LEARN: FRENCH PRESS
What you’ll need:
A plunger (French press), burr blade grinder, pouring kettle, digital scales, stirrer, cups, stop watch. (You can buy most of these here)
- Weigh out your coffee – we’re gonna be rocking that same 60g/Litre ratio here, meaning you’ll need about 30g for a 500ml or ‘2 cup’ plunger. If it’s your first time using a new plunger it doesn’t hurt to measure in grams how much water it holds so you can calculate how much coffee you’re gonna need.
- Stick your water on to heat up. 92-96 degrees is the sweet spot – with a conventional kettle it’s best to let it boil and then sit for a minute or two.
- Stick the plunger on your scales, slap your timer on and start introducing the water. You want to make sure you’re evenly wetting all the coffee in there and that nothing is getting left behind, this may take a bit of practice when you’re first learning. Some people like to give a bit of a stir at the start and even sometimes in the middle of the brew – this is designed to make sure all of the water is touching all of the coffee.
- At the 4 minute mark it’s time to give the brew a final stir, breaking the crust and making it easier to press down with the plunger. Now, line your plunger up and apply slow steady downward pressure, forcing the grounds to the bottom. If it gets too hard, you can stop and press again. You want to do this with a steady hand and consistent pressure, if you try and do it too quickly coffee grounds will escape up the side of the plunger and you’ll be left with gritty coffee – no-one likes gritty coffee.
- Immediately pour the coffee into your favourite cup. If there’s more brewed coffee than you need, pour it into a serving vessel for later as leaving it in the pot will cause the coffee to overextract, turning a good story bad very quickly.
- Extra points for pouring through a fine mesh strainer, helping to remove the fine coffee particles from the coffee you’re gonna drink. Or –trick of the trade – use a pour over filter.
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