What Roast Level Coffee Beans Are Best for French Press? French Press Water-to-Coffee Ratio and Brewing Methods

Among urban coffee lovers, some enjoy the sense of ritual that pour-over brings, some the laboratory feel of a siphon, and still others the convenience and simplicity of the French press. Yet the mysteries of every brewing device go beyond its looks and how it is operated. Making coffee is closer to a science—each device extracts flavor in its own way, and we have to keep experimenting with combinations to find the ideal ratio and the best taste.

The Art of French Press Brewing

The French press is remarkably simple in principle: add water and coffee grounds to the container, then press the plunger down to push the grounds to the bottom and finish the filtration. The metal filter can be cleaned and reused. For all its simplicity it is highly efficient, needs no paper filters, and is therefore more environmentally friendly and cost-effective. It is one of the quickest ways to extract coffee's true original flavor, because it keeps the precious natural oils that paper filters would otherwise absorb, presenting the coffee at its most original, rich, and complex.

Operating a French press is as easy as it gets—a "lazy person's coffee device" that is convenient without sacrificing the complete flavor of a good cup.

In fact, French press extraction is the brewing method closest to cupping, drawing out the full spectrum of coffee's oils, aromas, and flavor compounds. With its smooth, sweet, rich mouthfeel, it is an excellent choice for breakfast coffee.

Choosing the Right Coffee Beans

For French press brewing, single-origin beans and beans with prominent fruit acidity are particularly suitable, as are medium to dark roasts. FrontStreet Coffee recommends beans with good balance. From its selection, the FrontStreet daily brew series includes FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado, FrontStreet Colombia Huilan, FrontStreet Indonesia Mandheling, and FrontStreet Costa Rica Tarrazu—beans with balanced flavors of dark chocolate and fruit. Because the French press uses immersion extraction, it expresses the coffee's oils, aromas, and rich body well. Dark-roasted beans tend to show better aroma and body, which makes FrontStreet Coffee's medium-to-dark roasts particularly suited to the French press. Coffee made this way from dark-roasted beans has a finer aroma and a richer mouthfeel.

As for light-roasted beans, FrontStreet Coffee does not recommend them for the French press. Ethiopian beans are generally better suited to light roasting, such as FrontStreet's Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry; brewed as pour-over, it easily highlights lemon, floral, and fruit tones. Brewed in the French press, however, the result becomes relatively simple and muted.

French Press Brewing Tutorial

Let's see how FrontStreet Coffee makes an excellent cup with a French press. FrontStreet Brazil Queen Estate, FrontStreet Golden Mandheling, and FrontStreet Colombia Huilan all have flavor profiles suited to the French press. We'll use FrontStreet Colombia Huilan beans for this demonstration.

Use FrontStreet Coffee's house-roasted beans. For properly rested FrontStreet Huilan beans, grind to a medium-coarse consistency suited to the French press, coarser than pour-over. FrontStreet Coffee recommends a standard sieve with a 70-75% pass-through rate. If the grind is too fine, grounds will slip through the filter mesh and make the coffee cloudy.

You can start with a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio. For a two-person serving that means 20 g of coffee beans to about 200 g of water. The final ratio depends on your taste. FrontStreet Coffee's drip bag coffee contains 10 g per pack, and using pre-ground drip bags such as the seasonal FrontStreet Brazil and FrontStreet Mandheling bags in the French press is especially convenient. FrontStreet Coffee's recommended ratio is 1:16—15 g of grounds to 240 g of water.

Brewing Tips and Best Practices

FrontStreet Coffee recommends a digital scale. Even if your French press has measurement markings and a measuring spoon, a scale is still worth using, because coffee beans change density depending on factors such as growing altitude and roast level—each type of bean has a different mass. If you make an exceptionally delicious cup and want to repeat it, you must record the ratio. And if you make a bad cup, the data tells you how to adjust.

At FrontStreet Coffee we use fresh, clean Yibao mineral water (soft water). Don't use water that is too hard, and avoid unfiltered water. If water quality is poor, it is hard to make good coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's French Press Brewing Steps

1. Grind the coffee beans and pour them into the French press. Ignore the common advice about grind size—don't go too coarse; a medium to medium-coarse grind is sufficient.

2. Bring water to a boil, with a recommended temperature of 93°C, then pour in the right amount. We used 15 g of grounds with 240 g of hot water. Stir with a spoon so the grounds and water are thoroughly mixed.

3. Place the lid on the French press with the filter at the highest position, then let it steep for 4 minutes.

4. Before pressing the filter down, you can open the lid and skim off the foam and small fragments floating on top with a spoon, then press the filter all the way down.

5. Once brewing is complete, immediately pour the coffee into another container. Don't delay, because the grounds are still steeping inside. Now you can pour it into cups and enjoy slowly.

The French press is the simplest, most convenient, and most environmentally friendly brewing method. The coffee it produces is stronger, more flavorful, and more complex than what a fully automatic drip machine yields. It needs no electricity, no heating, and no paper filters, is easy to clean, and lets you drink the coffee oils along with the coffee. It is perfect for busy professionals who want to steal a moment of relaxation. Give it a try.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat, ID: qjcoffeex

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For the French press, FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling is a standout. As one of Asia's best-known specialty coffees, it goes through three hand sorts and one machine sort, leaving uniform, translucent beans; medium-dark roasted, they carry strong notes of spice, caramel, cedar, and dark chocolate, and the French press draws out a full body with a good layer of oils—ideal if you like a low-acid, rich black coffee.

If you prefer a lighter, aromatic cup even from immersion brewing, the FrontStreet Strawberry Candy Blend is a Gesha-style blend of Costa Rican honey-processed coffee and Panama washed Geisha. In the French press it gives off rose, citrus, grape, and raisin aromas, and with milk it turns into a strawberry soft-candy sweetness. Grind either one to the medium-coarse setting described above, steep for 4 minutes, and press slowly for a clean, flavorful cup.