French Press Coffee Guide: Ratio, Temperature Parameters, and Step-by-Step Instructions for Immersion Extraction

"What brewing gear suits a beginner who has never learned to pour-over?" Faced with that question, FrontStreet Coffee points people to the French press first — it is simple to run and easy to live with. So what is it about the French press that lets it win over coffee lovers who have never managed a pour-over?

French Press Coffee Extraction Principle

The French press originated in France around 1850. It is a straightforward brewer made up of a heat-resistant glass body and a metal filter attached to a plunger. The device was first invented for brewing tea, until someone had the idea of putting coffee grounds in it and found that the resulting cup was remarkably rich and mellow. Once the pore size of the metal filter was reduced, the French press caught on widely among coffee enthusiasts.

The French press extracts mainly through immersion. Within a fixed capacity, a set amount of water evenly dissolves substances from the coffee grounds. Time is the main variable in that process: the longer the immersion, the more material is drawn out of the coffee, up to the point of saturation — in other words, the longer it brews, the stronger the flavor.

At this point some readers ask FrontStreet Coffee: "Won't the long immersion time of a French press pull out flavors we don't want?"

When we say "long," we don't mean actually soaking the coffee for ten or twenty minutes. In general, the immersion time for a French press is 4 minutes, the brewing water is set between 88°C-91°C, and the grind is relatively coarse. Because the glass body of a French press does not hold heat for long, the water temperature keeps dropping throughout the immersion, and the coarse grounds release their flavor compounds slowly. Four minutes is the optimal immersion time for French press coffee, and it should not exceed 6 minutes. After 4 minutes of immersion, press down the filter, then pour the coffee into another container before tasting.

What are the characteristics of French press coffee?

1. Compared with drip pour-over, immersion-style French press coffee has a richer, more full-bodied texture.

The French press filters through a metal mesh, and the pores of that mesh are larger than those of regular filter paper, so most of the coffee oils stay in the cup. FrontStreet Coffee has noticed that coffee made in a French press carries a thin layer of oil on top. Common pour-over coffee, by contrast, is made by pouring water through the grounds and high-density filter paper; as the liquid passes through the paper, most of the oils are trapped, and the resulting cup is noticeably cleaner. Though it is richer than pour-over, the metal filter also lets plenty of fine grounds through, so finding sediment at the bottom of a pot of French press coffee is quite normal.

2. French press coffee puts the original character of the beans front and center.

The French press brews much like cupping — both are immersion extraction. The advantage is that it minimizes the human factor and best represents the original flavor of the beans, making the coffee taste more concentrated. What counts as a human factor? In pour-over, for example, the speed and height of the pour can change how the flavors express themselves, and different drippers produce different results. None of that applies to the French press — only three factors can affect the flavor: grind size, water temperature, and immersion time.

How to use a French press to make coffee?

For this brew, FrontStreet Coffee selected the Mozart beans from the Costa Rica Musician Series. This is a coffee with fermented fruit notes, white floral aromas, and a distinct sweet-and-sour character. The brewing parameters are as follows.

Coffee amount: 15 grams

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: medium-coarse (68% pass-through rate on a standard #20 sieve)

Water temperature: 90°C

Immersion time: 4 minutes

First, preheat the French press with warm water, then discard that water. Add the ground coffee — a slightly coarse grind — then pour in 225ml of hot water at 90°C. The pour can be fairly quick (finish in about 3 seconds) so the grounds tumble and extraction efficiency goes up. Once poured, lift the filter screen, put the lid on, and let it steep for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, gently press the plunger down to about 1/4 of the way into the pot, which keeps fine grounds at the bottom from flowing back up. Once pressed, pour the coffee out and enjoy.

Yes, making coffee with a French press is just that simple. So how does the Mozart taste when brewed this way?

After pouring, FrontStreet Coffee detected rich fermented notes of raisins, a berry-juice sensation on the palate, orange blossom aroma, clear fermented character, and a pineapple-like sweet-and-sour lift.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Because a French press is an immersion brewer, FrontStreet Coffee suggests a medium or dark roast rather than a light one — the long contact time with water otherwise pulls too much acidity and buries the delicate floral and fruit layers. FrontStreet Coffee Strawberry Candy, a Gesha blend of Costa Rican honey-process coffee and Panamanian washed Gesha, is a good match: steeped in a press it gives rose, citrus, grape, and dried blueberry, and turns into a strawberry-candy aroma once milk is added. For a low-acid, full-bodied black cup, FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling brings spice, caramel, cedar, and dark chocolate with a thick, oily body. Go coarse — like raw sugar, or 10.5 on an EK43s and 26 on a hand grinder — at 1:15, 90°C, for 4 minutes.