French Press tell all

In light of our recent article about keeping your French Press economical (see article, "that's good economics"), we thought that some insight may be needed into ideas for how to optimally use the French Press.  Here are some excellent parameters (and the "why" behind them) from Coffee Chronicler, Nate Jones:

• Use quality, fresh-roasted beans.  The French Press will produce a great tasting cup from any quality bean, but connoisseurs especially love earthy coffees with dark undertones in the French Press.  If in doubt, look for a good Sumatra or other Indonesian coffee at your local shop. Roasted beans will degas for the first 2 days after roasting.  The flavor of a day-old bean is outstanding, but be careful to leave room for lots of bubbly bloom at the top of your press.  The sweet spot, bean-wise is about 3-7 days old.
• Use clean water at a proper temperature.  Water is more than 97% of your cup, so use filtered water if you can afford to.  Pour warm (not boiling) water - if you have a kettle, let it sit for 45 - 60 seconds after boiling to cool before pouring.  If you use a thermometer, you should aim for a brew temperature between 195 - 205 degrees Fahrenheit.  A cooler brew is a little less sensitive time-wise, so if you're one of those people who pours and runs off to do something else while your coffee brews, you'll do better with a cooler brew.  Fair warning, though, you'll enjoy the brightest, crispest flavors with very hot water, a slow pour and very precise brew timing.
• Grind consistently.  It's hard to get a consistent cup from a blade-style grinder since the blades chop the bean at 20,000 - 30,000 rpm, heating off flavorful oils and producing coffee dust and chunks along with your desired grind size.  If you want to experience the best flavor from your beans, splash out a bit of $ for either a high quality burr hand grinder or a low rpm electric grinder.  Your blogger (Nate) personally prefers the total control and cool grind of the hand grinder - I know none of the oils in my beans are being evaporated off!
• Dose and time properly.  Use two heaping Tablespoons of grounds per 8 oz cup.  In a medium or large press, brew your cofee for about 4 minutes.  In a very small press you may find that a 2-3 minute brew extracts flavors fully.  Keep in mind that there's an inverse relationship between water temperature and brewing time.  If you forget your kettle on the stove for a couple of minute, you may want to allow a tad more time for extraction before you press.
• Pour and enjoy right away!  French Press coffee without a Coffee Catcher has a life of 20 minutes at most.  Your coffee stays in contact with the grounds even after you press the plunder and will quickly over-brew unless you pour it right away.  Heat often hides flavors, so this blogger recommends avoiding insulated mugs (or presses). Insulated presses tend to over-brew easily, and insulated mugs slow the cooling process of the coffee.  The extra heat seems to decrease the coffee's flavor lifetime without give you a chance to enjoy the full range of flavors that bloom at a lower temperature.
• (Of course) Add a Coffee Catcher!  Three Reasons:

1. Less water (and grounds) down your drain - meaning fewer plumbing problems.
2. Clearer, cleaner flavor.
3. A longer-lived cup (you drinkers with cool palates will really appreciate the extra 15 minutes to savor your creation).  For more on the flavor question, see "does the Coffee Catcher improve flavor?"
   

that's good economics!

A recent Consumer Reports tasting found that coffee blends have been taking a flavor hit as roasters try more economical beans in their blend:

"NEW YORK (Reuters) – After tasting 37 different blended coffees, Consumer Reports couldn't find one that measured up to its "excellent" of "very good" ratings, the publication said Tuesday.The less-than-glowing report follows a year that saw tight supplies of high-quality arabica coffee beans in Colombia, followed by steep premiums that caused some roasters to look for cheaper and more available options for their blends."      view the complete consumer report...

It has become de rigeur to post blog updates filled with tips for belt-tightening in today's economy. I often give conventional wisdom a wink and keep moving, but I have been thinking about how and why the french press continues to be much-loved and much-used despite new fad brewing methods and even as incredible espresso machines make the quest for the perfect shot less about a holy grail and more about your local cafe. Why do many espresso aficionados use a french press at home?

The acknowledged truth among connoisseurs is that it's hard to beat the french press in terms of flavor-for-bucks. If watered and dosed properly, the french press produces a consistent cup that reflects the full flavor profile of any good coffee. The press is at its best with full-bodied coffee with plenty of dark notes and undertones. Though connoisseurs will admit that the press (at least without a Coffee Catcher!) tends to muffle the lighter, brighter notes of some coffees behind muddy undertones, the press's simple brewing process delivers an intimate, full-flavored mouth feel that can't be had any other way.

When enjoyed socially, the press is participative theater and ritual, too. By contrast, an espresso is a spectacle to be observed and inevitably evokes the expert-novice coffee relationships of the cafe. Even when brewed at home, the presence of the shining espresso machine with its (hopefully) expert operator reminds us that the beverage we are about to enjoy is a one-way experience, pulled with pride by a barista for an individual consumer. The french press, on the other hand, is participative theater. It's placed on the table between friends, any of whom has the expertise to press and pour. When drinking from a french press, everyone receives their drink from a common carafe. Brewing or emptied, the press presides over the middle of the table, reminding everyone of a shared drink and (implicitly) a shared moment.

When we drink alone, the french press impresses for its simplicity. Add grounds, add water, press and pour. We can do that with a headache or with a couple hours of sleep. The one major drawback of the personal press experience, of course, used to be the cleanup process. For too many of us, the otherwise elegant morning routine has started with shoveling and scraping the leftovers from yesterday's "elegant routine." Sitting and savoring a cup is priceless, but the hassle of starting the day amongst the grounds got to your bloggers after awhile. The Coffee Catcher completes the circle of the french press ritual, and conserves that sense of calm and elegance we experience through brewing, pressing and pouring.

The solid following for the french press amongst coffee connoisseurs is grounded in the wonderful value the press offers. For a couple of twenties, even an impoverished coffee lover can enjoy a beautiful coffee maker that delivers world-class flavor, that is a conversation piece and community builder, and that is elegantly simple to use. A cup from a Chemex or a vaccum pot is a novelty, and drinking espresso is sophistication itself, but none of these lovely ways to enjoy coffee encompasses
simplicity, ritual and flavor the way the french press does.

The Coffee Catcher is a Perfect Fit!

We are tickled pink to announce that testing is complete and the results are in:  With three size models to choose from, The Coffee Catcher fits all major brands of French Press! (See which size fits your Press...)

We had already tested the Coffee Catcher with most major brands, the only remaining one being the IKEA French Press.  So, in the spirit of data collection, inventors John and Nate boarded a bus in downtown Seattle for the one hour ride out to area's nearest IKEA location.  There they were able to obtain an IKEA French Press.  Size testing concluded that the IKEA French Press fit perfectly with the Coffee Catcher!

So, if you were worried that the Coffee Catcher might not work for your Press, fear not!  We offer equal-opportunity Pressing.

does the Coffee Catcher improve flavor?

We've received quite a bit of feedback during tastings lately about how the Coffee Catcher positively affects flavor.  We at the Coffee Catcher know this isn't by chance - there's a very good reason why.  In order to help explain the technical reason behind the flavor advantage, here's a great analogy from John Custer, co-inventor of the Coffee Catcher:

"You don't squeeze the last few drops out of your teabag when you're brewing, do you?  That stuff is over-brewed and nasty.  Well, the Coffee Catcher creates a drainage space for those drips of over-brewed coffee underneath your grounds and then the solid construction of the Coffee Catcher coupled with the extra compressed cake of grounds keeps these drips from getting into your drink when you pour."

Or, for your visual learners out there:

And all of this adds up to mean "better tasting coffee".

Fact is, many French Press users don't bother drinking the last half of their press pot because the coffee is already over-brewed and has become bitter.  And it pains us to think of all that beautiful coffee being dumped down the drain and never enjoyed.  With the Coffee Catcher you can enjoy your entire pot, because the over-brewed tail at the bottom is kept separate from the part that goes in your cup.

1. Less wasted coffee brew (check!)
2. Fewer wasted grounds (check!)
3. Less money spent on beans (check!)
4. Better tasting coffee (check!)
   

This is worth celebrating.