Conscious Cup Coffee Roasters

Our mornings typically start with Roseanna preparing her early morning coffee in a French Press. The French Press produces a more deeply flavored cup of coffee than all but the most expensive home brewing systems.

We've recently added French Press coffee to the in cafe menu, served from a thermal, stainless steel press pot at your table. Stop in and discover yourself one of our favorite ways to prepare coffee.

French Press, or cafetiere, is a simple, even elegant, way to prepare coffee. One big benefit is that the wonderfully aromatic oils play a bigger role in press coffee.

The keys to extracting the best tasting coffee at home are temperature of the water and consistency of the grind. Unfortunately, most home brewing machines fail on the first count and attempt to make up for lack of temperature with a prolonged brewing cycle. The result is most often bitter.

Four steps to heavenly coffee

French Press preparation is simple.

French Press The Secret?

Water

Excellent taste begins with high-quality water. Make sure you start with cold, filtered water, using a process that removes the chlorine and other unwanted minerals.

Bring the water to a boil. Set aside to rest the optimal temperature at 198°–204°F/92°– 96°C is best to extract the essential oils in the beans. This develops a full flavor profile.

Grind

Have your water ready before you grind. We grind just after turning off the heat under a whistling tea kettle.

A burr grinder will be a significant improvement. We recommend a good burr grinder as your first investment for your home brewing center.

With French Press you want to set your grinder to "coarse."

The basic differences are:

• Fine grind: Typically for espresso machines where coffee is extracted under pressure for 24 seconds.
• Medium grind: Used for for electric drip brewers (typical to homes today) or a French press. While burr grinders are best, for a typical home blade grinder (a little propeller) 10 seconds will generally produce a medium grind for drip coffee.
• Course grind: Used for French Press and that's what we're interested in today.

Measure

The standard recommendation is to use 7 grams of ground coffee per 6 oz cup of water. Another way is to use a scale like those marketed by Weight Watchers. Measure 56 grams of beans for an 8-cup pot and then grind according to the guide above. Take note of the level at which your measuring cup is full. Eyeball this measure the next go round if you don't want to feel like a chemist each morning.

My father-in-law thinks this is way too robust. My mother-in-law loves it! Taste is individual so experiment and find your own sweet spot for home brewing.

By the way, you can always add a splash or two of hot water to coffee that's too robust! The other way around just doesn't work.

Brew

Bodum and other cafetiere manufacturers, include a measure. One measure = one cup.

Now with freshly ground coffee measured into the French Press, take your off boil water and just saturate the grounds. Wait and then fill to the measure correct for your dose of coffee. We always fill to the brim. It's great coffee. Someone will drink it.

Stir

After waiting, stir the grounds, cap the press and lid onto the press pot but leave the press in the upright position. Rest the mix for four minutes. No more than four minutes because over-extracting will make the coffee bitter.

Plunge!

Slowly plunge the press to the bottom of the pot. This is the fun part because, when you are done, you can pour the robust, aromatic coffee and drink up! Share the joy!