French Press Coffee Tutorial - The best method for a delicious brew

the first design that was created that resembles the French press that we all use today was made in Italy in a French clarinet factory by two Italians .

About 30 years later , a Swiss man created something similar again called a Sham Board , which became really , really popular in France , giving birth to the name the French press .

Is it Italian ?

Is it French ?

Is it Swiss ?

That's for you to decide , but today I'm going to show you the best way to make a brew using this piece of coffee history .

What's the crack ?

Everyone ban for side here .

Welcome back to another video , this time on the age old French press or cafe or plunger or whatever you want to call it before I jump into this video .

I just want to say that I've been making these coffee tutorials and reviews and now rants for just over a year now .

And I think I've kind of found my calling , as they say , which is to share everything that I've learned as a barista and as an instructor over the past eight or nine years in the coffee industry , through video , through YouTube here with all of you but to turn this into something that I can actually do to make a living out of , I need to hit certain targets .

And one of those targets for me this year is to reach 1000 subscribers .

So if you like my videos , if you're into coffee , if you're into making better coffee , then please make sure to subscribe below and come along for the ride .

So the French press probably one of the easiest ways to make coffee one of the most accessible as well , because you can get these things pretty much anywhere .

You can even get them in Ikea these days , so it's really easy , and it's really cheap now .

Although it is really easy to use , there are a few things that you can do to really make sure that you get the best coffee possible out of the French press .

Two things that you're going to need besides the French press .

And besides , water and coffee is a digital scales and a grinder .

The scales you'll use to measure your coffee and to measure your water so you can stick to and develop a recipe going forward .

This is going to help you get your coffee tasting great .

If it already tastes great , you can use whatever measurements you had to replicate it again and again and again .

And if it didn't taste great , you can adjust the amount of coffee or the amount of water for the next time , Then the grinder .

You'll need to make sure you're getting the absolute most out of your coffee beans .

In an ideal world , you grind your coffee and brew it straight away to make sure you're getting the absolute most amount of flavour out of it .

That you can .

A grinder is extremely useful because if you want to make your coffee weaker or stronger or less sour or less bitter without changing the amount of coffee or water that you're using , you can do this by adjusting the grind size to be coarser or finer .

Now this doesn't apply to you if you're using pre ground coffee , which isn't ideal , but if you are , make sure you still weigh it so you can replicate it or change it in the future .

The last thing I mentioned is that if you can get your hands on some sort of water philtre , especially if you have hard water coming out of your taps .

This will make the world of difference for the coffee .

Water is something that a lot of people overlook when it comes to brewing coffee .

But it's pretty much 90 8 99% of the total Cup , so it's really , really important .

If you have bad water , you're going to have bad coffee .

You want to brew with relatively soft water , and the best way to achieve this , especially if you have hard water , is to use a water philtre .

Now I will link a few below in the description that I recommend , including the one that I use myself now to the French press method itself .

So you're going to use a ratio of 70 grammes of coffee to one litre or 1000 grammes of water , usually in philtre coffee .

I would use 60 but I find in the French press that 70 is just a little bit more on the money .

So you just follow this recipe based on how much you want to make .

So if a litre is too much , which is kind of too much for any normal person , follow that recipe .

So if you want to make half that amount .

If you want to use 500 grammes instead of 1000 grammes , you'll also have the coffee from 70 down to 35 .

Today .

I'm going to make a litre because because it's going to be a long day editing this video , and I'm gonna need the energy So you want to grind the coffee on kind of a medium setting .

Don't go too coarse like a lot of people recommend .

Otherwise , you'll end up with a pretty weak coffee , and you'll end up having to add way more than you need to to get a desired result too fine , and it'll be too kind of sludgy at the end .

It's not very nice .

This is something that you may have to play around with to get it spot on .

And again , if you're using pre ground coffee , I guess you just have to deal with what you have .

So stick the kettle on , grab your scales , stick the French press on top and put your coffee inside .

When your water is boiled , you can go ahead and pour double the amount of coffee in water inside .

So for me , I'm using 70 grammes of coffee , so I'm going to pour 100 and 40 grammes of water .

Give it a bit of a spin or a stir , and make sure all of the coffee grounds are wet .

This is to help start the release of the CO2 from the coffee , which will make the brewing process a little bit more efficient .

After about 30 seconds , you can add the rest of the water .

Then you just got to wait for four minutes after four minutes .

You should give the top of the coffee a little bit of a stir , not too aggressively , just enough to encourage whatever Pieces of coffee are still floating on the top to sink to the bottom .

The next step , then , may seem like overkill , but it will really contribute to a much better cup at the end .

And that's to grab two tablespoons and to scoop the kind of foamy layer off the top of the French press , and you can just throw it away the bin or the sink , or whatever you need to do .

This phone won't add anything positive to the end cup , so you're better off getting rid of it .

Then you can take the top of the plunger , and you can put it on this time , pressing it in just slightly till it's just below the surface of the coffee .

You don't need to push it right down to the end , no matter what anyone tells you .

This is going to just disrupt the bed of coffee at the bottom , and we want that to stay there .

We want all of the coffee to sink to the bottom and stay there so that when we pour it out , we're getting as little of those grinds as possible going through the philtre into the cup .

So now all you have to do is be very patient and wait for the coffee to brew for another few minutes .

I know you feel like the coffee is already brewed , but trust me .

If you just let it sit there for a few more minutes , you'll get a much , much better end cup of coffee .

I actually let it sit up to 10 minutes total brew time , and there's two benefits to this one .

The longer you leave the coffee and the water sitting together , the more flavour that will be extracted from the coffee and two the temperature will be dropping slightly , which is a good thing you don't want your coffee to be boiling hot .

Otherwise all you're gonna taste is hot .

You're not going to taste any of the flavours that are coming from the coffee .

So leaving your coffee sitting here up till about 10 minutes is going to let it cool down just enough so that when you do drink it , you're gonna get all of the flavours from it .

So this part can be difficult , but everything great is worth waiting for .

Promise .

So when you get to 10 minutes or you give waiting , then all you got to do now is gently pour your coffee .

You want to pour it gently so you don't disrupt the grinds in the bottom .

And if you're not going to drink it all at once , the best thing to do is to pour it into something else , like a server or another mug or something .

Because if you leave it in there , it's going to just keep extracting and it won't end up tasting as good .

So make sure after those 10 minutes you get all of the coffee out of the French press so if you follow this method , you should end up with a really delicious , clean , full bodied cup of coffee .

And because you've measured and timed everything , you'll be able to replicate it again and again and again .

And that's really it .

I hope that that helps .

I hope that you'll be able to use your French press going forward with complete confidence .

Now , if there's anything you feel like I forgot or you have any questions or comments , just don't be afraid to leave them below .

And I can chat to you there .

Or you can hit me up on Instagram or Twitter at Underscore Ben Forsyth .

Thank you for watching , as always , and I'll see you in the next one Peace .