How to Brew Coffee with a French Press? What Coffee Beans Are Suitable for French Press?

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French Press: The Essential Coffee Brewing Tool

The French Press, also known as a press pot, reveals its country of origin from its name. Due to its simple operation and no need for consumables like filter paper, it has become an essential coffee brewing tool in nearly every European and American household. Most French presses are commonly made of glass and stainless steel—the former being affordable, while the latter offers excellent heat retention.

Compared to pour-over coffee, French press extraction preserves rich oils, resulting in a fuller, more rounded mouthfeel. For those who prefer cleaner flavors, you can use an extremely fine mesh sieve to sift the coffee grounds before brewing. This helps reduce any bitterness caused by over-extraction of fine particles. In fact, besides brewing coffee, the French press can also be used for steeping tea leaves or frothing fresh milk. With its easy cleaning and no consumable requirements, there's really no reason not to own one!

What is "Golden Mandheling"?

When discussing "Golden Mandheling," we must first mention PWN, an abbreviation frequently seen alongside Mandheling coffee names. It actually stands for Pwani Coffee Company.

This company is a renowned coffee acquisition company in Indonesia, primarily purchasing Mandheling coffee. They've acquired beans from nearly all of Indonesia's best growing regions, so most beans from PWN are unique specialty coffees. Golden Mandheling is one of this company's products. After acquiring green beans, they undergo multiple rounds of manual selection to choose plump, flawless beans. Only these premium beans, which seem to have undergone层层筛选 like a talent competition, can be classified as FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling.

However, PWN has trademarked "Golden Mandheling," meaning that only Golden Mandheling produced by PWN can be considered authentic "Golden Mandheling." Many beans on the market not from PWN but labeled as Golden Mandheling should actually be called Specialty Mandheling.

Processing Method

Wet Hulling, also known as Giling Basah in the local language, is a traditional Indonesian coffee processing method. Judging by name alone, Wet Hulling appears similar to wet processing (washed processing), but the cupping profiles of these two methods are completely different. Coffee processed with Wet Hulling typically yields a rich, intense flavor with a very distinct personality.

FrontStreet Coffee's French Press Brewing of FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling

Water temperature: 88°C, coffee-to-water ratio: 1:14, grind setting: BG 6M.

Directly pour water to 210g. At 1'16", stir 5 times. At 2 minutes, press the plunger down. Total pouring time: 2'20".

Flavor notes: Chocolate, caramel, tobacco, spices. The overall flavor profile is relatively balanced but slightly thin.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473