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French Press / Press Pot Brew Guide

Tips for making coffee special with your French press or press pot.

Equipment

French press or press pot
Cup
Scale
Filtered water
Coffee
Grinder
Kettle
2 soup spoons (table spoons if you don’t have soup spoons)

Set-up

Heat your water, weigh out and grind your coffee.

Heat your brew water to between 205°F and 210°F. You’ll want water at the cooler end for darker roasts and the hotter end for lighter roasts.

For press pots, start around 1:15 (for every 1 gram of coffee, use 15 grams of water) for most of our single origin coffees. Adjust your water based on flavor preference. For a stronger cup of coffee, or if using a darker roast (Mass Appeal, Destroyer, etc.), try using a 1:14 recipe.

If your bag of coffee has been open for longer than a week or so, you might prefer a stronger recipe (what tasted great at 1:15, after a week or so of use might taste better to you at 1:14.5 or 14.8).

For press pots, a medium-coarse grind is a reasonable starting point. If the coffee tastes unpleasantly sharp/vegetal/under-ripe fruit, grind finer. If the coffee tastes bitter/flat/dull/dry/bland, grind coarser.

Our recommendations are starting points. Adjust to suit your flavor preferences.

Process

With your heated water, ground coffee, scale, and press pot, we’re ready to make a cup of coffee.

Pre-heat your press pot and metal filter with hot water.

Empty the pre-heat water and set press pot on a zeroed scale.

Add medium-coarse grounds to the press pot.

Multiply the weight of the grounds by 15 to determine how much water to add, and re-zero scale.

Add all water, being careful to saturate all grounds.

Stir 20 times and lid the press pot, but don’t press.

Start your timer to allow press to steep for about 4 minutes.

Remove the lid and stir 20 times.

Once the coffee has stopped spinning, skim the foam off with your spoons.

Lid the press pot, but don’t press, and allow it to sit for another 5 or so minutes (this does not have to be carefully timed, you’re just allowing the grounds to settle on the bottom of the press pot).

Without pressing, carefully pour off into a cup and enjoy.