Freelancer’s Guide to Coffee – Part 2: The French Press

photo credit: 96dpi on flickr

Hopefully the first part of our coffee guide got you thinking about the benefits of brewing your own cup of coffee. It’s a lot of fun developing your own personal coffee tastes, and there is no better way to experiment than brewing it yourself.

Today we’re going to look at the sexy French press as a great way to serve up your joe.

What is a French Press?

Photo Credits: Jason Tavares on Flickr

As a word of clarification, while the French press does make magic in your mouth, it has no other similarities with the French kiss.

So what exactly is a French press? In a nutshell, the French press combines coffee grounds and hot water and then uses a finely-messed plunger to push the grounds to the bottom of the container.

The French Press was probably created in France (duh?) in the 1850’s. It became a popular method of brewing coffee in the 1930’s when Italian designers made a few tweaks to it. As it turns out, both the French and Italians lay claim to having invested the press. The argument still rages on even after the Coffee War of 1958 where French connoisseurs tried to lay claim to the invention while Italian patent holder Attilio Calimani responded with “What’sa matta, you?”

It all starts with good beans

Photo Credits: Dawn Glimore on Flickr

Don’t even think about dumping just any coffee grounds into your press. I had a friend who tried to put some Nabob grounds in his press once. Just as he was about to do it, a Frenchman appeared out of nowhere and slapped him full across the face! If I remember correctly he also called him a “glos pautonnier,” which I assumed meant he was a big poopy-pants.

So unless you want to be gauche or get slapped by a random Frenchmen, you better buy some good coffee beans for your press.

What are good coffee beans you ask? Well that really depends on your taste and your access to quality brands. Everyone has their own favorite beans, so I leave it up to you to find what you like best. To get you started on the right track, I would recommend looking at one pound bags sold at grocery stores or buying from a local café/roaster. Those walls of beans in long plastic tubes with spouts at the bottom are usually a poor choice.

A freshly roasted bean is typically the best bean to buy, but you may not have access to roasters who make fresh batches every day (if you’re buying bags of coffee they usually have the roasting dates printed on the bottom). In cases where you’re not sure what to buy, try asking your friends what they recommend. If they tell you that they love a mug of Maxwell House, sniff loudly, turn quickly on your heel and walk away with your nose in the air. They’ll get the message pretty quick – there goes one cool customer.

And for goodness sake, don’t keep your coffee in the freezer!

Grind those beans

Who doesn’t like owning a specialty power tool? The coffee grinder is truly a must have tool for tech loving freelancers everywhere.

Grinders can come in several styles and types – from regular blade grinders to fancy burr grinders. People say burr grinders are the best, but they’re costly. I say it’s better to have an inexpensive blade grinder than no grinder at all.

Grinding coffee takes no time at all – usually 20 seconds or a few 5 second pulses. I like to shake my grinder like a Polaroid picture while I grind. I feel it gives a better overall constancy to the coffee, and plus it makes me look really cool.

For a French press the beans should not be ground ultra fine. The press uses a mesh filter and you’ll want to make sure your coffee isn’t ground so finely that it passes through that mesh. Should you grind your beans too much you can look forward to your last cup of coffee resembling something you might pull up from an Alberta tar sands tailing pond.

Using the French press

Photo Credits: Gideon Tsang on Flickr

Once you have your coffee beans ground to a nice consistency, you’re ready to dump them into the bottom of the press and add your hot water.

The water should be hot but not boiling. If your water is boiling then just wait a minute or two for it to cool down before you pour it into your press. Some recommend the temperature of the water should be 90.5-96.1 degrees C (195-205 degrees F), but who’s got time to measure the temperature? Just give me the dang coffee already!

The coffee only needs to brew for a short time – from 30 seconds to four minutes depending on the bean and how strong or bitter you like your coffee.

A crusty top will develop as the coffee grounds float to the top. Some people will stir this once as the coffee brews, but it’s up to you if you want to do that. Fortunately, no Frenchman will slap if you decide either way.

Take the plunge!

After patiently waiting for the hot water to lovingly permeate the coffee grounds, it’s time to plunge that baby!

Now, if you have overfilled your press, which I always do, you’re going to want to plunge over a kitchen sink. Otherwise you’ll create a beautiful coffee stain on your counter and kitchen floor.

Once the coffee is plunged you’re going to want to let it settle for a minute. This will allow the finer grinds to sink to the bottom instead of winding up in your cup. Should you not be able to wait that long, you’ll find yourself both drinking and eating your first cup of coffee. Sounds delicious, right?

As an added tip, make sure you twist the top of your press to “pour” mode. Most French presses will have a specific pour area on the top that contains a fine mesh to filter out any of the grinds that the plunger was unable to remove. Should you try and pour without turning to “pour” mode, you’ll find you’ve added nicely to the growing coffee stain on your floor.

With that out of the way it’s time to sit down and enjoy your first cup of delicious French Press coffee. Permet de boire!

In our next issue we’ll look at the seductive percolator!

Photo credit: 96dpi on flickr