French Press Brew Guide

What you'll need:

  • 40 grams of specialty-grade whole bean coffee
  • Filtered water
  • Kettle
  • Scale
  • Timer
  • French press
  • Burr grinder
1) Rinse or partially fill French Press and metal plunger with hot water (carefully!) to pre-heat.  Make sure press is cleaned between uses.

2) Grind size: fine table salt (coarser than espresso, but not by a lot; finer than drip). Zero scale.

3) Start timer. Pour 600g water into French press, getting all the coffee wet as quickly as possible. 
4) After a minute or two, swirl the whole French press around to make sure all the water can actually access the grounds that are mostly down near the bottom. Alternatively, you can stir with a long spoon.

5) At 4:00 on the timer, scoop the crust off the top surface of the liquid. Wait another ten minutes (yes, ten minutes!) - this gives the floating coffee grinds time to sink. With well-roasted specialty coffee, this won't make the coffee bitter, it just allows you to drink a cup that isn't full of sludge. If you don't have that much time, you can grind even finer and just pour into your mug/carafe right after 6 minutes, but it won't be as clean as it will if you wait.
6) Leave filter up near the top of the French press (do not plunge it). Pour gently into mug/serving carafe. Adjust grind size to adjust taste.