It's how I've been making my coffee for years.
I heard that for home use, the French Press is the best method for preparing coffee. Anybody out there with input on this?
It's how I've been making my coffee for years.
Drip coffee properly brewed is the best for everyday drinking.
A french Press is generally to intense for most people. However, a good south American coffee with some chocolate (cake, cookie, even candy) compliments the flavor wonderfully.
When people brew dripped coffee they tend to use to few grounds so it will not be to strong. It is better to follow the instructions - usually one scoop of medium grind to six ounces of water, and then if it is a little strong add a bit of hot water.
You get a much better cup that way.
If you know how to use them, even the glass-topped percolators make awesome coffee....the stove top percolators make incredible coffee too.
Likewise, if you don't know how to use it, the Fresh Press makes the worst coffee you could imagine.
It's all about the grind: what you need for a great cup of coffee is a good bean and knowing what grind is best for the method you use.
Really, home roast is the best. Then I use a French Press for the amazing flavor.
Sounds all well and good, but I don’t want a machine that’s locked into one manufacturer’s “pods”, and their prices are highway robbery - I also am skeptical about coffee sitting in “pods” for weeks or months in warehouses and on store shelves. I see the coffee makers have figured out the market like the one for ink jet printers - sell the machine cheap, and sell the ink and paper at a massive profit, and lock others from selling replacements.
I have a 15 year old cappuchino maker that does just fine - I keep it squeaky clean, and use fresh beans in a burr grinder, and it’s a great cup. (Don’t use a blade grinder - the grind is inconsistant and you’ll waste coffee, and the blades can burn the coffee) With the burr grinder, I can set it for normal, or extra fine for espresso.
For daily brew, the burr grinder and a decent coffee maker (Zojirushi) is just fine, I need to pick up a French Press for when I want a single cup, like after dinner, I broke my old one.
Store your fresh beans in a air-tight container in the fridge, and you can’t go wrong. Safeway and Costco blends are just fine, tend to be VERY fresh, and don’t cost as much as Starbucks or Peets or any of the others - save those for special occasions. ( I don’t like Starbucks, but favor Kaladi Coffees out of Alaska - they have very good strong blends that don’t taste burnt like Starbucks. The smaller roasters have superior products, and sometimes it can be gotten cheaper)
Yes, I am a coffee snob. :) (I havent drank “instant” coffee in probably 20 years.)
Uh in our house those devices are referred to as “liberty” presses, or press-down pots. Actually they are one of the best ways to brew at home. Do not throw out your autodrip though. With a gold mesh filter (I like some of the oils they let through), and a water temp of 200, your are likely getting the best strength and flavor your roast and grind can provide.
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Google for AeroPress coffeemakers. It’s sort of a high tech french press. The brewing time is 20-40 seconds instead of 3-4 minutes in a french press. It also tastes better than french press brew. It also tastes far better than the drip coffee from a coffee house. It tastes more like an americano from an espresso machine.
I love mine.
French press coffee is okay. Personally, I think it’s overkill for the average coffee drinker.
Just spend around $10-15. on a Melitta drip-o-later, and heat your water in a kettle. What kills coffee in most automatic drip coffee makers are heating elements that don’t deliver water at the proper brewing temperature. A Melitta filter cone will also let you grind your coffee a skotsh finer than for conventional auto-drip.
I was taught when using a Melitta to let the water *just* come to a boil, wait a couple seconds, splash the grounds with water, wait 10-15 more seconds, and then fill the Melitta cone with hot water.
I’ve never received complaints about my coffee, except that people conditioned to weak coffee tend to find it a bit strong for their tastes. If I’m making eight cups, I usually put six of the Melitta coffee measures into the filter cone.
The only other pitfalls to a Melitta filter cone are the Melitta carafes, and finding Melitta #6 cone filter paper. The carafes tend to break. I’ve lost a number of Melitta carafes over the years, but fortunately Mr. Coffee makes some replacement carafes that one can balance the Melitta cone upon. I’m still using the same filter cone I bought 15 years ago or so...
F or the press type method it depends on the grind. If you can’t get that right, don’t bother. I suspect that is why the controversy of the press method.
Other tips: Drip coffee is very wasteful because the water isn’t generally near hot enough even when the coffee maker is new. Once they get calcified up (hard water) the problem is even worse. Its not the drip concept that is bad but the implementation. Even cowboy coffee rightly has its’ adherents. The trick here is to bring the pot to a boil for an instant but thereafter relegated only to a very slow simmer, well away from any flames or excessive heat. About six to eight hours isnt too long at all. In this case the long settling times make for a very smooth cup, but we live much more hectic lives these days, I guess.
there isnt anything snobbish about wanting good coffee, it has only been in recent years that depression-era/wartime expedients like canned or instant varieties went the way of powdered eggs and cornflake bars.
I have been using a French press for the last several months, and I like it. You can find any number of coffee blogs that’ll go on at terrific length about how to use one. You get a little sediment in the bottom of the cup, but the coffee is perfectly hot, very good, never sour.
However, I am hopelessly nostalgic about percolators, even though there is an overwhelming consensus among coffee aficionados that their coffee stinks. If your whole childhood recollection of "mornings" is suffused with the smell and gurgle of a percolator, it is hard not to have affection for them.
I think the best "non-conventional" way to "brew" coffee is similar to "sun tea." A recipe advocated by Lynne Rosetto Kaspar on her radio program, The Splendid Table, is an 11 oz. bag of ground coffee poured into 11 cups of water and left for 11 hours. It is a bit of a mess but the result is an espresso-strength coffee with great rich flavor and NO bitterness. You can dilute it for "Americanos."
I am thinking of getting a 48 oz French press and a couple of extra beakers to facilitate this basic process. The "sun coffee" (no sun required...just leave it on the kitchen counter) keeps well beyond a weak in the frigidaire.
Ping! Thought you might be interested in a coffee thread. My buddy emailed me a few times today. He got me the Turkish coffee grinder at a “bazaar”. He’s been drinking “Turkish Lemonade” at the pier and his girlfriend is letting him see a few belly dancers. He hasn’t sounded this enthusiastic in a while. He’s a coffee freak like me, so he knew how important it was. Can’t wait to see it but have another week.
