Levelling up your French Press game

Rise + Grind - Our Team | Kaitlyn

Hello!

We’re going to chat about TWO ways to use your French Press to level up your home barista skills today. Although I prefer the pour over method, there are times of the year when I need hot-brown-caffeine-water, and I need hot-brown-caffeine-water fast! The press or immersion brewing as it’s also known, is a relatively inexpensive, easy and fast way to produce a pretty decent cup of coffee in a short amount of time.

What you need:

  • Fresh roasted coffee
  • Colourless, odourless, chlorine free quality water
  • Opt for a burr grind over a blade grind
  • Basic kitchen scale
  • Stopwatch
  • Kettle (temperature control if possible)
  • French press

Step 1. Weigh & grind your beans.

A great ratio to start with is 60 grams of coffee to 1 Litre of water. My french press isn’t very big and I’m likely overserved at this point so I’m going to half that today and weigh 30 grams of beans. I’ve weighed out 32grams of beans to account for the inevitable gram or two that gets stuck in the grinder (think popcorn effect)

Shoot for a fairly coarse grind (the consistency of breadcrumbs).


Step 2. Heat water.

If you have a temperature controlled kettle that is the best. A guide for water temperature is best between 195 F – 205 F. If you don’t have access to a controlled kettle or a thermometer, bring the water to just under a boiling (212 F), remove from heat source and wait a couple of minutes.

Step 3. Add grounds to FrenchPress, tare the scale and saturate with water.

In my case I’m shooting for 500ml.


Step 4. Let it brew for 4 minutes.

Option #1 we would plunge the coffee & serve. Plunging our coffee at this point will force the sediment that has settled on the bottom to shoot back up through our mesh filter. This will give the coffee more of a silty “chewy” mouthfeel. If you have the time, I recommend using Option #2, but if the goal is simply to caffeinate yourself quickly, Option #1 is A.O.K.

Option #2 at the 4 minute mark we will give the grounds a stir and put our lid back on. Resist the urge to plunge! We are going to wait an additional 5 minutes. During this time our sediment will settle at the bottom.  

We can now pour the entire contents s-l-o-w-l-y into our mug or decanter, careful not to disturb our sludgy-coffee-heap at the bottom of our press.

I encourage you to leave a little bit in the bottom so you don’t end up with sludge in your cup. This plunge-less option produces a cleaner, lighter, less silty cup.

If you have any questions about the french press or any other brew method shoot us a message on instagram or fb. Thank you for reading! I hope you are on your way to brewing better beanwater! <3

– K.W.