7 Common French Press Mistakes Ruining Your Morning Coffee
The French press looks almost impossible to mess up. Add ground coffee, pour in hot water, wait a few minutes, push down the plunger, and voila—you’ve made coffee! Except sometimes that coffee tastes more like dirty bean water.
The good news is that your French press probably isn’t broken. You’re most likely making one or two small mistakes that are throwing off the entire brew, so here are seven common French press mistakes you should avoid doing.
1. Using Finely-Ground Coffee
Standard pre-ground coffee is usually made for drip machines, which means it’s often too fine for a French press. Fine particles extract very quickly, but if you leave them for longer than 10 minutes, your coffee is going to taste like bitter crap, not to mention they also slip through the metal mesh, creating that unpleasant layer of sludge at the bottom of your mug.
To fix this little issue, try to get a coarse, even grind resembling sea salt. The particles should be large enough for the filter to catch but also small enough for the hot water to extract the flavor. A burr grinder works best because it produces more consistent particles. Blade grinders tend to create a chaotic mixture of coffee dust and oversized chunks, which is not something your French press will appreciate.
2. Pouring in Water Straight From a Rolling Boil
Freshly boiled water is not ideal for coffee or tea. If it’s too hot, your brew can become more bitter, especially from darker roasts. A useful general range is about 195°F to 205°F, or approximately 90°C to 96°C, which is about 1 minute after boiling.
And don’t forget about the water quality. Filtered water is typically the safest option, as heavily chlorinated, metallic, or unpleasant-tasting tap water will carry those flavors into your brew. But if you want to experiment, by all means, try all sorts of mineral water try all sorts of mineral waters.
3. Eyeballing the Coffee-to-Water Ratio
Dunking coffee grounds into the press until it looks “about right” may work sometimes, but it also screws up your consistency. Start with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, meaning for every 30 grams of coffee, pour in 450 milliliters of water, which should be easy to calculate using a digital scale.
And if you like stronger coffee, try changing the ratio to 1:12 or 1:10. Naturally, for a lighter brew, you can experiment with 1:17 to 1:20. The important thing is to measure by weight rather than volume. Different beans and roast levels can have different densities, so “one scoop” means nothing.
4. Brewing in a Cold French Press
Imagine getting the grind, ratio, and water temperature right, but then pouring the brew into a cold glass. The laws of physics work for everyone equally, so the cold press will absorb some of the heat, lowering the brewing temperature and making the end result more of a guesstimate rather than a scientific experiment.
The good news is the fix takes less than a minute. All you have to do is pour hot water into the empty press first, swirl it around, and pour it out before adding your grounds. This small adjustment will make your morning brew taste slightly better.
5. Stirring Like You’re Mixing Paint
Freshly roasted coffee releases CO2 when hot water hits it. This causes the grounds to swell and form a foamy crust known as the bloom. Pour a small amount of water over the grounds, and leave it be for about 30 seconds. Then gently stir the pot to make sure no dry clumps remain before adding the rest of the water.
If you go too hard on the stirring, you’ll speed up extraction and send additional fine particles floating through the brew. On the other hand, not stirring at all may leave dry pockets. Your mission here is to saturate the grounds, not make them suffer.
6. Getting the Timing or Plunging Wrong
Rather than relying on your internal clock, set the brew timer for 4 minutes. When the time is out, slowly lower the plunger, which will disturb the grounds and release all that glorious coffee flavor.
If the plunger feels like it’s stuck and refuses to move down, that’s probably because you’ve chopped your beans too finely and now the water can’t penetrate that thick layer to release the brew. But you shouldn’t force it, unless you want the whole thing to slip and splash hot coffee all over you.
7. Leaving the Coffee Sitting in the Press
Pushing the plunger all the way down does not stop extraction. The grounds are still sitting in the coffee beneath a porous metal filter. If you leave the finished brew in the press while you slowly sip on your first cup, the second cuppa may taste a lot more bitter. Pour all the coffee into mugs or whatever vessels you’re using as soon as you finish plunging. This way, the final serving will be pretty much identical in flavor to the first one.
Fresh, clean equipment matters as well. Old coffee oils can become rancid and create stale, stanky flavors, so disassemble the plunger and wash the mesh filter after every use rather than giving it a quick rinse and calling it a day.