Using a French Press is so easy to use and a great way to take your coffee-making game to the next level. A French Press pulls the full-flavors from the beans!
Here are some great coffees to get your started. Also all of our coffee’s are available as whole bean or you can choose from 3 other different grinds including a French Press grind!
Here are my steps to getting the perfect French press coffee. Follow my instructions a few times and then adjust the ratio to adjust according to your tastes.
Instructions are for a 1 liter (1,000 ml) French Press.
- Heat your water to 195 deg. F. (use spring water, the minerals provide extra flavor for your coffee) If you don’t have a thermometer, or a water kettle that has a temperature setting, you can bring the water to a boil and let it sit for about 30 seconds. I usually clean my French Press while the water is brewing, to warm up the glass.
- Using a digital scale, weigh out 55 grams of good quality, fresh coffee beans. If you don’t have a scale you can use about 5 coffee scoops/10 tablespoons of beans. You’ll need to adjust your amount to taste but start here.
- Grind your coffee beans to a coarse grind—look at coarse sea salt to get an idea of what you’re aiming for. Too fine a grind and you’ll end up with a lot of sediment in your final product and can clog the French Press mesh. When ordering from Old Trail Coffee, you can choose "French Press Grind".
- Add the hot water. Dump the “warming water” you used to preheat the French Press, add your coffee and pour in just enough of your 195F deg water to cover the grounds, swirl it around a couple of times and then let it sit for 30 seconds or so (you’ll see some bubbling in the grounds, this is called letting the coffee “bloom,” or “blooming” to releasing CO2 and getting the grounds ready to absorb the rest of the water). Go ahead and pour the rest of your water in to about 1” from the rim. (should be your full 1 Ltr.)
- I give it a quick little stir to make sure that all coffee is getting the extraction.
- Press the plunger down slowly to just below the surface to make sure that the grounds are completely saturated. Let sit for 4 minutes. Slowly push the plunger to the bottom.
- Pour into your cups and don’t let the water sit in the grinds, because coffee starts to get bitter in the grounds over the 4 minute mark.
If you get a lot of sediment, your grounds should be coarser.
If you don’t like sediment, then you should try one of the pour over methods that use a filter but then removes more of the oils.
Check out our handy Quick Recipe Guide to get proper grind and starting ratios for all types of brewing methods.