Brewing Basics: The French Press

A press pot, also known as the French Press, is a coffee brewing method technique that allows the coffee grounds to steep in hot water and then the grounds are “pressed” to the bottom of the French Press. There are many ways to make a press pot, but The I make my press pots with a technique that I believe best showcases the coffee.

You will need:

1.       50 g Coffee beans

2.       A scale

3.       A grinder

4.       Hot water

5.       A French Press

1.  Shine the French Press with a paper towel.

2.  Zero out the scale with a silver cup on top and set to grams. This means to put the cup on the scale, turn it on, and wait for the reading to be zero before adding any beans. If the scale is set on ounces, press the on button a second time before it reads zero to change it to grams.

3.  Weigh out 50 grams of coffee. 

4.  Grind the beans in the ­Bunn grinder on the course setting. Catch the grinds in the press pot without the lid on.

5.  Steep the grinds in hot water (just below boiling) and fill up to the top silver line. I usually let the water kettle whistle at me or get to boiling, and then take the kettle off the stove for 30 seconds to let it cool down.

6.  Start timer and let the grinds bloom. “Bloom” means to let the grinds saturate in the hot water. The picture to the right illustrates what it should look like at this stage.

7.  At one minute, stir the grinds so that they are all wet.

8.  At three minutes, start scraping the top grinds off using  spoons, as pictured below. 

9.  At four minutes, put on the lid and slowly press down.

10. Enjoy.

I took all of the pictures of my co-worker David in action.

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Adjusting the Grind

I apologize for this post being late. School started on Monday, and the beginning of this semester is proving to be more chaotic than most. You will understand more later. 

To start off, I thought I might explain the title of this new series: "Adjusting the Grind". This is common Barista lingo for changing how course or fine a grind might be on the coffee grinder. It is most often used to refer to adjusting the grind of an espresso grinder.

My boss explained it to me like this. Imagine courser coffee grounds are pebbles and finer coffee grounds are pieces of sand. If you pour water through, which will the water move faster though? The pebbles. In other words, courser grounds allow the water to "move faster" through the coffee; whereas, finer grounds allow the water to "move slower" through the coffee.

Different brew methods call for different grinder settings as well. For example, a French Press, or Press Pot, requires a course setting because the brew time is longer (about 4 minutes), and the coffee grounds sit in the hot water instead of passing through. However, espresso requires a very fine setting because the brew time is so short (about 25 to 30 seconds). 

Because espresso is so fine, it also requires adjustments throughout the day. Any minute change like the weather, time of day, or the espresso machine can affect the espresso's taste. A good Barista recognizes this and adjusts the grinder accordingly.

If you are interested in learning more about adjusting the espresso grinder, this video does a great job explaining the process a Barista goes through:

I chose "Adjusting the Grind" for the title of this coffee series because it is my hope to adjust the way the average person views coffee. The industry is changing, and as a Barista, it is my duty to try to bridge the communication gap between the bar. Coffee education is important to me, and I hope to share my little knowledge with you piece by piece.

So next time you are in a local coffee shop, you can impress your Barista by asking, "How is the espresso doing today?" or "Have you had to adjust the grind, today?"

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