Ever tried French Press?

submitted by Bigs from self.Coffee

It's yummy!

Hey, I'm trying to start a conversation here...

So, what's better than French Press coffee?

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[–]Drewski 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

It's the same concept, but I've used an Aeropress for a few years now and it makes great coffee. Gotta be sure to grind your beans fresh.

[–]Bigs[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Not quite the same concept, but similar if you use the inverted brew method (put the thing upside down, so the grinds are steeped in hot water for a while).

I tried the travel version but haven't really had a chance to use it, due to the covid hoax, I mean Deadly Virus. Did give it a go at a local hotel a few weeks ago, but like a sad muppet I took the wrong hand-grinder and it was set up for French Press, too coarse for the Aero. Then I remembered I had my Bodum French Press mug! Awesome! So gave that a go... Noticed the hotel kettle didn't seem to be turning itself off, so did it manually...

Even having given it some time to cool the damn thing broke my Bodum, 2 big cracks in the plastic. This made me the sad :'(

Good coffee while traveling is not easy... but let me tell you my next cunning plan...!

I've ordered a moka pot. Stupid idea on it's own, like an espresso but not as strong and... that's it. I do like a latte or such, so have also ordered a "Nanofrother". Basically like a little hand-frother but an impeller design forces the milk through a screen, creating true microfoam like you can get from a real espresso machine's steam wand. Cool!

But that still means cold milk... so have also ordered a little travel hob, a dinky 500 watt electric hob which should be enough to brew the moka pot, and then I can swap over for the milk jug while fiddling with the pot.... Once it's at 55-60 centigrade stick that bad boy in there and super dense foam in around 30 seconds :)

OK it could be complete shit but I'm gonna give it a go! Have never tried a moka pot before but they look simple enough.

[–]bjam27 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

French press is awesome for how cheap and simple it is but mine always tasted very bitter. Not sure what I was doing wrong. Might be my taste buds because drip is still my go to day to day.

[–]Bigs[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Mmm? French press is generally considered the easy way to get smooth, inoffensive coffee.

I'm gonna guess you were using a nasty-ass grinder, even a ... eeww... blade grinder?

A poor grinder, and anything with a blade, will create different-sized grinds, which means the smaller ones will over-extract and go bitter before the bigger ones have released their full flavor. The lack of paper filter means you WILL taste that, because FP coffee gives you everything the coffee has to offer. Drip or percolator coffee with a paper filter will remove most of those intense, bitter oils - but also removes much of the coffee flavor with it (and I can often taste the paper).

The press is indeed awesome for simple and cheap, but it really does demand great, fresh beans and a good grinder. That's not me being a snob; i'm just agreeing how it's easy to end up with bitter coffee if you don't pair it with a grinder that cost a lot more than the press ;)

Of course if you were using pre-ground coffee then yeah, that's gonna be super-bitter, because pre-ground is ground near-as-dammit for espress, moka pot or drip. French press needs VERY big, coarse - but evenly sized - grinds. That's actually hard to do. Any cheap grinder should be able to be reasonably consistent at the smaller sizes, but grinding large AND consistent is much tougher! For a moka pot or something you can use pre-ground or a $40 grinder, but for French press it's best with a $400 grinder.

And that's when you go "Holy shit; I didn't know coffee tasted like this!" - and fall deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole....

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (5 children)

I have not, although I hear it's a good way to brew tea too. I don't know much about coffee, I know more about tea.

Is Keurig coffee instant coffee?

[–]Bigs[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Some of the pods are real coffee, but any of the drinks that are 'milk' drinks use creamer and instant coffee.

I've only used a few pod machines, haven't really enjoyed any. Stayed at a hotel that had a pod machine in the room, the coffee was pretty awful. Decided to try buying some better pods in town. Picked a couple of contenders that looked and sounded good...

They were worse :/

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

I have wanted to try civet coffee, something about a $60 oz of coffee intrigues me.

[–]Bigs[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It IS amazing!

I live in SE Asia now, and popped over to Bali for a couple of weeks, and so had to try the kopi luwak or whatever. Went to a plantation where they sat us down, and made us a very nice cup of coffee, using good beans. It was delicious!

Having got me and my wife to agree that was great coffee and delicious, they then made us a coffee using the civet-shit beans. Omigod! Lovely coffee.

This is the kicker - they said 'Now try that delicious coffee again'.

Compared to the civet-shit, it tasted like mud.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Compared to the civet-shit, it tasted like mud

It's hard to go back. I'm happy drinking my McDonald's Keurig pods because that's all I know. Lots of things like that, like really old scotch.

I am curious now, are other ways of fermenting coffee done? I do enjoy fermentations, lactcobacillus and yeast.

I live in SE Asia now

Expat American teaching English? Or a native?

[–]Bigs[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Actually all coffee referred to as 'natural' will be slightly fermented. There's 3 ways of getting the beans out of the cherry; washing with water ('washed') or just leaving them out in the sun for a month ('natural) which results in some mild fermentation.

The 3rd way is getting a civet to eat the cherry and shit out the bean ;)

Not teaching English :) I'm a conversion-rate specialist, helping people increase sales from their website, along with helping draft adverts, direct mail etc. Marketing basically, freelance. I won't link here, as this is all about coffee :D