I really like James Hoffmann’s French Press technique: Hoffmann’s Ultimate French Press
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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This guide is the best. I highly recommend it.
I'll definitely check that out when I get a few minutes, thank you!
The Hoffman video gets passed around a lot, but it's not gospel.
The main drawback with his method is that at 8 minutes of brew time, it takes too damned long.
I find that a regular brew time between 3 and 4 minutes, depending on the grind size, freshness, and roasting style of the beans, works just as well.
The finer the grind, and the fresher the beans or grounds, the shorter the needed brew time gets.
Medium roasts are more "delicate" and become over-extracted, i.e. sour or astringent with longer brewing time past the aforementioned 3-4 minutes.
Darker roasts are more tolerant of longer brewing and can steep for 5-8 minutes without being over-extracted.
You’re doing pretty much everything right. The key is to zero in on the grind and getting consistent with that, keep the water temperature the same and brew with it right off the flame and personally I would “bloom” the grounds by getting them just wet enough to, well, they bloom you’ll see, then fill halfway, stir a bit with a spoon and then fill to the top and complete the brew.
Awesome thank you for the input. I do think I'm pretty happy with the grind, although I'll look into adjusting that just to play around. I'll also give your bloom method a try
A scale is pretty much the only thing you need. If you really enjoy it and want to go further, good quality hand grinders with steel burrs can be hand for under $100 now. Timemore C3 and Kingrind K2.
Let it sit for about 3.5-4 minutes, then press, then pour.
I think the steeping time should depend on the type of coffee and roast. A friend showed me their method for lighter roasts: 10 min steep -> stir coffee -> let sit for 5 more mins -> press and pour. The darker the roast, the quicker it will extract.
When it gets warmer: pour cold water over slightly more coffee than usual, leave it overnight in the fridge, press and pour. I doubt you'll be disappointed if you like robustas.
Okay very good to know. I only read a brief blurb about steep times, they gave 4 minutes as a starting point so I figured I'd try that but this weekend when I have some more time I'll try something different (I have an 8 pound bag of beans so I'm perfectly happy experimenting😅)
As for cold brew, I've done it quite a few times and been happy with it but never tried pressing it after, just poured it through a filter so I'll give that a shot next time I do cold brew.
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.