One of my all time favorites is the french press.  When given the choice between drip coffee and french press I will always go for the french press.  To make things better, a french press is very cheap even when compared to drip coffee makers.  You can pick up a french press for $10 to $30 depending on how fancy you want it to be, or if you want one that is insulated.  I have seen electric french presses, but in my opinion, it would be a waste of money.

The french press if beautiful in it’s simplicity and ability to make a great strong cup of coffee.  They come in various sizes, but 8 cups is about the average size.  It is great for sharing with a friend as one french press is enough for 2.  Perhaps you drink more than 4 cups of coffee in a day, but a french press should be consumed within 20 minutes or the coffee will become bitter due to the fact that the grounds remain in contact with the water even after the coffee has been pressed.  So that equates to one cup per 5 minutes for 20 minutes which is a decent amount of coffee to be had in such a short time(I usually stop at 3).

I have been making french presses for a while and I have experimented with many different coffee varieties and roasts.  The traditional thing to do would be to use a French roast which I like very much.  An Italian roast is a bit too dark for me with this brew method, but if you prefer very dark coffee, then that might be for you.  Today I made a french press with a lighter roast.  I was given a blend from Santa Ana which is in El Salvador and it came out very well as this is some high quality coffee.

You need a coarse grind for a french press.  If you grind the coffee to fine, then you will end up with a lot of grounds making their way into your mug.  You will still end up with some grounds in your mug, but with a course grind you won’t get too much of it.  The picture on the left shows my french press with the grounds in it.  You can click on the photo to get a closer look.  This will give you an idea of what a course grind should look like.  As for the dose amount, you should use about four and a half ounces(9 tbsp) of coffee for an eight cup french press.

Another great thing about a french press is that all you need is hot water.  That means you just need a tea kettle and a heat source, or if you are in a coffee shop you just have to pour some hot water out of the machine.  You want to brew coffee at about 200 degrees Fahrenheit (93 degrees Celsius), and the boiling point of water at standard pressure is 212F/100C.  So if you are using a tea kettle then you want to get your water to a boil and then let it set for a few seconds until you no longer hear it boiling and pour it into the french press.

Let the press brew for three to four minutes and then plunge the grounds to the bottom.  Do not force the grounds down too quickly, apply gentle pressure and slowly slide the grounds to the bottom.  This will allow less grounds through the strainer, and extract the maximum amount of flavor.

Now you are ready to serve your coffee.  What you get will resemble drip coffee, but stronger, richer, and more flavorful.  Another good substitute would be a café americano which is essentialy espresso diluted in hot water.  I must admit that I occasionally add a smidge of half and half to my cup of french press coffee.  I like to cream it up a bit, so if the coffee is too strong for your liking then feel free to do the same.  As always, enjoy the blog, and enjoy your coffee!

The moka pot, or stovetop espresso maker is my most recent crush.  I have owned one for a couple years now but started experimenting with it more in the past couple of weeks.

The moka pot is something of a poor man’s espresso maker.  It is cheap, easy, and very good.  It is definitely not going to compare to a $5 – $10k espresso machine, but considering how much cheaper the moka pot is, it is very good deal.  If you like strong coffee and don’t want to shell out the dough for a real espresso machine, then this is what you are looking for.  The next step up would be a Brikka, which I do not own, but hope to to get some time soon.  I heard that the basic idea behind the moka pot actually started in France, but I am not sure of that, so for now, we can give credit to the Italians.  Most specifically, Alfonso Bialetti who patented the moka pot(caffettiera in Italian) in 1933.  Bialetti is still a brand name of moka pots, Brikkas, and other coffee related products.

Now for the brewing notes.  I have gathered tips from various sources on how to get the best espresso out of a Moka Pot, then experimented with it on my own, and here is what gave me the best results:

The first step is to fill the bottom section with filtered water(bad tasting water will give you bad tasting coffee) to just below the pressure release valve.  I have tried this starting with cool water, as well as boiling the water in a kettle first, then pouring it into the bottom section, and although some say that this will make the coffee taste less bitter, it made no difference for me, but did speed the process significantly.  The down side to boiling first, is that you are double boiling the water which removes more oxygen which will negatively affect the taste of your coffee.  Perhaps it is a taste trade-off, but the main up side would be that it speeds the process, so take your pick.

I tried an Italian roast coffee bean simply because the stovetop espresso seems old world Italian-ish to me, so it seemed appropriate.  I really liked how it came out with these beans so I decided to stick with it.

As with any good cup of coffee, you have to start with whole beans, preferably roasted between 3 days to one week ago.  The grind is also an area of mixed emotions.  I was initially of the impression that you should use a fine grind because your goal is to get very strong coffee, but in comparison to an espresso machine, you are dealing with more temperature variation, and thus pressure variation, so the brewing may take longer than an espresso machine giving you an over extracted brew.  I think it is safest to go a little more coarse than espresso, but nowhere near as coarse as you would with a french press.

I loaded the filter up with ground coffee to just above the edge and then rounded off the top with my finger and wiped away and ground from the rim.  You load the filter to just above the rim so that the grounds will be tamped flat by the top section when it is screwed down.  For this reason, do not tamp the grounds prior to this.  It is also important to clean the grounds off of the edge, if the top section doesn’t screw down properly you may leak pressure and coffee which is all kinds of bad.

Now the hard part is over!  Just set the moka pot on the stove at just below high heat.  Since not all stove tops are the same you may need to adjust the temperature to what works best for you.  You have to heat the water to boiling so that the pressure will force the water up through the grounds and into the top section, but if you overheat the water, then you will scorch your grounds and leave yourself with some bitter espresso.  Once the espresso starts flowing into the top section, you don’t want to leave it on the burner for more than a few seconds.  Once you hear a gurgle sound, it is time to take it off of the stove and serve immediately.  If there is still water left in the lower section when you are done, that is fine.  The point is to get a small amount of very good coffee.  Then again, there are large moka pots that would leave you with a significant amount of strong coffee.  In that case, it would be nice to share.

That’s it! Serve it while it’s hot, and enjoy it.  I hope you have enjoyed this post, and I hope you enjoy your coffee even more.  Let me know if you have some better tips for me, or any questions about the process that I didn’t cover.

Hello, and thank you for visiting my blog.  I intend to explore various coffees, coffee and espresso makers, brew methods, other drinks and foods, and coffee house related conversations.  Check back soon because I intend to keep new posts coming.  I would also love to hear any coffee related questions you might have.  I may not have an answer but I will definitely try to find one.  Check the ‘about the author’ page for more info on the author (that’s me) and enjoy the conversation!