How to Make French Press Coffee - aka Press Pot

Using a french press couldn't be more simple. In fact, I'm convinced the french press was designed for people like me. Once you get a couple simple calculations out of the way, it's hard to make a bad cup of coffee. No dials, special buttons, or settings. Just coffee, water, and time.

And I know "measuring things" and using scales can come off as "pretentious" to some coffee lovers, but trust me -- the extra couple of minutes you spend dialing-in the right coffee measurement can mean night-and-day in terms of flavor. If you'd prefer to keep it simple, eyeball it and call it a day. In the end, if it tastes good to you, that's all that matters. :)

But if you're interested in getting the BEST possible flavor from a press pot, there's a couple steps measurements you'll have to make. The tricky part is nailing down the proper amount of coffee to use; and this is largely decided by how much water your particular french press holds. We call this the water-to-coffee ratio.

A good place to start is using a: 16:1 ratio
(16 parts water for every 1 part of coffee.)

As you'll see in the video, we use a scale to determine how much water your specific french press holds, and then use that number to calculate how much coffee you should use.

If you don't have a scale, I highly recommend getting one. If not, you can use 2 tablespoons of ground coffee for every 6 ounces of water.

French press coffee is also very versatile, because you can easily get a range of brew strengths, from very blonde to a very dark, all from the same device, which means you can tweak this recipe to make the perfect cup of coffee at home that's just right for you.