What Coffee Beans Are Suitable for French Press? How to Use Starbucks French Press and What Coffee Grind Size?

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French Press: The Simple Solution for Quality Coffee

Today, sophisticated coffee enthusiasts who want to enjoy a standard pour-over coffee at home need to prepare multiple tools: pour-over kettle, sharing pot, filter cup, filter paper, thermometer... Using them requires quite a production, yet they take up space when not in use. Is it really impossible to enjoy a quality cup of coffee without a complete pour-over setup? If you were to pose this question to FrontStreet Coffee's baristas, they would immediately pull out their dusty French press.

The French press, also known as a press pot, is the simplest and most convenient coffee brewing method. This device actually appeared quite early, around the 1850s, when a craftsman and a merchant jointly obtained a patent for a "piston-filter coffee device": a metal canister connected to a movable rod, with holes at the bottom of the rod and layers of flannel sandwiched above and below. By manually pressing the rod to the bottom, coffee grounds would be isolated at the bottom of the pot, resulting in a relatively clean cup of coffee.

After continuous technological improvements, it wasn't until the late 1920s that an Italian company in Milan registered a patent for a modified version of the French press. The French press that people are familiar with today was subsequently introduced to the world and gained widespread recognition.

However, in earlier times, the primary use of French presses was not for brewing coffee but for making tea. Typically, tea infusers have coarser filters, while coffee filters are finer. If you love coffee but lack time or don't have an expensive coffee machine at home, the French press is an excellent method.

The Rich Flavor Profile of French Press Coffee

Because coffee brewed with a French press has a relatively heavy mouthfeel and full-bodied flavor, FrontStreet Coffee uses Guaxupé coffee beans as an example to explain how to brew delicious coffee with a French press. As usual, FrontStreet Coffee will first introduce the background information about these coffee beans.

Guaxupé coffee beans are produced at the Buku Abel processing station in the Hambela sub-region of Ethiopia's Guji Zone, using natural processing methods. In 2017, Ethiopia DW Company sent the natural coffee beans from Buku Abel processing station to participate in that year's TOH (Taste of Harvest) competition, where they won first place in the natural category of the Ethiopia region with their rich strawberry cream flavor. Beijing Yisheng green bean importer introduced the same batch of champion coffee beans to China. Due to the outstanding strawberry cream flavor, they believed that with improvements in post-processing methods, these beans had the potential to become the next viral coffee variety, so they named them "Guaxupé," meaning "chief of all flowers."

In the same year, at the China regional competition of the World Coffee Brewing Championship, when almost the entire field was using Geisha variety coffee beans, contestant Li Jianfei used the same batch of Guaxupé coffee beans and achieved an excellent second-place finish. When people discovered this was due to the Guaxupé coffee beans from Ethiopia, the fame of Guaxupé coffee beans skyrocketed.

Guaxupé coffee beans are named with the format "Guaxupé X.0," increasing with each passing year: Guaxupé 2.0 in 2018, Guaxupé 3.0 in 2019, Guaxupé 4.0 in 2020, and Guaxupé 5.0 in 2021. The arrival of 2022 means Guaxupé 6.0 is coming soon. FrontStreet Coffee immediately pre-ordered this batch, believing that soon our friends will see Guaxupé Coffee 6.0 on FrontStreet Coffee's bean list.

Today, on FrontStreet Coffee's bean list of nearly fifty different coffee beans, we have both Guaxupé 5.0 and small-bean Guaxupé coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee discovered small-particle Guaxupé coffee beans in the 2018 and 2019 Guaxupé coffee bean batches. Through comparison, FrontStreet Coffee found that these small-particle Guaxupé coffee beans were the main source of the Guaxupé coffee's aroma. In 2020, DW Company separately processed the small-particle Guaxupé coffee beans, creating the small-bean Guaxupé brand.

FrontStreet Coffee conducted cupping comparisons between Guaxupé 5.0 coffee beans and small-bean Guaxupé coffee beans, finding that the small-bean Guaxupé coffee's flavor is closer to the strawberry cream flavor of the 2017 natural champion batch; while Guaxupé 5.0's flavor leans more toward the citrus, berry notes, and tea-like characteristics of the Guji region.

French Press Brewing Tutorial

Because your own hands aren't those of a barista, even if you enjoy delicious Guaxupé coffee at a café, you can never seem to replicate that flavor when brewing at home. Compared to complex pour-over brewing methods, many people have turned their attention to the simplest brewing method: using a French press to brew Guaxupé coffee beans.

But here comes the problem: how can you brew to avoid bitter and astringent Guaxupé coffee? How can you get a delicious cup of Guaxupé coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee's French Press Brewing Tutorial

Brewing Equipment: French Press
Water Temperature: 90°C
Coffee Amount: 15g
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: 70% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve

First, pour an appropriate amount of hot water into the French press for thorough preheating, then pour out the hot water.

Add 15g of coffee grounds to the French press and pour 225g of 90°C hot water.

Place the plunger at the highest position and cover with the lid, then steep for 4 minutes.

After 4 minutes, gently and slowly press the plunger down to one-quarter of the French press's height, then pour out the coffee liquid to enjoy a cup of coffee.

The Guaxupé coffee brewed by FrontStreet Coffee using the above parameters and steps delivers a rich mixed berry aroma upon first sip, with distinct complex berry juice notes and a creamy texture, creating an overall full-bodied and rich experience.

Brewing Insights and Tips

Guaxupé coffee beans are medium-light roasted, and their flavor compounds extract relatively slowly when exposed to hot water, so FrontStreet Coffee recommends using higher water temperature to accelerate the extraction of flavor compounds.

When serving coffee, FrontStreet Coffee typically uses a three-stage pour-over method with a filter cup. Since the injected hot water contacts coffee grounds for a relatively short time before dripping into the sharing pot, FrontStreet Coffee generally uses a grind size of 80% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve when brewing Guaxupé coffee—slightly finer than what's used for French press brewing.

However, French press brewing always involves extended steeping in higher-temperature hot water. To avoid over-extraction that results in bitterness and astringency, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a coarser grind size: 70% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve. A coarser grind means larger coffee particles, reducing the overall surface area in contact with hot water. If the grind is too fine, over-extraction can easily occur; if the grind is too coarse, under-extraction can lead to a watery taste and excessive acidity.

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