I told you earlier this week about my new-found love of French Press coffee, here’s how you use one to make the best coffee you’ve ever had:

The Coffee – Obviously the most important part of the equation. Buy a good quality coffee bean and grind it very coarsely at home. Don’t have a coffee grinder at home? Most places that sell coffee beans either have one available for you to use or do it for you. The most important thing to remember is a coarse grind, that’s best for a French Press. (Fear not if you don’t have coarse ground coffee though, I’ve tested it with all different grinds and while coarse is the best, the others all work too.)

The Water – If you think the water from your tap is drinkable, use that. If not, I’d use bottled water. Some people recommend using bottled water no matter what, but I can’t tell the difference with my water.

How to Use a Coffee Press

1. Measure and Heat the Water: Yes, that says measure. You need to know how much coffee you want to make going in, so measure it out with a measuring cup. Then put it on high heat until it boils.
2. Measure Coffee and Fill Press: The coffee press comes with a handy scoop to use, but a tablespoon works just as well. The ratio you want to aim for is 4:1, so for every 4oz. of water, you’ll want 1 tablespoon of coffee. 16 oz. of coffee is 4 tablespoons, and that’s what I’ve got in the picture above.
3. Chill the Water and Pour into Press: Your water should be at a boil now, but that’s too hot for the perfect cup of coffee. What you need to do is take your water off of the burner, wait 10 seconds and then fill your press. This 10 seconds is just enough time to get your water to the perfect temperature of somewhere between 195°and 200°.
 4. Stir the Brew: When you pour the water in, your coffee will immediately clump and float to the top. It helps the flavor to develop if that clump is broken up, so give it a good stir with something non-metal (that can cause microfractures in the glass), I like to use a wooden chopstick.
 5. Wait: The coffee needs time to “bloom” and release all of it’s flavor. Once I’ve finished stirring, I give mine 3:30. That makes for a 4 minute brew time total which is just right.

6. Take the Plunge: Affix the lid on your press and start the plunger down. Go slowly with this. I’ve read that doing this too fast can cause pressure to build up and cause the top to go flying off. I actually think this is bullshit though, when doing this I’ve never felt any considerable pressure. Once your plunger is down as far as it can go, you’re all set.
7. Pour Yourself the Most Delicious Coffee You’ve Ever Had: All that’s left to do is to pour the coffee into your favorite mug and enjoy.

That’s all there is to it. It’s an easy process that only takes a few minutes and it produces such a great cup of coffee you’ll never go back to those drip makers.

The Coffee Press I used in this post is a Bodum French Coffee Press and it is available on Amazon for only $20.