yuan. As long as you have coffee beans or coffee grounds at home, plus hot water, you can easily make a rich cup of black coffee, and finally adjust it to your own taste.

At this point, some friends might ask Front Street: "If the French press steeps for so long, won't it also extract unwanted flavors?"

The "long time" mentioned here doesn't really mean steeping for ten or twenty minutes. Usually the immersion time for a French press is controlled at around 4 minutes, the water temperature is kept between 88℃ and 91℃, and the coffee grounds are ground coarsely. Because the glass body has limited heat retention, the water temperature will continue to drop during immersion, and since the coffee particles are coarser, the flavor substances are released relatively slowly. So 4 minutes is the optimal immersion time for making coffee with a French press, but it should not exceed 6 minutes at most. After the 4-minute immersion, press down the filter mesh, and then pour the coffee into another container before drinking.

What Are the Characteristics of Coffee Brewed with a French Press?

1. Compared with drip-style pour-over, immersion-style French press coffee has a fuller body.

The French press uses a metal filter mesh to filter out coffee grounds, and the pores of the metal mesh are larger than ordinary filter paper, so most of the coffee oils are retained during filtering. Front Street has noticed that coffee made with a French press has a thin layer of oil floating on the surface. The pour-over coffee we usually drink, on the other hand, is made by pouring water through the coffee grounds layer and high-density filter paper. When the coffee liquid passes through the filter paper, most of the oils are filtered out, so it tastes noticeably cleaner. Although the French press is fuller-bodied than pour-over, because of the metal filter mesh design, it also leaves quite a bit of fine coffee sediment. It's common to encounter coffee grounds at the bottom of the cup when drinking a French press coffee.

2. Coffee brewed with a French press better highlights the coffee's original flavors.

The French press extraction method is very similar to cupping—both are immersion extraction. The advantage is that it minimizes human interference and best reflects the bean's original flavors, and the coffee flavor is also more concentrated. What is human interference? Take pour-over coffee, for example—the height and speed of pouring can change the flavor expression, and switching to a different dripper will also make the coffee flavor different. But the French press doesn't have these problems. Only three things can affect French press coffee flavor: grind size, water temperature, and immersion time.

How to Make Coffee with a French Press?

This time Front Street chose Costa Rica Musician Series Mozart coffee beans. This bean has dried-fruit fermentation notes, white floral aroma, and a distinct sweet-tart acidity. The brewing parameters are as follows:

Coffee dose: 15 g Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind size: medium-coarse (68% passing a No. 20 standard sieve) Water temperature: 90℃ Immersion time: 4 minutes

First, preheat the French press with warm water, then pour the warm water out. Pour the ground coffee into the press—the grind should be slightly coarse—then pour in 225 ml of hot water (90℃). You can pour fairly quickly (finish pouring in about 3 seconds) to make the coffee grounds tumble and improve extraction efficiency. After pouring is complete, pull up the filter mesh, put on the lid, and let it steep for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, gently press down the plunger, just to about one quarter of the way down the body, to avoid fine grounds at the bottom surging up. Once pressed, you can pour out the coffee and enjoy it.

That's right,

making coffee with a French press is just that simple.

How Does Mozart Coffee Made with a French Press Taste?

After pouring out the coffee, Front Street smelled a rich raisin fermentation aroma. On the palate there was a berry juice-like quality, orange blossom aroma, prominent fermentation notes, and a pineapple-like sweet-tart flavor.

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