The French press is one of the most common coffee brewing devices. It’s affordable, user friendly, and easy to learn. In this guide, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the french press and how to brew a fantastic cup of coffee with it.
What is a French Press
A french press is an immersion coffee brewing device. The french press produces a rich and creamy cup by allowing the oils and superfine coffee particles through its metal filter and into your cup of coffee.
How Does a French Press Work?
Ground coffee and hot water is added to the carafe, and when the coffee is brewed and ready to pour, the plunger is pushed down, trapping the ground coffee at the bottom of the carafe, allowing the brewed coffee to be easily poured into your cup.
French Press Coffee Ratio
We recommend a water to coffee ratio of 16:1 to 12:1 depending on the coffee and your preference. This means 16 grams of water for every gram of coffee. To calculate how much coffee you need, weigh the amount of water you want to brew and divide that by 16. That will give you the amount of coffee to grind.
Learn more about coffee to water ratio.
French Press Coffee Grind
Because the metal filter allows superfine coffee particles to pass into your cup, you’ll want to grind your coffee a bit more coarse to reduce the amount of sediment in your cup. This grind consistency should be similar to coarse sea salt.
Learn more about coffee grinding on our How to Grind Coffee guide.
French Press Coffee Recipe
- Water to coffee ratio: 16:1
- Water: 600g
- Coffee: 38g
- Grind: Coarse (sea salt)
How to Make French Press Coffee
- Step 1 - 0:00 Add 200g of water to your coffee and stir
- Step 2 - 0:45 Add the remaining 400g of water
- Step 3 - 4:00 Plunge and pour
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