My perfect coffee:
- fill bottle of the same volume as my press with water.
- pour ~10% of it in the electric kettle, and start it.
- put two (or three) full teaspoons of light roasted fine ground coffee in the press
- the water boiled. pour it into the press.
- put remaining cold water in kettle, start it again.
- shake the press a bit so coffee hydrates and foams. Cover the press.
- grab a coffee paper filter (circle) fold it in "pizza-like" shape 4 times and cut the outer skirt, so the new radius is about 1cm larger than the press filter.
- rest of the water is boiling now, pre-water+coffee mix has no foam. Fill press with water.
- put the paper filter on top, and insert the plunger so that along all the inner circumference, the paper filter is between the press inner wall and the plunger.
- press the coffee very slowly, don't rush it at all. It will take you a solid minute or a bit more.
Now you have crystal, non acidic, and flavorful golden coffee. I usually pour a cup immediately, and put the rest in an all-metal insulated little bottle.
I divide the water in two parts to quickly get rid of the foam under the paper filter. Foam makes the pressing way slower. If you have time, you can immediately boil the whole water volume, but leave the coffee mix covered for 5-10 mins and the foam will be gone by then.
lol ... I got the same French Press carafe as in the photo
I dump in four tablespoons of coffee, pour in hot boiling water, stir it with a spoon and let it steep while I make breakfast. Once steeped for several minutes, I apply the press and pour out coffee in a mug to go with breakfast ... then the rest goes into a small thermos.
First coffee is hot and goes with my first morning meal ... on most days, second coffee goes with me to the home office during the day ... or I throw it in a backpack to take with me for a motorcycle ride in the afternoon.
... and yes I do get a bit of bitter grounds and grains at the end ... but I usually don't drink the last ounce of coffee, and just pour it out and rinse everything.
The problem is the filtering ... yes you can filter it more to get the grounds out but it either takes a lot of time or effort and there is still a 50/50 chance you mess things up and you end up with grounds anyway ... or you just do a rough filtering job and put up with a bit of grounds at the end and don't drink the last bit of coffee at the bottom of the cup. It reminds me of Turkish coffee that has a ton of grounds at the end that aren't supposed to be consumed.
Yeah I have this press as well, never use paper filters, I just don't take the very last bit out of the pot.
Nice! That's why I like the press: it is so versatile! Happy to read from another enjoyer