Tips & Tricks: Brewing Coffee With The French Press

Kona Coffee & Tea Expert's Tips & Tricks - FRENCH PRESS

We at Kona Coffee & Tea have been in the coffee industry for a loooong time and we love to share our favorite tips and tricks with you. At this point, we suspect most of you reading this are familiar with how to brew a french press…so this isn’t exactly a step-by-step instructional. That’s here. Instead, we just wanted to offer a couple more helpful tips to perfect your skills.

How do I brew a perfect cup of coffee in a French Press?

When it comes to brewing great coffee, consistency is the most important factor. Once you get the ratios, and techniques down, you want to be able to recreate that experience over and over again. The simplicity of the French-press makes that possible for even the most novice brewer.

You can find our recipe HERE. Following are some simple tips that make for the best French-press brew.

TIP #1: Heat your press before brewing - Most presses are made of extremely thin glass, In order to maintain a brew temperature of 195-205F over time, you need to heat the press before you begin. (I recommend finding a good quality stainless steel insulated press, no breakage, you’ll thank me later)

TIP #2: Get the grind and the time just right - The longer coffee is in contact with water, the coarser you want the grind to be. The French-press has an average brew time of 4-6 minutes, so start somewhere in there and adjust according to taste. Again, you’ll want a pretty chunky grind with no fines. Think coarse kosher salt size.

TIP #3: Use 100% Kona Coffee - No, we’re not just getting salesy on you. 100% Kona coffee is known for its smooth, approachable, nutty tasting notes and its low acidity. It is for this reason that 100% Kona coffee works exceptionally well for brewing in a french press. We particularly recommend this coffee or this one for this brewing method.

The French Press is loved for its simplicity.

TIP #4: Break the crust before plunging - When it comes time to plunge people often have trouble getting the plunger to go down. A great solution to this is to stir the coffee gently to break up the accumulated coffee on the surface and then replace the plunger and gently plunge. If your grind is too fine, this problem will be even more pronounced.

One more tip…Once your timer goes off, plunge and decant the coffee immediately. This prevents over-extraction.

We will provide a more brewing options over time here. If you are in a hurry and want to read ahead, visit our recipe page HERE.

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