ilovefuzz.com

Hi everybody!
I roast my own coffee and a buddy of mine just bought me a 8 cup Mr. Coffee French Press. Anyone have any experience with this or French Presses in general? He claims it is the best cup of coffee I will ever have.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

i dont have any tips but i have a friends that swear by them!

hell YES!

I have a couple different Bodum coffee presses that I was lucky enough to find at thrift stores for just a few bucks. One of them was brand new, like, who the fuck donates a brand new, still in the box $30 french press to Goodwill? I dunno, but I'm glad they did.

Anyway, I have a little 12 oz one for when I'm making coffee for just me, and then a big one for when I have company. I just love the simplicity of the french press, and I think that it really does give you a more robust brew, as long as you don't mind a little sludge in the bottom of your cup. I'm not a real coffee connoisseur, but from what I've heard, the french press is the way to go.

Sounds good! About how much ground coffee per cup do you use? That's my biggest question.

same as you usually do for any other brewing method. personally I go with one tbsp per cup. I know that gets confusing too, because some places you'll read will tell you a "cup" of coffee is 4oz and some say 6oz, while we all know an actual cup is 8oz. Anyway, 1 tbsp per 4-6oz will do it depending on your tastes and also on what kind of roast you're brewing.. I like my coffee strong, so I go 1 tbsp per 4 oz. And I grind my beans coarse, or at least somewhere between coarse and medium to try to cut down on the french press sludge.

Grind beans coarse, experiment with strength.

french press is neat, but if you have like 10 minutes to invest in creating a cup of coffee check out the pourover method

Also how long do you let it it steep for? Is it the same amount of time no matter how many cups you make?

French press is the only way to drink coffee.

It doesn't really matter how long it steeps, as long as it's more than like, a minute and a half.

http://www.ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=12071&hilit=coffee

There's some priceless coffee advice in the above thread, it was the first place I heard of a French press. Unfortunately, it was around the time of that thread that I realised that coffee does some terrible, terrible things to my digestive system. Not sure why coffee has that affect on me, I can drink highly caffeinated energy drinks with no ill effects (barring mild heart attacks, of course) but coffee makes me pretty much shit my pants.

colin wrote:http://www.ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=12071&hilit=coffee

There's some priceless coffee advice in the above thread, it was the first place I heard of a French press. Unfortunately, it was around the time of that thread that I realised that coffee does some terrible, terrible things to my digestive system. Not sure why coffee has that affect on me, I can drink highly caffeinated energy drinks with no ill effects (barring mild heart attacks, of course) but coffee makes me pretty much shit my pants.

I'm pretty sure that's one of the best things about coffee. Nice cuppa black coffee and a cigarette first thing in the morning is the perfect equation for a nice clean shit that will leave you feeling excellent the rest of the day.

So, along with speakers, I am now on a goodwill hunt for a French press.

I've got one for coffee and one for doing loose tea. You can't mix it up because you'll never get all the oils out of the press from coffee. Makes tea taste like an ashtray.

But yeah, french press is where it's at as far as I'm concerned. Just make sure you don't use boiling water. It should be very hot, but not boiling. Hot water yields nice bold flavor with out the excess bitterness. It's smmoooooooooooovvvvvve.

French press for tea? Never thought of doing that. I'm more of a tea drinker than coffee, and while I only use loose tea rather than tea bags, I haven't tried that technique. Works well I take it?

Yeah, it's great for tea. And it strains really well. Also, you don't have to worry about the expansion factor of most loose teas. You'll never run out of room in a French press the way you can with a "tea ball" or other metal strainer.

Cool, I use a tea ball now, definately getting a French press soon to try this out.