French Press

The French press is a simple immersion brewer: a glass or steel jug in which coarse coffee steeps in hot water before a mesh plunger pushes the grounds to the bottom. In Britain it is usually called a cafetière, and in Australia and New Zealand a coffee plunger. It needs no paper filters, no electricity and almost no skill, which is why it is one of the most widely owned coffee makers in the world. Done well, it makes a rich, full-bodied, aromatic cup.

Below I’ll give you two ways to brew: the classic 4-minute press, and a slower low-sediment method that adds a skim and a short wait for a noticeably cleaner, sweeter cup.

The short version

• Use 30 g of coarse coffee to 500 g of water just off the boil. That’s roughly 60 g per litre.
• Steep for 4 minutes, then break the crust and skim off the foam.
• Wait another 5 minutes if you can, then press gently, only to the surface.
• Pour slowly and leave the last centimetre behind. That’s where the sludge lives.
• Decant anything you don’t drink straight away, or it turns bitter.

What makes French press coffee different?

Most home brewers are filters: water runs through a bed of coffee and out of a paper filter. A French press works the other way round. All the water and all the coffee sit together for the whole brew, and that has three effects you can taste:

• More body. A metal mesh lets natural coffee oils and a few very fine particles into the cup. That gives the French press its heavy, velvety texture, the opposite of the clean, tea-like cup from a V60.
• It is forgiving. Because the coffee simply steeps, there is no pouring technique to master. Time, grind and ratio decide the result, and all three are easy to repeat.
• It scales easily. The same method works for one mug or eight cups. Only the quantities change.

The trade-off is sediment. A bit of silt in the last sip is part of the style, but the steps in this guide keep it to a minimum.

Here’s what’s going on inside one:

What do you need to make French press coffee?

Not much, and you can get away without most of it.

You’ll need	Ideal	If you don’t have one
A French press	Any size; a 4-cup (500 ml) suits one or two people	A Clever Dripper or even a jug and a sieve will steep coffee
Coffee	Whole beans, ground coarse just before brewing	Pre-ground coffee labelled “cafetière” or “French press” grind
A grinder	A burr grinder	Ask your roaster or café to grind it coarse for you
A scale	A cheap kitchen scale, for 30 g and 500 g	About 5 level tablespoons of coffee and 500 ml of water
A kettle	Any kettle	A pan of boiling water works fine
A thermometer	Not needed	Boil, then wait about 30 seconds
A timer	Your phone	Brew mode on this page has the timers built in

How much coffee should I use in a French press?

The best starting point is about 60–70 g of coffee per litre of water, a brew ratio of roughly 1:15 to 1:16.7. My go-to recipe is 30 g of coffee to 500 g of water, which suits a typical “4-cup” press and makes two generous mugs.

Press sizes are sold in “cups”, but a press-maker’s cup is only about 125 ml (roughly 4 fl oz), not a mug. Here is what each common size needs:

Press size	Water	Coffee (1:16.7)	Stronger (1:15)	Level tablespoons*
3-cup	350 ml	21 g	23 g	about 3½
4-cup	500 ml	30 g	33 g	about 5
8-cup	1 litre	60 g	67 g	about 10
12-cup	1.5 litres	90 g	100 g	about 15

*Tablespoons are a rough guide: a level tablespoon of coarse coffee weighs about 5–7 g depending on the bean and roast. A £10 kitchen scale is the most reliable upgrade you can make. To scale any recipe, use the brew ratio calculator.

Remember the grounds hold on to some water. 500 g of water gives you about 440 ml of coffee in the cup.

What grind size is best for a French press?

Use a coarse grind, like sea salt or coarse breadcrumbs. Grind size matters more in a press than almost anywhere else:

• Too fine and the dust slips through the mesh, the plunger becomes hard to push, and the coffee tastes muddy and bitter.
• Too coarse (like gravel) and the coffee tastes thin and sour, because water can’t reach the inside of each particle in time.

A burr grinder is the best tool here because it makes even particles with little dust. Blade grinders smash beans into a mix of boulders and powder, which gives you both a sour and a bitter cup at once. If you buy pre-ground, look for coffee labelled “cafetière” or “French press” grind.

What water temperature should I use?

Use water just off the boil, around 93–96 °C. Boil the kettle and let it rest for about 30 seconds. A rolling boil straight onto the grounds can scorch the flavour and push bitterness. Very dark roasts taste better slightly cooler (around 90 °C); light roasts like the hotter end.

Coffee is about 98% water, so the water itself matters too. If your tap water is very hard or tastes of chlorine, filtered water will make a clear difference.

How long should a French press steep?

The classic answer is 4 minutes, and it is a good one. During that time the water extracts the sugars, acids and aromatics that make coffee taste like coffee.

You have more flexibility than you might think. Because the grind is coarse, extraction slows down a lot after the first few minutes, so a longer steep doesn’t automatically mean a bitter cup. What does cause bitterness is leaving the coffee sitting on the grounds after you have finished brewing.

Steep time	What to expect
3 minutes	Lighter, brighter, can be sour with coarse grinds
4 minutes	The classic balance: full body, sweet, rounded
4 + 5 minute settle	The low-sediment method: cleaner, sweeter, less silt
Hours on the grounds	Flat, harsh and bitter (decant instead)

How do you make French press coffee without sludge?

This is where most guides stop, and honestly it’s where the best cups begin. The technique below was popularised by coffee writer and World Barista Champion James Hoffmann in his widely shared “ultimate French press technique”. It uses patience instead of force:

1. Steep for 4 minutes as normal.
2. Break the crust. Stir the layer of grounds on top gently so it sinks.
3. Skim. Use two spoons to scoop off the foam and floating particles. This removes much of what would end up as grit in your cup.
4. Wait about 5 more minutes. The fine particles settle into a layer at the bottom, and the coffee cools towards drinking temperature.
5. Press only to the surface. Lower the plunger until it just touches the liquid. You are using it as a strainer to hold back the floating bits, not a piston to squash the grounds.
6. Pour slowly and leave the last centimetre behind.

Plunging hard stirs up the settled fines and forces them through the mesh, which is exactly what you don’t want. A slow pour from a press that has been allowed to settle is the difference between a gritty cup and a clean one.

Why does my French press coffee taste bitter, sour or muddy?

Change one thing at a time so you learn what each adjustment does.

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Bitter, harsh	Grind too fine, water boiling, coffee left on the grounds	Grind coarser, rest the kettle 30 s, decant straight after pressing
Sour, thin	Grind too coarse, water too cool, steep too short	Grind a little finer, use hotter water, steep a full 4 minutes
Weak, watery	Too little coffee	Use more coffee: move from 1:17 towards 1:15
Muddy, gritty	Fine grind, fast plunging, pouring the dregs	Grind coarser, skim and settle, press gently, stop pouring early
Plunger hard to push	Grind far too fine	Grind coarser; never force it, as pressure can crack a glass jug
Grounds getting past the mesh	Bent or worn filter, mesh not seated flat	Reassemble the filter carefully or buy a replacement mesh
Flat, stale	Old or pre-ground coffee	Buy whole beans roasted within the last month and grind fresh

Common French press mistakes

• Using fine, espresso-style coffee. It clogs the mesh and makes silt. Always grind coarse.
• Pouring from a rolling boil. Rest the kettle for 30 seconds first.
• Plunging hard and fast. Press slowly, and only as far as you need.
• Leaving coffee in the press. It keeps extracting and turns bitter within minutes. Decant into a jug or flask.
• Measuring by eye. Scoops vary wildly. Weigh your coffee and water, at least until you know the recipe by heart.
• Not cleaning the mesh. Old coffee oils go rancid and spoil the next brew.

What’s the best coffee for a French press?

There’s no single best coffee, but some suit a press better than others.

• Medium to dark roasts are the classic match. The press’s heavy body flatters chocolatey, nutty, caramel flavours, and these roasts extract easily at a coarse grind.
• Light roasts work too, but they’re denser and harder to extract. Use water at the hotter end (95–96 °C) and give them the full steep, or grind a touch finer.
• Fresh beans make the biggest difference. Look for a roast date on the bag and use the coffee within about a month of it. Coffee without a roast date is usually old.
• Buy whole beans if you can. Ground coffee goes stale within days. If you buy ground, ask for a cafetière grind, because a fine filter or espresso grind will make a muddy cup.
• Good places to start: coffees from Brazil and Colombia tend to be sweet, nutty and chocolatey, and Indonesian coffees such as Sumatra are known for a heavy, earthy body. Decaf brews just as well in a press.

French press variations worth trying

Once the basic recipe feels easy, a press can do a lot more than one style of coffee.

• Iced French press. Brew at double strength, then pour it over ice. Use 30 g of coffee with 250 g of hot water, steep for 4 minutes, then press and pour over 250 g of ice. The melting ice brings it back to normal strength.
• Café au lait. The French breakfast classic: pour French press coffee and hot milk into a big cup in roughly equal amounts. Brew slightly stronger (about 1:14) so the coffee isn’t lost in the milk.
• Frothed milk. Your press doubles as a milk frother. Warm some milk (hot, but not boiling), pour it into a clean press no more than a third full, and pump the plunger up and down for about 20 seconds until it doubles in volume.
• A big batch for a crowd. An 8-cup press takes 60 g of coffee and 1 litre of water with the same timings. Decant it into a flask so the last cup tastes as good as the first.
• Cold brew. A press makes a brilliant cold brew jug. The recipe is just below.

How do you make cold brew in a French press?

A French press makes an excellent cold brew jug because the plunger does the straining for you.

1. Add coarse coffee and cold, filtered water. Use about 1:8 for a concentrate (for example 60 g to 480 g) or 1:12 to drink straight.
2. Stir well so all the grounds are wet, put the lid on but don’t press.
3. Leave it in the fridge for 12–18 hours. Room temperature extracts faster, so taste after about 12 hours.
4. Press slowly and pour. For an extra-clean result, pour through a paper filter too.
5. Dilute a concentrate roughly half and half with water or milk, and serve over ice.

How do you clean a French press?

Clean it after every brew and it will last for years.

• Empty the grounds into the compost or bin, not the sink, where they can block drains. Add a little water, swirl, and tip the slurry out.
• Wash the jug and plunger in warm, soapy water and rinse well.
• Take the filter apart once a week. Most plungers unscrew into three parts: a spiral plate, the mesh screen and a cross plate. Scrub the mesh with a soft brush to clear trapped oils, then reassemble with the mesh lying flat.
• For stubborn oil or smells, soak the parts in hot water with a splash of white vinegar or a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda.
• Check before the dishwasher. Many glass and steel presses are dishwasher-safe, but wooden or plastic handles and some double-walled models are not, so follow the maker’s instructions.

Which French press should I buy?

You don’t need an expensive one. The mesh filter and the fit of the plunger matter far more than the brand. Here’s what I’d look at:

• Material.
  • Glass is the classic. It’s cheap and you can watch the brew, but it’s fragile and loses heat quickly.
  • Double-walled stainless steel keeps coffee hot for much longer and survives being dropped, but you can’t see inside.
  • Ceramic and enamel look lovely and hold heat well.
  • Plastic is light and fine for travel or camping.
• Size. Buy for the amount you usually make. A 3-cup (350 ml) press suits one person, a 4-cup (500 ml) suits one or two, and an 8-cup (1 litre) suits a household. Remember a “cup” on the box is only about 125 ml.
• The filter. Look for a mesh that sits snugly against the walls all the way round, and a sturdy rod. A loose filter lets grounds sneak past.
• Spare parts. Glass beakers break and meshes wear out. Brands that sell replacement beakers and filters, such as Bodum, save you buying a whole new press.
• Less sediment? If silt really bothers you, a press with a finer double filter, such as the Espro Press, gives a much cleaner cup.

The original Bodum Chambord design is still the one most people picture, and it’s a solid, repairable choice. More on presses in the French press kit guide.

Is French press coffee bad for you?

For most people, no, but there is one thing worth knowing. Coffee beans contain natural oils called cafestol and kahweol. Paper filters trap most of them, but the metal mesh of a French press lets them through.

These compounds can raise LDL (“bad”) cholesterol when you drink a lot of unfiltered coffee. In a six-month trial published in the BMJ in 1996, healthy volunteers drank about 0.9 litres of cafetière coffee a day (five or six strong cups). Compared with people drinking filtered coffee, their LDL cholesterol rose by roughly 9–14%, and a liver enzyme (alanine aminotransferase) rose too. All the effects reversed after they stopped. The same applies to other unfiltered coffees such as Turkish coffee and boiled coffee.

In practice: a cup or two of French press coffee a day is a normal part of many healthy diets. If you drink a lot of it and have been told to watch your cholesterol, consider switching some cups to filter coffee, or pour your press coffee through a paper filter.

General guidance only, not medical advice. Talk to your GP about your own health.

Who invented the French press?

Despite the name, the modern French press owes as much to Italy as to France, and its history has a few disputed dates.

• 1852: Two Frenchmen, Henri-Otto Mayer and Jacques-Victor Delforge, patented an early plunger-style coffee maker. Its filter didn’t seal against the sides of the pot.
• 1928–1929: Milanese designers Attilio Calimani and Giulio Moneta created a press whose filter was held against the walls of the jug by a spring, the essential feature of the modern design. They patented it in the United States in 1929.
• 1958: Faliero Bondanini patented a refined version (Sheldrake Coffee dates his patent to 1957). It was manufactured in France by Martin SA under the Melior brand, and Wikipedia says the Melior press became popular in the 1960s, which is likely why the world calls it a French press.
• 1974–1991: The Danish company Bodum launched the Bistro, its first French press, in 1974. In the early 1980s Bonjour Imports launched the Melior design as the Cafetière Chambord, named after the Château de Chambord; Bodum bought the Chambord name in 1983 and acquired Martin SA in 1991. The Bodum Chambord is still made today and is the design most people picture when they hear “cafetière”.

French press vs other brewing methods

• AeroPress: also an immersion brewer, but it uses a paper filter and air pressure. It is faster, cleaner and makes one cup at a time; the French press makes more coffee with more body.
• Espro Press: a French press with a double micro-filter. It costs more but gives a much cleaner cup with very little silt.
• Clever Dripper: steeps like a press, then drains through a paper filter. You get immersion’s ease with a filter coffee’s clarity.
• V60 and other pour-overs: brighter, lighter and cleaner, but they need a steadier hand and a gooseneck kettle.
• Coffee bags: the same steeping principle in a single-serve bag. Convenient, though rarely as fresh.
• Cupping: the professional tasting method is essentially a French press without the plunger: coarse coffee, hot water, then break the crust after three to five minutes. That is a good sign of how well the method shows off a coffee’s flavour.

Explore more steeped brewers in the immersion and steeping chapter.