Brew guide · 7 minute read
How to brew French press coffee
The French press is the easiest way to make a rich, full-bodied cup, and with one small change to the usual method, a surprisingly clean one. Nothing to master but patience.
- Coffee
- 30 g
- Water
- 500 g
- Ratio
- 1:16.7
- Grind
- Coarse
- Water temp
- 95 °C
- Total time
- 9:00
The whole recipe on one page, for the kitchen counter.
Download the printable guide (PDF)Why French press
A French press is an immersion brewer: the coffee sits in all of the water for the whole brew, then a metal mesh separates the grounds from the liquid. Because the mesh lets oils and very fine particles through, the coffee has a heavy, rounded body that paper-filtered coffee can't match.
The trouble is that the same fine particles make many French press cups muddy and bitter, especially the last mouthful. The method below fixes that by waiting longer and plunging less. It takes nine minutes, but only about two of them need you.
What you'll need
- A French pressAny size. Our recipe is for a standard 4-cup, 500 ml press.
- A kettleAny kettle works. No special pouring needed.
- A scaleTo weigh both the coffee and the water.
- A spoonTwo, ideally: one to stir, one to skim.
- A grinderSet coarse, or order your bag ground for filter and go a little longer.
- Fresh coffee30 g for a full press, about four heaped tablespoons.
Get the ratio right
We use the same 1:16.7 ratio as our pour-over: 30 g of coffee to 500 g of water. Scale it to your press with the table below. If your press is a different size, fill it to just below the spout for the water weight and divide by 16.7 for the coffee.
| Press size | Coffee | Water | Serves |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-cup, 350 ml | 21 g | 350 g | 1 large mug |
| 4-cup, 500 ml | 30 g | 500 g | 2 mugs |
| 8-cup, 1 litre | 60 g | 1,000 g | 4 mugs |
| 12-cup, 1.5 litre | 90 g | 1,500 g | 6 mugs |
Step by step
Start the timer as soon as you begin pouring the water.
Heat the water
Bring water to the boil and pour it straight away. In a press the water cools quickly, so starting hotter, around 95 °C, keeps the extraction going.
Grind coarse
Weigh 30 g of coffee and grind it coarse, like sea salt. Coarser grounds sink and settle more cleanly, and are less likely to slip through the mesh.
Add coffee and water0:00
Tip the grounds into the empty press, set it on the scale, tare, and pour all 500 g of water in one go, making sure every ground gets wet. Don't put the lid on yet.
Steep0:00–4:00
Leave it alone for four minutes. A crust of grounds will form on the surface.
Break the crust4:00
Stir the crust gently with a spoon. Most of the grounds will sink to the bottom.
Skim4:30
Use two spoons to lift off the foam and any floating bits. This is the step that makes the cup clean.
Wait again4:30–9:00
Put the lid on with the plunger pulled all the way up, and wait four to five more minutes. The fine particles settle to the bottom while the coffee cools to a drinkable temperature.
Plunge gently, pour slowly9:00
Push the plunger down only until it touches the surface of the coffee. Don't press it into the grounds. Pour slowly through the spout, and stop before the last sludgy centimetre.
Decant everything
Pour all the coffee out of the press, into mugs or a carafe. Left sitting on the grounds it keeps extracting and turns bitter within minutes.
Dialling it in
Because the coffee steeps for a fixed time, a French press is very forgiving. Most problems come from the grind or the ratio.
| If it tastes… | It probably | Next time |
|---|---|---|
| Muddy, gritty | Grind too fine, plunged too hard | Grind coarser, plunge to the surface only |
| Bitter, harsh | Left on the grounds | Pour it all out at once |
| Sour, thin | Water too cool or grind too coarse | Water off the boil, one step finer |
| Weak | Not enough coffee | Try 32–34 g for 500 g |
Cleaning your press
Old coffee oil builds up in the mesh and makes every cup taste stale. After each brew, scoop the grounds into the compost rather than the sink, rinse the press, and once a week take the plunger apart and wash the mesh and plates in warm soapy water.
Common mistakes
- Plunging all the way down hard. It stirs up the sediment you have just let settle.
- Leaving coffee in the press. The second cup is always worse. Decant it into a warmed carafe or a flask.
- Using a fine grind. Espresso-fine coffee slips through the mesh and gives you a cup full of silt.
Which beans to use
A French press flatters coffees with chocolate, caramel and nutty flavours, and gives them a creamy body.
Chocolatey, rounder coffees are at home here.