Is there a way to enjoy better coffee with a French Press?

When there is no access to equipment, several coffee lovers resort to a simple and manual machine, the French Press. With some simple tips, the coffee produced by French Press can be more enjoyable.

While it is certainly not one of the most popular extraction methods, French Press is a practical solution for coffee filter when no other coffee machine is available. With summer arriving at the gates, which means that a lot of people will find ourselves away from our favorite espresso machines, questions arise: can we improve the coffee produced by our French press?

While there are now even solutions for espresso in our country house, such as the hand-held espresso machine without batteries, French Press is a reliable and easy solution if we want to enjoy coffee on our vacation or at our cottage without having access to bulky machines or consumables and without resorting to instant coffee. Even by looking at some simple things in the extraction process, the result will surprise us. Quality and delicious coffee with a simple French Press is feasible - just take the extraction seriously and pay attention to all of its parameters.

How is it possible to enjoy better coffee from a French Press?

Grinding: As with any other extraction method, it is best to use freshly ground coffee to make sure our cup has the maximum flavor. The degree of grinding is of particular importance: our coffee should be moderately ground, as a fine grinding will result in over-extracted and bitter coffee while our cup is likely to have particles and unpleasant taste. Conversely, a coffee ground coarser than it should is likely to end up in a mug with a weak flavor.

Temperature: The water we use should be warm but not boiling. Ideally, the water we will use in a French Press should be around 95 degrees Celsius. Still, we can preheat our French Press by putting hot water just before we start extracting. In this way, the extracted coffee will keep its temperature for longer.

Coffee / water ratio: Finding the right coffee / water ratio requires experimentation as it determines the taste of coffee, which depends directly on our personal taste. If our coffee seems weak, it is better to add a little more ground coffee, and if it comes out very strong (while the rest of the steps are done right) we may have to lower the coffee we use. If we want to be accurate, it is good to use a scale and keep the relevant notes from our extractions at least in the first instance.

Pre-extraction: An important step in the process, which many coffe lovers omit, is the pre-extraction stage. Wetting the ground coffee with some warm water, stirring and waiting for 30-40 seconds, we give the opportunity for the remaining coffee gases to escape and aromas to unfold more. This step may be simple, but the difference in the cup is more than noticeable. At the end of pre-harvesting, do not mix the coffee again, just add the remaining hot water.

Extraction time: Extraction time plays a particularly important role in the final taste of coffee and depends directly on the degree of grinding of the coffee we use. 3-4 minutes is enough for moderately ground coffee, with the time going up 6-8 minutes if we try to grind the coffee a bit coarser.

Avoid over-extraction: After preparing our coffee, serve it instantly, or if we have prepared more, we are transported to a carafe. The longer the coffee stays in our French press, the smoother it will be, as the extraction process will continue.

Cleanliness: Like any coffee machine, French Press requires a thorough cleaning after each use to ensure quality results. After each use, we wash our own coffee maker with water and soap to remove the remaining coffee oils, which if left will destroy future extractions.

It is almost certain that for anyone who loves espresso, French Press will remain just a decent alternative, and for those who enjoy the drip coffee, other appliances such as Pour Over glass coffee makers offer better results. But that does not mean that we should not always enjoy the coffee we deserve, even with a simple, manual French Press!