I’ll start off. I’m not a coffee snob but I absolutely appreciate good coffee. Day to day I usually drink automatic drip that I grind fresh in the morning. Nothing special. Cuisinart maker with cone filter.
I like my Baratza Encore burr grinder a lot. I sometimes make a French press when I don’t feel like brewing a full pot of coffee.
-A question for you coffee aficionados:
When I brew my French Press it’s good, but not full bodied. Is that a limitation of French Press or am I doing something wrong? I use an electric kettle with the setting for French Press (which I believe is 200F). I grind my beans on the 30 notch on my Baratza, which is what the instructions say for French Press. The grounds are fairly coarse, so I think it’s close to right. I pour the water and stir and steep for 4-5 minutes, stirring a few times while it sits. Then I press and drink. It’s never bitter. The color is good and not too weak. But the taste is rather empty. No real body. is it bad beans? Grind too coarse? Water too cold? Steep too short? Ideas?
I guess I should post something keyboard related too… so here’s GMK Cafe on a Norbatouch
I would think the grind might be too coarse. Being as grind size is slightly subjective per what youre making. Just as weight is adjustable per what coffee and your taste.
Ditto. I currently just use a cheap amazon scale meant for jewelry weighing (or whatever).
I am using a Hario Switch for my pour-over/traditional-brew coffee. I default to 18g of beans, and 300g of water. For weighing through the process, I use a cheap kitchen scale I have on hand.
Grinding, I use a 1zpresso J (something) hand grinder at a pretty fine grind (5 setting on it). I don’t mess around with the grind too too much.
I like the switch because it doesn’t take much ‘skill’ to make good coffee, and it’s kind of best of both worlds for French press and pour over.
I basically follow a recipe by James Hoffman and it’s good enough for me for brewing.
@pixelpusher
Brew temp: I just use max temp/boiling water, but my coffee is usually fairly light to medium roast. If you’re using dark coffee, then 200F is probably okay. But anything lighter, I’d just use boiling water.
Probably need a finer grind too like @beanns2 suggests.
The steep duration sounds generally good enough.
Edit: I’m a semi-snob in coffee nowadays so I hope I don’t come off pretentious!
I’m not a major affectionado or anything, but if you’ve never tried cold brew I definitely recommend it, at least while it’s still hot out. “Recipes” for it vary wildly depending on the concentration and flavor you want but I found that kind of makes it easier for me to experiment with. I still usually make a few cups in my drip machine every morning but I keep some of the cold stuff stocked in the fridge pretty much always.
I use one of these Hario cold brew carafes, but you can just steep grounds with cold water in your French press to try it out.
Generally, I do 40g of dark roast coffee ground as coarse as my machine goes and steep either at room temp for 12 hours or in the fridge for 24. The result is a nice smooth drink with very low acidity.
I enjoy the pour overs that I make at home. It took a couple of months of struggling at the start to get a decent cup though. I’ve had everything dialed in for like two years now (thanks to working from home lol), and my results are pretty good.
Before that I was trying immersion brewers like a french press, or a Clever brewer at work, but those results never tasted that good to me. They tasted muddy, or kinda dull. I probably should try it again though, because it may have just been user error.
For cold coffee I do prefer this method, over steeping:
I used to be all about my French press, but it turns out drinking one of those every day isn’t super healthy. It’s actually about the filter (or lack thereof) - there are natural oils in the beans that get absorbed by fine paper filters but slip right through course metal ones.
These oils have their own flavor which I happen to love, but they also encourage bad cholesterol. These days I just do a simple pour-over; I live in a tiny town so there isn’t much in the way of coffee variety here. That is one thing I miss about Knoxville! So much coffee variety to be had there.
My favorite coffees tend to be African ones, but I love Guatemalan too. I used to love getting whole bean Yirgecheffe and making it in the press - I usually use plenty of cream and sugar but coffee like that even I enjoy black. Heart told me I had to chill on doing it every day though
Have you guys tried the OG bulletproof coffee recipe? It’s pretty good! I like to add quite a bit of cinnamon, but I can’t do too much of the MCT oil or I get what the author of the recipe calls “disaster pants.”
I used the “official” bulletproof coffee beans, mct oil, and collagen peptides. Brew a French press, add in the oil, peptides, grass fed unsalted butter, and cinnamon. Blend on high until frothy. Again, watch out for that MCT oil.
The reasoning behind it is that the butter has no carbs but some fats to allow you to drink your daily cup without getting the shakes but also without breaking a fast. Good coffee for intermittent fasting.
I used to do the butter/coffee thing about 6 or so years ago when I first heard about it. It does seem to help the caffeine effect not come on so strong, but also sustain longer. It also made my coffee have more of a toffee taste to it, but it could also be the beans I was using as well as the half teaspoon of raw sugar I would toss in there (I can’t do black coffee, I’m sorry).
deadeye i think you or someone whos parents had an old Rancilio Silvia made me a Silvia owner as well. if it was you thank you, if not, man, my family and i have been absolutely enjoying our machine.
didn’t know the full immersion/contact with bean oil was that bad…ngl that and some fines (oh i love me my french press motor oil) is FP coffee’s attraction for me. except now i just make lattes.
keep playing with your ratio @pixelpusher could probably grind a couple steps finer. i am the opposite of exacting people. i just throw stuff in leave it steeping, forget, walk away, come back. it’s pretty potent. i probably did it wrong. but i also don’t drink like that anymore because overextracting isn’t the schmood.
Mostly do pour-over/drip style with my Ratio 8 (alas, super expensive but I just have this weird aversion to consuming hot beverages brewed with plastic parts and I’m too lazy to do the Chemex thing).
I also have and adore a Racilio Silva for espresso drinks.
Anyone have any good bean/roast recommendations? Joshua Tree coffee has been my go-to for espresso https://jtcoffee.com/
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