French Press How-To

With the holidays fast approaching, our thoughts turn to anticipating festive meals with family and friends. We look forward to our favorite food traditions—picking up a fresh turkey from a nearby farm, or baking a particular kind of pie, perhaps—but we also love incorporating new ones. This year, we’re all about table side French press coffee. When you’re entertaining a crowd, it might seem easier just to flip on the Mr. Coffee, but why not kick things up a notch? French press is an elegant, extra-special way to serve coffee—just picture it after dinner with dessert, or in the morning for overnight guests—and it extracts every bit of flavor from the beans, ensuring a superb and super-fresh cup.

French presses come in a range of prices and sizes (you can stop in at our coffee bar to check out our retail selection), and the process for making the coffee is very simple. Just start with fresh beans and follow our tips:

1. Make sure your beans are ground especially for French press: fairly coarse, like pebbly sand.
2. Use one to two tablespoons of grounds per cup of coffee. (A “cup” of coffee is about six ounces.)
3. Bring water just to a boil, then pour half of it over the grounds in the French press.
4. Let grounds steep uncovered one minute, stir, then add the rest of the water.
5. Cover and let sit three minutes.
6. Press the plunger down, and serve the coffee straight from the carafe.

Voilà! Fresh coffee for your holiday guests. Of course, there are plenty of other special ways to make coffee for guests (check out some of our favorites here). Do you have a favorite brewing method? Leave us a comment and let us know!