French Press...I'm Impressed


 
Like barbequing, you can spend quite a bit of money on coffee, espresso and so on. Before you go nuts, try to see if you'll appreciate the differences in quality. Tim, for example, says he likes Starbucks. Well, go to a Starbucks and have them grind the beans for a press before you go out and buy a grinder. If you really like that coffee a lot more, try to find a local roaster and have him/her grind some different varieties of coffee for ya. If you're content at that point having found great coffee, get a vacuum brewer for $50 and continue to buy from whichever roaster you like best ( use their grinder ). On the other hand if you want to make the best coffee by roasting, grinding, brewing and so on it will add up to many, many hundreds of dollars.
 
I'm Lucky in that I have wild coffee growing in the rainforest at my backyard.
Very High in caffeine due to it growing in shade.
Always best to buy beans Just roasted and or ground from just roasted. This will last two weeks and that's about it as the flavour will fall off from there.
 
Originally posted by Tim C:
ive rediscovered my ss travel mug with a press this year. results are good but i keep wondering if i shouldnt try a better quality press. ive just been using starbucks from the grocery store.
i have a blade grinder that i only use for spices now. i need to find a good but inexpensive burr grinder. any recomendations for a nice press and grinder thats still leaves me $ to feed my grills? that seems to be where a lot of my money goes these days, acquisition of grills and meat
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The grinder you want is called a Baratza Virtuoso which can be purchased refurbished for around $150.

A coffee site that you might want to visit is called CoffeeGeek.com.
 
Yes Coffeegeek.com is an excellent site as tjkoko mentioned. Home Barista is also a very good site. I've been a member of both sites and the wealth of information is endless just like on tvwbb. Great people over in coffeeland. The Aerobie Aeropress is a excellent press pot for beginners at $30. If drip coffee is your preference, the Technivorm Moccamaster Thermal is just about the best. You guys know that you dont buy a ECB and expect WSM results. The Technivorm is worth every penny at $265.

You can buy the best coffeemaker available and will only have acceptable coffee if you use ground coffee from Maxwell House. Fresh beans are a must as well as a decent grinder.

I know this is a repeat of what everyone else said, but coffee is a passion of mine.

Also, if you go on the above sites, dont look at the espresso section! The espresso bug is expensive!
 
Originally posted by Shawn W:
I got a coffee press as a gift one year. Tried it a couple of times but always got grinds in the coffee. -10 points for the press.

I otherwise couldn't discern any difference between it and the coffee from my coffee maker so never used the press since. (My coffee maker is a restaurant style unit that holds a pot of hot water in the back, pot is finished in like 2 mins). I always get the coffee off the burner as soon as it's made and into a carafe.

So, I was completely un'impressed'
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am I missing something about the press?

Bean roasting sounds like something I would like to try.
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I'm trying it out again. First off the water coming out of the coffee pot is only 192ºF. Not good enough it seems.

Did a side by side between the coffee pot and my press and this time the press coffee was noticeably better than the pot to both myself and my wife. I used a canned coarse ground coffee I like and the grind didn't look too bad, fairly even but still some finer particles.

Next up I suppose I'll get some fresh coarse ground from Starbucks or Second Cup and start looking into grinders and roasting my own while I carry on with the press.

Steve, not sure whether to curse this thread or be thankful ... gonna end up costing me thousands of dollars I fear
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, JK, it was something I've been interested in anyway. Thanks for the post.
 
Justin Banana is correct. However Home-Barista.com is a website totally dedicated to espresso and cappucino. So if you're into pourover drip or all the other stuff coffeegeek is THE place to go to.
 
Thats definitely true, Home Barista doesn't cover much coffee equipment.

I've found that just boiling water on the stove provides decent temperature easily.

As someone already said, Eight O'Clock Coffee beans ground coarse at the grocery store is actually quite decent.

Great coffee is easy and cheap to achieve with the right supplies and equipment.

I got bit by the coffee bug a couple years ago and bought my Technivorm and have since stepped into the espresso arena with a Quickmill Andreja Premium and a Mazzer Mini. It's a great hobby and makes me actually WANT to wake up in the morning.
 
Discovering the french press was a lot like finding the wsm. For very little $$ and a little info the results are very rewarding.

There is a big difference in freshly roasted coffee beans, and different beans from different parts of the world, and the equipment to get all done; but if you are interested in a cup of coffee that is better then the corner store or from a standard coffeemaker for a fraction of the cost, this very doable. It's an easy intro.

Gary
 
Originally posted by bill klinke:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Don Irish:
Hi, my name is Don and I am a coffeegeek....

French press is one of the nearly universally recognized best ways to make american style coffee. One can easily control the extraction temperature and duration. Much, much better coffee than a drip maker. As for beans, well find a local roaster and cup a few. Once you go to fresh roasted beans you will never go back. Good on-line roasters I order from include Paradise Roasters and Terrior Coffee.

Now as for espresso......
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Ok, I admit I'm a coffeegeek, minor-league, but where are you buying beans for espresso?

I for one am trying to buy local as budget permits, including Mighty Good in A2, and Foggy Bottom in Dexter. Zingermans beans are good, but $$$. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I get all my espresso beans on-line. Terrior and Paradise roasters mainly (Calabria roast and Espresso Nuevo, respectively), although I also recently got some from PT's - Gizmo roast. I have not found a local roaster although I talked to the owners of Great Lakes Roasters who are up at Square Lake Rd and Telegraph, north of Detroit. The above roasters ship for reasonable prices (usually $5 flat rate when you buy 3 bags), they ship the day it is roasted and I vac seal and freeze upon arrival and it keeps great.
 
I tried some FTO Mexican Chiapas through a French Press at Brown & Co. in N. Seattle and was pleasantly surprised! Bought a pound of greenies and roasted them right up to 2nd crack (for espresso) but I'm gonna dust off my FP and start using it a bit more.
 
Originally posted by Justin Banana:
Thats definitely true, Home Barista doesn't cover much coffee equipment.

I've found that just boiling water on the stove provides decent temperature easily.

As someone already said, Eight O'Clock Coffee beans ground coarse at the grocery store is actually quite decent.

Great coffee is easy and cheap to achieve with the right supplies and equipment.

I got bit by the coffee bug a couple years ago and bought my Technivorm and have since stepped into the espresso arena with a Quickmill Andreja Premium and a Mazzer Mini. It's a great hobby and makes me actually WANT to wake up in the morning.
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Wow, a quickmill espresso machine and a mazzer mini grinder - very nice stuff, from what I read on Home Barista. Do you feel yourself being tugged by the plague I hear so much about on that site - upgraditis?

My wife likes espresso right with me each morning, so she was ready for us to move from an old Krups pump machine to an Astra Pro semi-automatic machine, and even more so to move from a Krups blade grinder to a Rancilio Rocky burr grinder.

You're right, store brand beans like eight o clock, fresh ground and then brewed with HOT water, can certainly make decent coffee.
 
Originally posted by Don Irish:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by bill klinke:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Don Irish:
Hi, my name is Don and I am a coffeegeek....

French press is one of the nearly universally recognized best ways to make american style coffee. One can easily control the extraction temperature and duration. Much, much better coffee than a drip maker. As for beans, well find a local roaster and cup a few. Once you go to fresh roasted beans you will never go back. Good on-line roasters I order from include Paradise Roasters and Terrior Coffee.

Now as for espresso......
Click to expand...


Ok, I admit I'm a coffeegeek, minor-league, but where are you buying beans for espresso?

I for one am trying to buy local as budget permits, including Mighty Good in A2, and Foggy Bottom in Dexter. Zingermans beans are good, but $$$. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I get all my espresso beans on-line. Terrior and Paradise roasters mainly (Calabria roast and Espresso Nuevo, respectively), although I also recently got some from PT's - Gizmo roast. I have not found a local roaster although I talked to the owners of Great Lakes Roasters who are up at Square Lake Rd and Telegraph, north of Detroit. The above roasters ship for reasonable prices (usually $5 flat rate when you buy 3 bags), they ship the day it is roasted and I vac seal and freeze upon arrival and it keeps great. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

thanks, I will have to check those roasters out.
I am trying to keep myself from thinking about home roasting, too, so some new sources for beans will help.
That's one more thing Home-Barista does - it exposes you to more levels of obsession, like roasting beans.
 
I've owned a french press for 22+ years... I use one every day at work because you can't have a personal coffee maker that uses electricity.
I buy good very coffee and make excellent coffee with the FP.
 
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