Before we begin this full immersion French press course, you need to know a few facts. This is serious business folks, if you get it wrong Coffee Guy is bound to come to your house and whack you across the wrists with his fancy silver cupping spoon. As you can see, the Carlson house never has fewer than three French presses in the house at one time. It’s against our house rules… and we just really like to be prepared for every possible French press brewing scenario you can imagine.
This is the history of our beloved French press, according to our good friend Wiki :
The French press underwent several design modifications over the years. The first coffee press, which may have been made in France, was the modern coffee press in its most rudimentary form: a metal or cheesecloth screen fitted to a rod, and pressed down into a pot of boiling water. The coffee press was patented by Milanese designer Attilio Calimani in 1929. It underwent several design modifications through Faliero Bondanini, who patented his own version in 1958 and began manufacturing it in a French clarinet factory called Martin S.A., where its popularity grew. It was further popularized across Europe by a British company by the name of Household Articles Ltd., and most notably, the Danish tableware and kitchenware company, Bodum.
Now let’s get this French press party started with some easy step by steps. Pay attention, there’s a really hard quiz at the end of this post. Don’t you dare cheat by scrolling down!
What you need:
A french press
A kettle (we love electric kettles, but a stovetop one will do the same trick)
A coffee grinder (you can use pre-ground coffee to avoid the grinding step, but the coffee will lack flavor in comparison to freshly ground beans. We recommend the Hario hand grinder , especially for camping trips or for people who live where there is not dependable electricity… like us!)
A spoon
A thermos
Coffee cups
Coffee beans (Burundi coffee is a great choice for the French press, and we aren’t just sayin’ that)
1. Preheat your French press by pouring hot water into it. Empty the water into your thermos.
2. Measure out 1 scoop of beans (think heaping tablespoon) per cup of coffee you want to brew. 
3. Grind your (we hope they’re Burundi) coffee beans. Place in French press.
4. Slowly pour off-boiled water (give the kettle 30 seconds to rest after the water has reached boiling point) onto grounds, just enough to cover ground coffee. Start timer. Watch the grounds bloom for 20-30 seconds. 
5. Slowly pour the rest of the hot water onto grounds in a circular motion.
6. Stir with a spoon and cover the French press. Start your timer and brew coffee for 4 minutes.
7. Preheat your coffee cups (using the water in your thermos) while you time the brew of your French press for 4 minutes.
8. Slowly plunge the French press. We say slowly because this prevents the grounds from escaping around the edges of the press into the filtered coffee.
9. Pour your cup and then pour the rest into the preheated thermos (so that the remainder of the coffee doesn’t sit on the ground coffee and continue to brew… which will make it bitter).
Oh, and we lied about the quiz.
Enjoy!
Love,
The Long Miles Crew (aka Coffee Guy and Camera Girl)
The preheating of the thermos and cups is a crucial step that many people don’t think about. Nice work on hitting all of the details! You guys continue to rock it over there.
Silly question, but does French pressed coffee taste a lot better than drip coffee? Thanks for the tutorial! As usual, the photography rocks!
No worries. We have a very nice French Press now. Should get a better thermos.
Trusting you to bring the Burundi beans.
Ouch! I think your phone has seen better days Ben!
Mary, we think so. Drip coffee machines boil the water as they send it through the coffee… which burns it. Also, they are too quick, usually have a 2 min brew time, so the coffee is under extracted and burnt.
And Danielle… his phone is on its very very last leg. brought out of retirement because his other phone stopped working! tough phone days around here!