French Press Rehab

A lot of us coffee nerds will tell you with great sincerity that one of the easiest and best ways to brew coffee at home is the presspot or french press. What we don’t say is that its also quite easy to screw it up and few of us have batting averages worth bragging about. I’m sure a number of you have a french press relegated to the back of your cupboard, exiled for poor performance, messiness, or possibly an irrational hatred for the French.

The labyrinthine Coffeegeek.com has an obsessively thorough illustrated guide that breaks down presspot brewing into many steps and it’s usually the first place I send people to (some of them never return). My own bits of advice to you, echoing much of this and other guides after the jump.

• You’ll need a good grinder. Not only does your grind need to be course but it should also have relatively uniform particle size. The need for a good grinder will be a recurring sub-theme this week and I’ll be recommending several.

• Measure everything. Controlling your variables is the key to optimization. Use a timer and know your dose.

• Be prepared to dump it in the sink. The best way to master the kung fu of the press pot is to repeatedly fine tune your technique until you find the zone. Settling for an off brew and waiting till the next day for a rematch is a recipe for more off brews.

• Decant. When the pot is pressed any coffee that is going to be drunk should be in your mug or in a thermal carafe and not loitering in the press pot with spent grounds. The emptying of the pot is also the precise moment when you should be rinsing the thing clean – your coffee is probably still too hot to sip anyway.

If your final brew is too silty, muting the top notes and sweetness, you can try a coarser grind, lower dosage, or shorter steep time. The important thing is trial and error, making adjustments and tasting how they can effect the cup. Of course no amount of tinkering will save stale, poorly roasted, oily or low quality coffee and cheap grinders will thwart your best attempts at nailing down consistency.

But when properly tamed, presspots are an easy, no fuss way to get your coffee on. The presspots from Bodum are the benchmark, available in a range of sizes, styles, and prices. I have a couple of sizes for different occasions and one of the small unbreakable presses is usually in my bag when I travel.

How is your relationship with the presspot – heavenly or headaches?