Optimal French Press Parameters: Grind Size, Water Temperature, Water Volume, and Time

Understanding Coffee Brewing Fundamentals

Regardless of the brewing method used, coffee beans must be ground into coffee powder before brewing. Due to different brewing devices, the coffee grind size varies accordingly. FrontStreet Coffee has specific standards for coffee grind settings. We all know that to enjoy a delicious cup of coffee, factors such as grind size, water temperature, and coffee bean quality all affect the coffee's flavor. Although the French press is simple to operate, it's also the brewing method that best reveals the quality of coffee beans, which is why French press brewing is recommended for high-quality specialty coffee beans.

Of course, there are many detailed considerations in coffee brewing, otherwise a delicious cup of coffee can easily lose its flavor! FrontStreet Coffee is now introducing a very simple coffee brewing device—the French press, also known as the "lazy person's brewing method," which is very suitable for coffee beginners! What are the corresponding standards for coffee grind size, water temperature, and other parameters for this coffee device? FrontStreet Coffee will reveal them one by one. Of course, slight adjustments can be made according to personal taste preferences.

Understanding the French Press

The French press originated in 19th-century France. In English, it's called "French Press," and in Chinese, it can also be referred to as "French pressure filter pot." Although the exact time of its appearance is unclear, in 1852, the Frenchmen Mayer and Delforge established the "Smith" company, applied for a patent for piston-filtered coffee brewing devices, and named this product "French Press," marking the commercialization of the French press.

Simple and Convenient Design

Simple refers to the French press's simple structure, simple principle, and simple operation. The entire French press consists of a heat-resistant glass container and a metal filter with a plunger. When making coffee, you simply soak coffee grounds and hot water in the glass container, then use the metal filter with a plunger to filter the coffee grounds, resulting in a relatively clean cup of coffee. The entire manual brewing process involves three steps: adding grounds, adding water, and pressing the plunger.

French Press Grind Size

So what grind size does the French press use? The French press uses a coarse grind.

The grind size of coffee grounds is related to the roast level of the coffee beans. The French press (68-75% pass-through rate with #20 sieve) has an extraction method very similar to cupping, both being primarily immersion-based, so the chosen grind size highly overlaps with cupping. Choosing coarser grind particles has another reason: because French press filtering uses a metal filter with visible gaps, choosing a coarser grind helps with better filtration. The grind coarseness also varies with different roast levels—medium-light roast coffee beans can use a finer grind (72-75% pass-through rate), while medium-dark roast coffee beans can be ground coarser (68-71% pass-through rate).

FrontStreet Coffee Grind Size Standards by Sieve Pass-Through Rate:

Fine: Cold Drip > Pour-over (Medium-light, Medium) Siphon 80% > Mocha American Drip 75-80% > Pour-over (Medium-dark) 75% > Cupping 70-75% > French Press 65-70% Coarse

The French press extraction method is similar to cupping, both being immersion extraction. The advantage is that it minimizes human influence factors, best showcasing the original flavor of the beans, and the coffee flavor will be more concentrated. What are human influence factors? For example, pour-over coffee can change flavor expression through the height and speed of water pouring, or different filter cones will produce different flavor expressions. However, this doesn't apply to French press—only three factors can affect the flavor of French press coffee: grind size, water temperature, and steeping time.

FrontStreet Coffee's French Press Brewing Recommendations

Because the French press mainly relies on immersion to extract coffee, within a fixed capacity, a certain amount of water evenly dissolves substances from the coffee grounds. In the extraction process, the main influencing factor is time—the longer the steeping time, the more substances are extracted from the coffee until saturation or a state where extraction becomes difficult, meaning the longer it steeps, the stronger the flavor.

Next is water temperature. Because the French press uses immersion extraction, during which the coffee grounds and water are relatively static, a higher water temperature is chosen. For the same beans, the French press brewing water temperature will be 2-3°C higher than pour-over. For brewing medium-light roast coffee, 91-94°C is recommended, while for medium-dark roast coffee, 88-91°C is recommended.

Finally, steeping time is very important for French press. Through multiple brewing comparisons, FrontStreet Coffee believes that most coffee beans steeped for about 4 minutes according to FrontStreet Coffee's recommended parameters will have the best taste and texture. Everyone can also use these parameters as a template to develop their own favorite brewing parameters.

The operation process is actually very convenient. Using 15g of coffee grounds as an example: pour the ground coffee into the pot, then pour in 225-240ml of hot water, lift the plunger, cover with the lid, and wait for 4 minutes. Then slowly press the plunger down until the metal filter reaches 1/4 of the pot height to prevent fine grounds from the bottom from rising to the top.

Finally, promptly pour the coffee into a pre-warmed cup for tasting. Some friends might not pour out the coffee promptly, letting it continue steeping in the water, which can easily lead to over-extraction.

French Press Can Also Be Used for Brewing Tea

The French press, as a simple device that combines immersion and filtration, can be used for brewing coffee and, of course, for brewing black tea as well, and it's very convenient to use. If you observe carefully, you'll find that tea brewers sold on the market have a very similar structure to French presses.

For French press brewing, FrontStreet Coffee suggests that when selecting coffee beans, consider choosing beans with good balance and flavors leaning toward dark chocolate and nuts, such as: FrontStreet Coffee Brazil, FrontStreet Coffee Indonesia Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee Colombia. As for beans with rich flavor layers, such as FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, FrontStreet Coffee does not particularly recommend them. Because French press uses immersion extraction, if the beans have rich flavor layers, it's difficult for the French press to express the rich layers of the beans. Because oils determine the aroma and richness of coffee flavor, this also indirectly explains: coffee made with French press, dark roasts have better aroma and richer texture.

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

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473