Tell me the best way to use my French Press

[MonkeyFunk]

I love it, but I have no idea if I'm doing it right.

What grind is best? How long do you let it "mull"? Do you stir it at all after pouring in the water?

Anything else I should know? I use it, and the results seem fine - I just want to optimize my coffee experience.

[Omphaloskepsis]

1. I don't drink the stuff.

Google might help.
http://www.decentcoffee.com/Tips.html

[jpgray]

2. Probably takes some experimenting to get right

My stovetop espresso maker took me a year or so to learn the ins and outs of using.

[Karenca]

3. I only use the press.

Make sure your coffee is course ground

Mull it just a few minutes

Yes, after you pour in the water, give it a stir.

[Blue-Jay]

4. I let it mull, don't stir, push the plunger down very slowly.

Also, do a rough grind to keep out the fine little nuggets. I've known people who pour it through a permanent coffee filter to get the rest of the grounds out as well. Depends on how good your grinder is.

[Book Lover]

5. Coarse grind, 5 minutes, I pour fast and let the turbulence of the water do the stirring,

and if yours has any other-than-metal parts on the inside, plan on replacing them after about 200 pots of coffee when they have taken on a burnt coffee taste.

[Avalux]

6. Here's my technique -

I use a coarse grind; use *almost* boiling water (boiling is too hot); stir with a wooden spoon (not metal); let steep for 4 minutes then slowly plunge the filter all the way down. Perfect. :hi:

[applegrove]

7. I know someone who knew his coffee and wanted it stirred 50 times.

Me, I just stir it a little. Love my coffee press. But to hard to get rid of the grounds so I gave up.

[GenDem]

8. I love mine.

I put about 5 heaping teaspoons of coarse grind for a four cupper. I pour the hot, almost boiling water over the grind, I stir it, I let it mull for about five or six minutes, and then slowly press down the plunger. The filter on my plunger is very good, so I have been able to use the Dunkin Donuts regular grind. I bet it would be much better if I had a grinder and used whole beans.

[Ellen Forradalom]

9. Read "Le Monde" daily

or, if you don't have time for that, pick up 'Courrier International.'

[MonkeyFunk]

11. smartypants

:P

[SacredCow]

10. My submission...

Medium grind (I kind of like the last swig to have that little extra punch- kind of like Serbian coffee)

Pour in not quite boiling water... Stirring probably optional- I can't imagine it would do much.... I let it mull until it's cooled off enough to drink, and push the plunger down just slow enough for it to work properly.

[libnnc]

12. Here's my routine

Coarse grind (someone here told me to shoot for a coarse sand look), about 10-15 seconds, then add water just shy of boiling, stir with a wooden or plastic spoon, then I let it brew for appox 4 minutes. Yummy.

[Chan790]

13. Paraphrase of what I tell customers at work when they buy a press.

As several people here have said, you want a course grind, probably the coarsest setting on your grinder. Add the grounds first and then pour almost-boiling (NOT boiling, almost boiling...around 190'F-200'F or 97'C-99'C) water over the top to the fill line for the amount of grounds used. Stir sparingly (you do have to stir otherwise the grounds on the top of the heap will not steep)..only enough to make sure all the grounds are wet.

Set a timer for 4 minutes, 3:45 if you like your coffee weaker, no more than 5 minutes AT MOST (at 5:15 your coffee will have over-steeped and be so bitter as to be pretty inedible). Plunge the plunger when the timer goes off. Expect mud at the bottom of the cup. It's really unavoidable unless you pre-filter your coffee prior to consumption. (I cannot recommend this, it entirely defeats the purpose of French pressing which is the get the purest cup of coffee possible from the bean. If you must filter...use a very-clean metal filter.)

Only the top 4/5 of the liquid is meant to be consumed. The last 1/5 is usually mostly sediment. (Much like some fine red wines, micro-batched cognac, and Chimay.) Pressed coffee has a life post-brewing of about 20 minutes. 25 if you decant it to a clean vessel.

99% of brewed coffee by volume is water. Use the best available water...it makes a difference. The number one reason pressed coffee tastes better at Peets, Starbucks, Seattle's Best or your local indie coffeehouse is because their water is filtered, usually triple-filtered. At home, I use Fiji^TM brand bottled water...Aquafina works too, even Dasani. Tap water doesn't. (Municipal water has chlorine, well water has dissolved mineral matter.) If you want a visual clue to how nasty tap water is...look at the inside of your tea kettle. Oh yeah, buy a new tea kettle unless you want to ruin your pure water. (Kidding...I do know people so hardcore that they buy a new kettle every 6 months. Actually you can wash a tea kettle with vinegar to remove mineral deposits. Chlorinated/Fluoridated muni water burns off the chemicals when boiled so a simple soapy wash will do the trick there.)

The number two reason is the freshness of the grounds...coffee begins to go stale as soon as it is exposed to air following roasting. Ground coffee goes stale exponentially faster...the more recent the grind the better the coffee. (even 30 minutes makes a huge difference) Stale grounds make stale coffee. That's why we grind to order for pressings.