|
I am a coffee n00b, but I hear the french press is the best and most reasonable way to make a good cup. Here is my attempt at making a quality brew.
I would like to preface this article by saying I am not a coffee expert or coffee geek. I like the occasional cup and I enjoy drinking good coffee. I am also on the poor side so I researched and found out the best and most affordable option is to use a coffee press. We can't all have 3 thousand dollar espresso machines in our garages, but so many people think if you don't go to Starbucks then your only other option is drip brews or grandmas percolator.
This is a n00b tutorial on the coffee press written by a relative n00b himself. I can only assume some of my methods are possibly wrong, but many of the general principles are correct. Also this method will definitely get you a better cup of coffee then your local gas station.
If anything is wrong, or you feel that my method could use some tuning up, please leave comments at the end of the article or email me. I actually look forward to criticism's to make my tutorial better.
Lets get this party started off by getting some water into a kettle and bringing it "almost" to the point of boiling. From what I have read too hot is bad, and not hot enough is god-awful bad.
Usually you can time it out so you can get your beans ground and everything just so before it's whistling for you.
Drag out your crappy WalMart coffee grinder and throw in some good fresh beans.
Get your beans from a coffee shop or someplace reputable. If you buy coffee from Kroger you have to remember the golden rule:
Shit coffee in = Shit coffee out.
A better grinder is high on my list of things to upgrade.
You will want a good consistent grind that is not too fine and not too chunky.
- Too fine will push through the screen and give you silty coffee.
- Too chunky will not extract the full flavor from the grinds.
This is the best example my cheapo 12 dollar grinder could muster up. Its not perfect, but it will work for my tastes.
On the box of the french press it told me to use 2 spoonfuls of grounds for every 6 ounces of coffee. I'm not one to argue so that's what I use. I generally make 12 ounces of coffee because 6 isn't enough, and 12 is too much. Since I make too much some stays in the press. This is desirable for me since I do not want any coffee grounds in my cup of coffee.
From what I have read on CoffeeGeek.com the last cup will tend to be a bit silty no matter how perfect your grind is.
By this time your kettle will be whistling like mad or at least very close.
I have read that using boiling water is bad for the grinds and scalds it. Using water that isn't hot enough does not unlock the full flavor of the bean.
Since I do not care enough about my morning cup of coffee to take its temperature to find the ideal range, I simply wait till it just starts to whistle, take it off for a few seconds and get my coffee mug out, then come back and pour it in the press. This brings it below the boiling range, hopefully close to the perfect temperature.
Before you get to this point you should have premeasured to see how much hot water you need compared to coffee grinds. If you forgot, go get a Red Bull and forget about it for the day.
I marked a line with a silver Sharpie on my press to show me how high to fill it with water. It took me 2 mornings of filling up a measuring glass to figure out how much water to use before I stopped being a retard and marked it.
Put your press lid on and make sure to not allow the slots to line up with the pour spout. The coffee needs to be sealed in the container and steeped for 3 minutes.
Now go take a piss, wash your favorite mug, or check your email. You need to wait 3 minutes.
I always set my stove top alarm because I am easily distracted and forget. If the coffee steeps too long it will taste terrible.
Now, come back to your press and turn the top so the slats face the pour spout.
According to the box you should take EXTREME PRECAUTIONS for if you press too fast or too hard you could shoot hot molten coffee out the spout and render your eyeballs and family jewels useless. I have never experienced this phenomenon myself, but your press time should take approximately 30 seconds for a good quality press.
If you are shooting lava coffee out the spout your are not following my instructions nor the box instructions very closely and your right to bear children should be revoked anyhow.
Press slow. Its safer and tastes better.
Pressing the coffee.
Turn the press lid so the slats are open to the pour spout and dump some goodness into a clean mug.
I tend to hold the lid on as you have to really tip the press a lot to get coffee out and I would rather it in my cup then on my counter. I already have enough breadcrumbs and dirt there, who wants coffee stains too?
There you have it. My interpretation of a good cup of java.
Like I said earlier, this may not be the absolute best way, but it will get you a really good cup of coffee in your house on the cheap.
Since I am not a total coffee geek I can freely admit I like some cream in my coffee sometimes. So here I am dumping Coffee-Mate into a perfectly good cup of coffee.
To some of you it's like watching a snuff film I know.
Suck it up. Caramel creamer tastes good.
I don't know any better so I dump my coffee grounds down the garbage disposal. In the back of my head I think it's wrong but I really don't know.
It's an apartment anyhow. Let maintenance deal with it.
I store my press like this to keep the screen from getting bent up funny, and to keep the water I used to clean it off out of it. Who wants stale water sitting in the bottom of it?
Look how exciting the world of coffee is to my girlfriend Melissa.
She is literally jumping out of her seat as I write this.
Below you can write comments and tell me how much of an idiot I am.
If you don't want to do it that way, you can always tell me I am in idiot
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Trackback(0)
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Digg
Delicious
Stumble
De.lirio.us
Fark