Quick Morning Coffee

Thank you, Pete!

This summer I started experimenting with a French Press and a pour-over method. And yes, they make great cups! My method is very similar to yours, but I let the brew steep a little longer, 7 - 8 minutes. I got that tip from a guy on Serious Eats (French press).

Interesting (to me!) side note: my wife hates coffee and even the smell, yet she bought me a Capresso burr grinder! As long as I "have to" drink it, it may as well be great, was her reasoning. It was thanks to her that I started buying whole bean and grinding as I needed it, rather than buying whatever was cheap at the grocery store.

For work mornings, I use a Bonavita auto drip, the BV1500TS. As I am becoming more and more of a coffee nerd (or is it geek?!), I thought this one was so cool because you can set it to "bloom" the coffee grounds for 30 seconds! Then it goes into a thermos for the work day.

Here are a couple of more things.

First, their are different people making recommendations that move away from the gold standard. There is nothing wrong with their recommendations or using them. I always recommend trying the gold standard to ensure that variance actually improves your experience. At the end of the day, there is only one judge, which is how the coffee tastes to you.

Professional tasters use a method that is equivalent to the French press method:

1. Roughly ground coffee from a burr grinder
2. Water at 200 degrees
3. Brewed for four minutes

I mentioned being equivalent to a french press. They have a line of little coffee cups. In goes the ground coffee, in goes the 200 degree water, quick stir, four minutes.

They then break through the crust with a spoon and get enough coffee to taste.

The most common recommendation I have see is to use cooler water - 170 or 175 degrees. As mentioned, it doesn't matter what the pros do - what matters is how it tastes to you. So my suggestion is to try the way they do it.

I just looked up French press brewing in my copy of The Professional Barista's Handbook by well respected industry consultant Scott Rao. He did suggest experimentation.

He suggested starting with a 3:30 steep time with a corresponding grind, then going to 4 minutes with a corresponding grind and down to 3:00 minutes with a corresponding grind.

The finer the grind, the less time needed for the brew.

Professional tasters around the world use the same method described above so that everyone gets the same taste. Scott Rao's input tells me that with a particular coffee, that you have to get it dialed in.

I have yet to see professional coffee experts recommend water temp outside of the range of 195-205 degrees. I have heard them recommend experimenting within this range.

One more point, this may seem complicated, which it can be. My experience is that once I settle in on a way, it's really easy.