I just had coffee from a French press

[sasquatch]

:loveya:
Anybody want an old coffee pot brewer?
:D

[KitchenWitch]

1. I LURVE my french press!

I rarely make coffee out of the old Mr Coffee any more... especially since my husband does not drink much coffee.

[sasquatch]

2. My only beef with it is it doesn't make a whole lot of coffee

They need to make on that holds a whole pot of coffee.

[tigereye]

10. I use a large one when we have parties or a lot of people over.

I have a small one for every day.

[seemunkee]

3. I used my wife's French press to make tea this morning

It worked great

[MonkeyFunk]

4. Isn't it the best?

It's a pain in the ass to clean, so I don't use it every day. But when I want a cup of really GOOD coffee, that's the way to go.

[sasquatch]

5. I find the clean up to be surprisingly easy

Maybe I'm just naive though.
:shrug:

[Duer 157099]

7. Clean?

Uh oh, you mean you're supposed to clean them?

I just rinse it out the next morning and it's good to go :D

It goes in the dishwasher once a week or so.

My only problem with using it is waiting the optimal 4 minutes for the brew. 1 minute is usually all I can manage.

[hisownpetard]

19. So funny - I have a French press but couldn't make it through those first 4 minutes!

Bought one that uses pods and only takes 60 seconds.
Coffee's not as good, of course, but at that point of desperation, I can live with it.:hi:

[AlCzervik]

6. excellent stuff, i bought a french press about a year ago after reading the posts about

how good it is.

[jmm]

8. All you need now is a burr mill grinder.

:9

[pokerfan]

9. Don't skimp on the grinder!

It is so very important when using a "freedom" press that the grounds be not only coarse but uniform in size. You just can't get that kind of consistent grind with a cheap ass whirling blade grinder.

http://www.coffeegeek.com/guides/presspot

[sasquatch]

11. Yeah, but I don't have the best economic situation right now

So it's guess work with my current grinder until I become financially sound enough to be another grinder.

[pokerfan]

12. I hear that

but it's seriously important. It's probably better to have it ground where you buy your beans than to use a low quality grinder. Neither is ideal, but inconsistent grounds is really bad news in a press.

[Vanje]

13. French Pressed?

That'd be FREEDOM coffee

[sasquatch]

14. Well it does make me feel inslaved to it when I drink it

:D

[TreasonousBastard]

15. Tough to find at a decent price since...

Lechter's went out of business. Last one I had broke and I'm looking at stupid prices for the small ones with the large ones almost nonexistent.

Anyway, Plan B is to let the gounds simmer in a pot and then pour the mess througfh a coffee filter. Done right, the result is pretty much the same as a press. I'm usually too lazy for that, though and just use the drip pot.

Note that one of the most important things about the press is that the water is HOT. Most drip makers (Cuisinart is the one exception I know of) just don't get the water hot enough when it hits the grounds.

[grasswire]

27. I have found several presses at garage sales.

And church rummage sales. Only a buck or two! And usually like new.

[applegrove]

16. Are French presses w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l?

[Bake]

17. OK, what the heck is a french press?

Really.

Bake

[sasquatch]

18. It's a coffee maker that involves pouring hot water over course beans

Mixing it with a large wooden spoon and a piston contraption that filters the rinds.

[Auggie]

21. A French Press:

Sounds kind of sexy when you think about it.

[Bake]

22. Hmmm ... "French Press" ... does sound kinda sexy!

I've seen those contraptions but never knew what they were or how they worked.

Thanks!

Bake

[Inchworm]

20. I keep meaning to throw one on my Amazon order

And always forget. Wish I could just go buy one local, but I fear the only place around that would have one would be Suk-mart.

:donut:

[northzax]

23. one thing to keep in mind

is that using a french press has been demonstrated to contribute to elevated levels of LDLs (the bad Cholesterol) J Intern Med. 2000 Sep;248(3):211-6

sorry!

[grasswire]

24. I don't subscribe to the coarse grind for my french press

I like a bit of sludge at the bottom of the cup. And I don't wait four minutes, either.

If it's going to be perfect, Martha Stewart's coffee expert says to only fill your press part full, wait those minutes while it "blooms" and then finish filling the pot.

Be sure you ALWAYS start with fresh cold water. Let your tap run for a minute to be sure the water is really fresh and hasn't been sitting in the pipes all night.

[pokerfan]

25. It isn't so much the sludge

It's the sour taste I get from brewing dust. It also makes the plunger hard to push. But YMMV.

As far as water sitting in pipes all night, not all of us are on a well.

[grasswire]

26. I'm not on a well.

I just know that minerals collect in water in your house pipes overnight. I'm in a city with one of the finest fresh water supplies in the world. But that first draft of water in the morning smells like pipes.