# French press

The most forgiving way to brew and the best use of Blackpine — Sumatra Gayo.

## Recipe

- 60 g coffee, ground coarse
- 900 g water at 93 °C (199 °F)
- Total time 4:00

1. Add the coffee to a dry, warm press.
2. Pour all 900 g of water in one go. Start the timer.
3. At 4:00 break the crust with a spoon and skim the foam and floating grounds off the top.
4. Press slowly — about 15 seconds from top to bottom.
5. **Decant immediately.** Coffee left sitting on the grounds keeps extracting and turns bitter within
   minutes.

## Why skim rather than stir

Breaking the crust and skimming removes most of the fines that make press coffee muddy. Stirring pushes
them down into the cup instead. Skimming is the single biggest improvement available to press brewing and
it costs ten seconds.

## Grind

Coarse — visibly chunky, like coarse sea salt. On the Tandem EG-1 that is click 28–34.

Too fine and the plunger becomes hard to press, the cup turns silty, and it over-extracts before 4:00 is
up. If pressing takes effort, go coarser.

## Which coffees

| Coffee | Verdict |
| --- | --- |
| Blackpine — Sumatra Gayo | Best in the range for press. Syrupy, low acid, holds up. |
| Lowlands Blend | Very good. The default if you drink press daily. |
| First Light | Good, though the brightness reads flatter than in a pour-over. |
| Nightshift Decaf | Good. Go one step coarser than you would for caffeinated coffee. |
| Ardent — Ethiopia Yirgacheffe | Not recommended. The florals get lost in the body. |

## Cleaning

Rinse the mesh, screen, and plunger after every use, and take the filter assembly apart weekly. Old coffee
oil in the mesh will make every brew afterwards taste rancid, and it is the cause of almost every
"my press coffee tastes wrong" email we get.

## Related

- [Grind size chart](grind-size-chart.md)
- [Pour-over brewing](brewing-pour-over.md)