"The most underrated coffee device": getting to know French Press

At a time when espresso is popular as ever, and alternative brewing methods are constantly gaining ground, some traditional and simple devices, such as the humble French press, are not quite popular, but their story is often very interesting. 

What is a French Press and how does it work?

The French Press or, more commonly, the "hand-held coffee machine", as we usually call it in Greek, is probably the simplest coffee machine. Surely in the minds of most of us it is connected with holidays, country houses, or even camping, as it is extremely simple to use, it does not require electricity or batteries or even consumables such as filters, as it only needs to operate ground coffee and hot water.

The French Press design is extremely simple but at the same time intelligent. The hand-held coffee maker consists of a cylindrical container in which ground coffee and hot water is placed at a temperature of about ninety degrees Celsius and a piston which is equipped with a very thin metallic filter on its underside. After three to four minutes, the user lowers the plunger, resulting in the used ground coffee being concentrated at the bottom of the cylinder, leaving the coffee filtered and ready for consumption!

How does a French Press extracted coffee taste?

The taste of coffee extracted through a French Press generally does not have a particularly different flavor profile than the coffee extracted from a conventional filter coffee maker. However, the important difference lies in the fact that, due to the absence of a paper filter, coffee is considerably richer in natural oils, which is even more evident due to the prolonged contact of ground coffee with hot water. Also, leaving the coffee more time in the hand-held coffee maker implies a stronger and more intense coffee taste, which is considered to be a good thing by French Press's fan base. On the other hand, there are few who consider the hand-held coffee maker as an emergency solution, saying that the taste of the coffee is flat and that it does not help to unfold the special and complex aromas of coffee - it has also been described as "the most underestimated method coffee brewing "at the World Atlas of Coffee!

What's the French Press history?

Although it is known in many parts of the world as "French Press", this coffee appliance does not originate in France, as one would expect, but it is an Italian invention. The first handheld was designed in 1929 by Italian Attilio Calimani, who was inspired by a popular coffee extraction method in the inter-war France - which also explains the name of the coffee maker. In its present form, French Press was released in 1958, designed by Italian Faliero Bondanini, built in a small French musical instrument factory. A few years later, her portrayal of the 1965 spy film "The Ipcress File" starring Michael Caine will recommend it to an even larger audience, and in the years to come, the use of plastic parts will make the construction significantly cheaper and the market it will flood with various models that follow the basic principles of the French Press.

What do nowadays coffee lovers think about French Press?

Today, the handheld is mainly treated as an easy solution, an alternative form of brewing coffee for those who do not have access to their coffee machine and do not want to end up in instant coffee. It is a fact that the French press is not famous for a particularly delicious result, but things can be improved in the hands of an experienced home barista as it offers full control of many factors, such as extraction time, water temperature and coffee grinding - although usually coffee lovers prefer the pour over method - over devices when it comes to filter extraction. On the other hand, it is worth noting that the strong presence of coffee oils, a characteristic of coffee extracted through a French press, is particularly aggravating for the stomach and there are studies that incriminate these oils as still responsible for increasing the percentage cholesterol in the blood. 

The French press will hardly escape being an emergency solution for an informed coffee lover - an easy way to quickly and easily enjoy filter coffee duringcountryside or vacation. But surely, if there is a willingness to experiment and the necessary knowledge, we can extract delicious, delicious coffee even as simple a device as French Press. Coffee always finds its way to enchant us!