Improving my French press coffee - Page 2

Best advice, in order of importance: 1) Good grinder for even and consistent grind (to the right specifications for the brewing method) 2) High-quality, fresh beans not over-roasted (as Charbucks is known for doing) 3) Grind just before brewing 4) Good quality water 5) Water not quite hot enough to be boiling The key to all of this, on a molecular level, is the oil in the coffee beans. If it gets too old, it gets rancid. If it gets scorched by boiling water, it makes the coffee bitter. It's very volatile, viz., oxidizes quickly in air. And so forth. Coffee brewing is all about bean-oil management when you really come down to it.

So in a sense, it's just like sex, huh?

Which is why I cold brew - http://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/coff...-guide/chemex/

Yep, my friend has been cold brewing for a while and sold me on it recently, and so before I leave work each day now, I'll grind up some Blue Bottle, toss it into my French Press, then when I come in the next morning, a nice cold brew concentrate I can use for the day.

Whole Foods actually does a fairly good job. It is freshly roasted, in fact my local whole foods will roast to your specification while you are shopping for the rest of your groceries (like, oh, say, veal chops ). Freshly roasted is 75% of the battle. You can do better with some of the specialty roasting shops (say A&S level bespoke quality) but Whole Foods is up there with your RLBL's and a damn sight better than your Hugo Boss's (Starbucks).

Zoka > Whole Foods > Kona via mail > cow pies pried off the side of an Iowa highway > Starbucks. Sole exception to the I Hate Starbucks rule is their Christmas Blend. That shit is the truth.

I've found the coffee far more important than that grind, grind isn't hugely important to me, I've had absolutely superb coffee using a crappy electric grinder

If you ever get up to Milwaukee make sure to pick up a few pounds of Alterra coffee. It's all absolutely delicious but I'd highly recommend the French Roast as I'm most fond of darker/stronger brews.

As for brewing coffee better, first check that your water is okay. Taste it both right out of the tap (I'm assuming you're using tap water) and after boiling it in the pot and cooling it. Some pots actually change the taste of the water and so this could affect the overall outcome of the coffee. I use a dedicated pot when I brew coffee.

Second, make sure that your water is around 190 degrees Fahrenheit. This would be just under boiling, so generally what I do is heat the water until it starts to boil, take it off the burner, and then grind the beans while it cools. Once the beans are ground it should have cooled to an acceptable temperature. If you want to be really anal though, you could also buy a thermometer, which I also sometimes use.

Third, make sure your beans are ground right before brewing and that they are ground evenly. Different brews require either finer or more coarse grounds, and so you can find the information for your specific brew on the internet. I use a blade grinder (blasphemy, I know, I just haven't had money to purchase a good conical burr grinder) and my coffee turns out pretty good, even though my ground isn't perfectly uniform.

Fourth, make sure you are using the correct bean to water ratio. I believe I use 2 tbsp for every 6 oz of water. I have my press marked so that I don't have to measure the water out every time, and have a 2 tbsp scoop that I use. Yes, this does seem like a lot of beans to most, but that is because most people are fools that drink weak coffee and either don't know what they are missing out on or can't handle an actual cup of coffee.

Finally, make sure you stir it vigorously for 1-2 minutes before pressing. Nothing fancy here, I just use a butterknife.

Immediately after brewing you are going to want to transfer the coffee to a thermos or something like that to hold it. If you keep the coffee in the press with the grounds they will continue to "brew" and you will end up overbrewing them which will make the coffee taste bitter and acidic (in a bad way). Plus this will help it stay warmer for longer. Also make sure to test to make sure that the container that you use doesn't alter the taste of the coffee (you can test with water).

As long as it's a burr, and as long as it isn't espresso, you dont really need to worry about your grinder. Just buy something that has the foot size and look that you want.

It's wasteful, but I brew a bit more than I drink, and leave it untouched for about 1 min after I press it for the sediment to sink down before I pour it.

I'm no press snob. On most mornings I will just use a drip. On those very nice days off when I have a chance to sleep in and just want to indulge myself that day, I use a press.

Good call on the coffee:water ratio, I generally use 2.5-3 Tbsp for a 12oz press. The brew time is also a variable since grind size and water temp will affect how long extraction will take. Use 4 mins as a guideline and add/subtract until it tastes right to you. I find 4 minutes give an under-extracted brew for me. 30 seconds more makes a world of difference Although I often forget and end up with coffee that's been brewing for 7 minutes or more! My tolerance for over-extracted coffee is better though than for under-extracted.

In general, when you are extracting an oil from a matrix using a solvent (water in this case) you want the particle size to be uniform and SMALL. The smaller the better. In the lab, we can deal with the fine particles remaining in our product quite easily with a variety of purification methods.

In the kitchen, we really only have filtration available, either through a coffee filter or through a screen. It is a pain to filter dust out of coffee, so you want bigger particles, but not too big that it takes too long to get an extraction. It isn't precise work, and I'm fine with eating some coffee sediment now and then. But broadly, you want the smallest most consistent particle you can get that will still get filtered out of your final product completely.

You need a scale to weigh both your coffee and the water. Grind your coffee put your press on the scale. Zero your scale. Put grinds into press while it's on on scale to measure out your dosage I like 60g-70g per Liter. Boil Water wait 10 secs and then pour in the appropriate amount of water into the press while it's on the scale. Stir with a chop stick and wait 3-4 minutes. When the time is up take the press to the sink and with a spoon take off as much of the muck that raises to the top as you can then press with the filter. An alternate way to use the press is to remove the lid part of the plunger and depress it down to add the grinds on top of the filter. When brewing you then pull the filter up removing the grinds from the press.