Coffee

8357 readers

15 users here now

☕ - The hot beverage that powers the world!

Coffee gadgets - It's always great to learn about new gadgets. Please share your favorite hardware or full setups. It might inspire newcomers to experiment!

Local businesses - Please promote your local businesses. If you are not the owner of the business you are promoting, kindly ask the owner if it's okay. It would be great if the business has a physical store to include an exterior or interior shot.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

martijn

[email protected]

Relative coffee newbie here, french press changed the game. (self.coffee)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by bigmclargehuge to c/coffee

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've been a closeted coffee guy for a couple years. I go out of my way to order beans I really like (a robusta variety called Indian Parchment), and this might be sacrilege on this board, idk, but I was perfectly happy running a Keurig with reusable cups I'd fill with my own grounds.

Now, I have access to a nice 1.5l french press. I looked up how to use it and it seemed easy enough so I gave it a shot, and sure enough even after my handful of fumbling attempts and some trial and error, my coffee is leaps and bounds better than what the Keurig can produce. So, here's where I'm at:

I have a weird little antique hand crank grinder that, once I cleaned it up, actually works great and can produce a nice coarse grind. My press is a stainless steel 1.5L variety, can't remember the brand, was given it by a friend. I like a strong cup so I aim for a roughly 13:1 ratio of water:ground. However, I'm without a food scale so I'm using a calculator to convert to cups and tablespoons. I usually put the grounds in first, then pour boiling water over top. Let it sit for about 3.5-4 minutes, then press, then pour.

I know my first step to really dial in my consistency is a scale, so that's on the list. Any other tips to step my game up?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Note: I have no experience brewing or drinking robusta varieties or blends, but I figure the basics are the same/similar to arabica.

For immersion brew methods such as the French press, you get a huge dropoff in extraction rates as time goes on. A two minute steep will be massively underextracted compared to a four minute steep, but in my experience a four minute steep and a 10+ minute steep will be pretty similar in terms of extraction. A bonus of a longer steep time is that the coffee will be at a better tasting temperature.