Coffee lovers don’t always make the best coffee drinkers; in fact, if you’re the type who’s turned off by bitter brews, there’s a certain flavor of disappointment you can look forward to. You grind your coffee beans, pour in water, and wait eagerly. And then you take that first sip and realize you’ve made a cup of morning comfort that tastes like someone melted rubber into a mug.
Don’t worry, it isn’t necessarily your taste buds causing the issue. More often than not, it’s your ratio. Home brewers tend to think of their coffee grounds as some vague idea and their water supply as endless. The result: shots that’ll singe your tongue or a cup that’s so muddy you can’t even tell what’s going on.
How to Make Good Coffee
The secret is this. Treat your brewing less as an art form and more as a science. Sounds intimidating, until you remember: this really just means measuring stuff.
There’s no such thing as “the right” coffee-water ratio. People has different ways of relating to coffee. Some folks desire a shot-in-the-arm experience: strong and thick; others seek something almost tea-like… Subtle fruitiness in a delicate brew. Knowing your position on that spectrum alters everything. Those who prefer bolder cups will favor greater coffee compared to water, producing an extract that’s deeper in roast character and heavier in body. Those who enjoy a lighter cup (one that highlights acid instead of body) will use less coffee for a brighter, lighter brew. This visual guide illustrates those two extremes, the switch from a one-to-twelve ratio to a one-to-eighteen ratio, producing a barely-there or intensely-rich cup. No number is better; it’s all about matching the strength of your brew to your own taste preferences and the profile of your chosen beans that morning.
The grind is not up for debate. Go for something that looks like coarse sea salt. Anything finer than that, and you’ll be filtering through metal mesh before too long. That pulls tannins from your coffee, which makes it taste gritty and astringent. It goes against all intuition to go so big with your grind size. But, since the French press require such a long steeping period, you absolutely must. Otherwise, your fine grounds would extracted within minutes. Your coffee becomes bitter and nasty. Because coarse grounds retain their shape better, they let the water draw out complexity and sweetness while keeping the bean intact.
The other place little things multiply fast is temperature. If you scald your water, it will scald your coffee. Before it has time to infuse any of its lovely scents in the water, it’ll burn them away. Ideally, you want the water right off the boil, at about two hundred degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hot enough to extract well without being violent.
Then when you pour that hot water onto the freshly ground coffee, keep an eye out for the bloom. As soon as the freshly ground coffee is exposed to heat, it release some carbon dioxide. What does that do? It produces a froth on top. Give it a few seconds (I like to wait thirty) and let the gas dissipate. This makes room for real flavor compounds to dissolve into the water. Otherwise, you’ll have flat-tasting coffee and uneven pulling of flavor.
Fill the remaining part of the container and allow the coffee to steep. Ideally, four minutes is what a well-balanced cup takes to be its best. Adjust accordingly based on the strength you desire. Too long, however, and you’ve gone too far. Over-extraction occurs. Even when the clock reaches zero, there’s still work going on at the bottom of that beaker.
When the timer sounds, take your time as you push the plunger downward. Don’t rush or use brute force if you encounter some resistance, but don’t stop either. And when done, pour the liquid right away. Don’t leave the liquid in contact with grounds by keeping the plunger down. If you do, you’ll keep extracting. Your carefully measured drink will turn into an oozing, over-extracted mess.
Now the other thing about this chart that is important: the type of bean matters as well. If you’re using beans from Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, they tend to come out better with more water and a lighter roast. This highlights their floral characteristics. If you’re using a bean from Sumatra, it has an earthy, full bodied flavor. You can use shorter brew times and a lower ratio. It holds up nicely. But there’s no set in stone answer here. These are just guidelines depending on what each region adds to the cup.
Oh, and keep things clean! Leftover coffee oils go bad fast. Even if your measurements are perfect, those old oils will give your coffee a bitter aftertaste. After each use, take apart the plunger and wash all the pieces. I know… it sounds like a pain. But stale oil is the quiet killer of great tasting coffee.
So begin with measuring out your beans and heating up your water correctly. And then let it happen. The end result should be a nice, balanced, and smooth coffee. It should be just as you hoped it would of when you first thought about making a french press.