French press
A French press is a glass or metal jug with a mesh plunger. You let coarse coffee steep in hot water, then push the mesh down to hold the grounds back 🫙. There's no paper filter, so the coffee keeps its natural oils: rich, round and full-bodied. It's one of the most forgiving ways to brew, which makes it a perfect first method.
Grind: Coarse, like sea salt
Pick your kind
- Classic French pressCoarse coffee, hot water, 4 minutes, a slow plunge. Rich and easy.8 min · easy
- Slow-settle French press (no real plunge)Steep, break the crust, skim, and wait. Gravity does the filtering for a cleaner cup.15 min · easy
Words you'll hear
- Steep
- Letting coffee sit in water to extract. In a French press this is the main event, usually about 4 minutes.
- Immersion
- A brew style where all the coffee sits in all the water at once, instead of water passing through it.
- Crust
- The layer of floating grounds and foam that forms on top while the coffee steeps.
- Breaking the crust
- Gently stirring the crust so the grounds get wet and sink. It releases a lovely smell, too.
- Fines
- Tiny powder-like bits from grinding. They slip through the mesh and make the cup muddy.
- Ratio
- Water weight divided by coffee weight. 1:15 means 30 g of coffee to 450 g of water.
- Extraction
- How much flavor the water pulls from the grounds. Under-extracted tastes sour and thin; over-extracted tastes bitter and dry.
- Decant
- Pouring all the coffee out of the press into cups or a carafe so it stops extracting.