Do you want to know how to brew best coffee from your french press?
If the answer is yes, we understand why, despite the french press being a simple device, it is difficult to get a nice coffee every single time without the right knowledge on how to use it properly.
Well, we have some good news for you. In this post, you will find 6 of the best tips to make the best coffee from your french press.
We will guide you through things like how to choose the right coffee, grind size, how to clean your french press properly, and much more!
Keep reading to learn more.
Use Fresh Coffee Beans
Using fresh beans has many benefits when making coffee in terms of flavor.
Thanks to the properties of the beans themselves, they can taste fruity like blueberries, and oranges and even like roses and jasmine.
This is something that you cannot achieve with beans that have been already roasted for 1 – 2 weeks. So, it will works to brew best coffee from your french press.
In summary, fresh beans are always better. But why does this happen? Don’t worry, we are going to explain below.
Recommended Beans: Costa Rican Coffee from Tarrazu by Volcanica Coffee Company
This Costa Rican Coffee from Tarrazu by Volcanica Coffee Company is a high quality pack of coffee beans, this company works hard to work directly with coffee farms and local cooperatives to ensure the best possible quality.
These beans are dark roasted, and the supplier assures that their flavor is nutty, honey and a little caramel. In addition, these beans have been sun-dried. You will make the best coffee from your french press easily!
The brand also provides a lot more options like:
- Bolivian Peaberry
- Bolivian Carnavari
- Colombian Supremo
- Brazil Peaberry
And more.Grind Your Beans Just Before Brewing
Remember that we talked about how coffee beans start to lose their flavorful properties after 1 – 2 weeks of being roasted?
Well, this process is even faster after the coffee is ground. These natural properties or “flavors” start dissipating 20 – 30 minutes after being ground.
This is caused by something called oxidation. Don’t worry, we aren’t going to get (too) scientific.
In short, oxidation is a reaction that occurs when oxygen is present, and it is responsible for deteriorating foods over time.
So, as it is logical, the process is faster if the beans have been ground because the coffee particles are smaller.
If you don’t want to grind your own beans, there’s always the option to use pre-ground coffee, but remember that the flavor won’t be as good as using fresh beans.
Recommended Grinders
We’ve rounded up a few nice grinders that you can use in your home. As with the coffee bean recommendations, we’ve chosen them with customer reviews in mind, and we’ve tried to focus on quality over price, so these models are the best value for money but you can still get a better coffee from your french press!
Manual Coffee Grinder by JavaPresse
Let’s start with a nice manual coffee grinder that you can bring anywhere with you.
This manual coffee grinder by JavaPresse is fully adjustable since it comes with 18 grind settings so you can have 100% precision and control over the coarseness of your grind.
As we said, it is extremely portable, it can be disassembled so you can store it in your backpack or in a small cabinet. It has a height of 7.5” and a width of 1.8”.
One of the goals of the company is to make an impact all over the world and to achieve that purpose, a portion of their profits go to the benefits of their partner’s supply chain and their local communities.
Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill Coffee Grinder by Cuisinart
The Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill Coffee Grinder by Cuisinart, is a very high-quality automatic grinder for its price.
Although there are cheaper models, this one offers several features that completely justify the price.
For example, it comes with an 18-position grind selector that you can use to adjust the grind size from ultra-fine to extra-coarse.
It also has a removable bean hopper, and grind chamber, as well as and very nice design that fits perfectly in any kitchen. Ready to brew best coffee from your french press? Let’s buy now!
Use the Proper Grind Size for French Press
The flavor of the coffee and the grind size you use in the process are actually connected. In fact, grind size is one of the most important factors for brewing a coffee from your french press.
There’s a lot to explain here, but let’s keep it short.
Grind size is so key in the process of making coffee because it directly affects coffee extraction.
The goal should be to select a proper grind size for make a coffee from your french press, so you can ensure that you extract all the flavor possible from the coffee grounds.
If you don’t do this right, you will under-extract or over-extract the coffee from your french press.
Grounds too coarse will cause under-extraction, which provides the brew with a sour, acidic, and salty flavor.
On the other hand, grounds too fine will cause over-extraction, and the flavor of the brew will taste bitter, and kind of tasteless.
So, what is the ideal grind size to use for the french press?
Since you can make coffee from your french press is pretty flexible, you can pretty much use almost any grind size, however, to extract all the flavor possible, you must use the coarse grind size.
Preheat Your French Press
Preheating your french press is an important step for a couple of reasons.
First of all, this will prevent the temperature of the french press from fluctuating the temperature of the water during the brewing process, which is not ideal, since you want to keep the temperature stable for some time in order to extract all possible flavors from the lees.
Additionally, preheating to make a coffee from your french press will keep the final coffee hot for a longer period of time and for the result is you can drink the better coffee from your french press.
To preheat your french press, just add a little hot water and swirl it around, then just discard the water.
Let the Grounds Have Contact With the Water
Another thing that is actually essential for a proper flavor is the amount of time you let the grounds have contact with water.
So, to keep things simple, just follow these instructions while you brew coffee from your french press.
- To avoid burnt coffee, let the water have contact with the grounds for 4 minutes
- For a less bitter coffee, let the water have contact with the grounds for 3 minutes
Over time, we recommend you experiment with these formulas, so you can discover a flavor that adjusts better to your personal preferences.
Clean Your French Press After Using It
You absolutely must clean the spilled coffee from your french press after using it, otherwise, the old stains of coffee will heavily affect the flavor of new coffee.
Additionally, the longevity of your coffee maker can be affected if you don’t clean it properly.
Now, how to clean your french press properly? Well, the process is very easy. Let’s start with what you should not do.
The wrong way to clean it is to use your hand or a spoon to clean the grounds you’ve already used to make coffee from your french press. Also, you should not pour the coffee grounds down the drain since you could damage its components (which will create a huge mess very annoying to clean).
On the other hand, the correct way consists of several steps.
The first step is to get a fine mesh strainer, then, fill the french press to half of its capacity with water, and then pour the grounds into the strainer. Now, you can easily dump the grounds in the trash (or save them for other things like composting).
Now, you should fill the french press (again) to half of its capacity with water and a little bit of soap. Once that is complete, put the plunger in the french press and move it up and down several times.
Now it is enough to remove the dirty water and use a little clean water to remove excess soap and coffee residue.
You can dry the coffee maker with a cloth or just leave it there to air dry.
That’s it! Easy right?
Conclusion
After this list of tips you should have enough knowledge to brew excellent coffee from your french press. Let’s quickly summarize what you have learned so far.
First, you must use fresh coffee beans from a high quality source, then you must pick a high quality grinder (manual or automatic) and grind the beans just before making coffee.
Remember that it is highly important to choose the right grind size for the french press. In this case, the coarse size is ideal, but remember to experience until you find the ideal flavor for you.
Keep in mind that preheating the french press before brewing is important to avoiding temperature fluctuations that will affect the quality of the coffee.
Additionally, the coffee must be in contact with water for around 4 minutes to extract all the flavors from the grounds.
Finally, it is vital to clean your coffee maker after you have finished serving coffee from your french press so you avoid affecting the flavor of future brews and even increasing the lifespan of the device.
If you’d like to try other brewing methods, we highly recommend you a pod coffee maker like the Keurig K-Slim or K-Mini.
That’s all! We recommend you keep learning about your french press so you can brew even better in the future.
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Hi there! I’m a food enthusiast and journalist, and I have a real passion for food that goes beyond the kitchen. I love my dream job and I’m lucky enough to be able to share my knowledge with readers of several large media outlets. My specialty is writing engaging food-related content, and I take pride in being able to connect with my audience. I’m known for my creativity in the kitchen, and I’m confident that I can be the perfect guide for anyone looking to take their culinary journey to the next level.
