The French Press: Simple, Reliable, Delicious

A reputation misplaced and outdated

The poor French Press. One of the most used, most recognisable coffee brewers in the world. But derided by specialty coffee drinkers as clumsy, messy, incapable of producing a palate-pleasing cup.

This reputation is misplaced. With a little care, the French Press is more than capable of brewing excellent coffee. And, of course, it really comes into its own when making coffee for two or more people. Here’s why this classic brewer shouldn’t be underestimated.

Myth versus reality: Why the bad press

You hear the same complaints - “It makes muddy coffee.” “It’s too bitter.” “There’s no clarity.”

The truth is, those problems usually come from how the French Press is used, not the brewer itself. For years, the advice was vague. Scoop in some coffee, pour in boiling water, wait, plunge, done.

If we're honest, this was all of us once. Maybe twice. And that’s understandable – that’s what the instructions told us to do. There is no shame here, the blame doesn't lie with us.

With zero attention paid to the key variables and user inputs of grind size, brew ratios, water quality, water temperature and timings, no wonder results were hit-or-miss. Coffee brewed in this way was often bitter, sludgy, and left a bad taste on the tongue.

But give just a little thought to the variables, finish by pouring all the coffee out once it’s brewed (this is key), and you’ll find the French Press can deliver clean, balanced cups with great body. The problem isn’t the brewer - it’s old brewing habits.

Noses turned up at the French Press overlook what makes it valuable: simplicity, accessibility, and scalability.

Yes, it produces a heavier-bodied cup than a paper-filtered pour-over. But that’s not a flaw - it’s a style choice. Richer flavours and rounder textures are the preference of many palates and simple tricks like skimming surface coffee grounds before plunging can produce surprisingly clean cups.

The larger point is that the French Press is more than just an old-fashioned, written-off brewer from the pre-specialty coffee era. It’s a reliable, adaptable tool that comes into its own when you’re making coffee for more than one person. All you have to do is take some care over the details.

The French Press formula

To unlock the full potential of any brew method, your coffee needs to be freshly-ground. You will never achieve maximum flavour with pre-ground coffee. This is fact.

Once ground, coffee can start losing its peak flavour within 30 minutes. Within a few hours of grinding, its lost many of its most vibrant flavours and aromas.

An electric grinder like the Wilfa Svart is a very effective solution for grinding beans at home. The Svart, and other grinders of similar spec, can grind beans for any brew method from pour over to French Press and everything in between.

Your brew ratio should be 1:17. A common starting point for balanced extraction of flavour from coffee across multiple brew methods. This translates to 60g coffee for every 1L water, 30g coffee for 500ml water. You can use any digital scale to weigh your coffee – even those costing less than £20 will do a job for this method.

Ideally the water you use is filtered, as it’s unlikely the tap water you use will have the optimal balance of flavour-extracting minerals such as magnesium and calcium. For example, water in the south of England is very hard (too many minerals) while some water in the north of the country is very soft (not enough minerals).

There are water filter jugs especially designed for coffee brewing, but any sort of filtering is useful to remove common tap water contaminants such as chlorine, heavy metals and microplastics. It’s no surprise that these will all impact the flavour you’ll achieve.

The temperature of your water matters. Water straight off the boil will burn your coffee, leaving you with a bitter, astringent cup devoid of any clarity or flavour vibrancy. Take the lid off the kettle and leave the boiled water to cool down for two minutes. It’ll make all the difference.

The last piece of the puzzle is… Timing. A French Press left brewing for too long is not good. A French Press left brewing for not long enough is not good. Happily, there are just two numbers to remember so you hit the sweet spot – 1 minute (bloom) and 4 minutes (steep).

That’s it. Freshly-ground coffee, filtered water, a timer. That’s all you need to master the French Press.

The Recipe for Success

Brew Ratio — 60g to 1L (1:17)

Brew Time — 4:15 

Water Temp — 97°C 

Bloom — 1 minute

Steep — 4 minutes 

Start timing as you start to pour water onto the coffee. At 1:00 place the lid on the brewer but don't press. At 4:00, remove the lid, use a spoon to remove the coffee crust and press. Stop before you reach the grounds so you don't agitate them. Pour all of the coffee, enjoy.

Our recommended brewer is The Weber Bird — French Press.

View our catalogue of recommended coffees for French Press Brewing.