Bitter Press

Coffee, yo.

Experiments: Reclaiming the press pot

Cafe Solo, unzipped. It’s a bit sexy, and what we’re going to try and emulate.

It’s no secret that the centuries-old press pot has faded out of favor among the specialty coffee elite. When it comes to immersion brewing, there’s a new darling in town: the Cafe Solo, manufactured by Eva Solo. The beauty of that sloping carafe is that it naturally filters most of the grounds when you pour — they settle in the corner, don’t smash up against the mesh filter that sits in the neck, and then the coffee isn’t over agitated. It’s no secret that I love this thing.

Agitation, by the way, is one of the many factors that harbors extraction. Remember folks, we’ve got a target ratio of soluble solids that we’re trying to extract from the coffee and dissolve into the hot water. Agitation is a good thing, but unwanted agitation can cause over-extraction, which tends to happen when pressing down on the press pot’s plunger.

The problem with the Cafe Solo is that it costs $120. Which isn’t quite affordable for most folks looking to make coffee. So I got to thinking, could I replicate the results with my old press pot if I didn’t use the plunger as intended and instead just poured gently through the filter?
It's like a superhero team.
The full line up, counter-clockwise starting from the left: coffee canister, scale, hand grinder, timer, water kettle, press pot, measuring cup.



The first thing we want to talk about is dose, meaning the amount of coffee we’re going to use. The standard ratio for brewing is anywhere from 7 to 10 grams of coffee for every 4 ounces, but I like 9 grams as a personal preference. I’m going to brew 16 ounces, so I’m shooting for 36 grams. Even though the capacity of this press pot is listed at 32 ounces however, I’d never be able to brew 32 ounces — 32 ounces of water wouldn’t fit with 72 grams of coffee sitting in the bottom. Also, I want to make sure there’s plenty of room at the top for the plunger to sit without touching the coffee. If you don’t own a scale, there are ways around this as well.

One two tablespoon coffee scoop worth of coffee…

…is about 8 grams of whole bean coffee.

But since I do have a scale, I weighed it out to 36 grams.


In hindsight, I should have forgone the scale and just use 4 1/2 scoops worth of coffee in order to make this method as accessible to everyone, regardless of their scale-owning status. But seriously, a scale is a solid investment if you’re going to want to take the next step.

The next aspect of this ratio is water. You’ll want to pre-measure your water before you dump it into the water kettle. This way, you’ll know you’re getting the exact ratio you want, without any guessing when you’re pouring out your hot water.

There’s twelve ounces. This measuring cup is too small.

The last four ounces going into the water kettle.

Firing up the water kettle. This one’s got a whistle!


Now that that’s all settled, let’s focus on the most important part about brewing: grind. Don’t worry, we can chat while the water is heating up. Grind is extremely important because it dictates extraction. When you grind coffee with a blade grinder, you’re essentially chopping the coffee up into inconsistent particles. The smaller ones are going to extract more and the larger ones are going to extract less. Think surface area.

With a burr grinder, there are two burr shaped gears that are positioned against each other. You can adjust how close they are to each other — very close, very fine; further away? Coarse. And coarse is what we’re looking for with an immersion method. You’ll want your coffee to look like rock salt — the type you use to de-ice your driveway. Burr grinders can be expensive, but don’t worry, we have a secret weapon: the hand-crank burr grinder.

This is an antique Zassenhaus grinder from my aunt. My parents used to use it every morning.

It’s German, and can be expensive. Find a great one for cheap from Hario (Japan).

It can get tiring, but look at that finished product. Hmmm. Well, I should have got a better close up.


The hand-crank grinder has a few advantages — slow grinding speed, which keeps heat low (and keeps the grinder from affecting the coffee), conical burrs as opposed to flat (conical sit inside one another, flat are two plates that face each other), and portability and adjustability. All electric grinders have a limited number of pre-sets, while a hand grinder can pretty much be adjusted from whole beans falling completely through to the burrs interlocked so tight they can’t even move. Which, in some ways, make it the best grinder available.

Into the pot it goes! Not much of a technique to this.

Look, there it is! Coffee in the bottom, just sittin’ there.

Hooray! We’re all set! Let’s add water!


Wait! Hold on! We didn’t talk about water temperature yet! It’s important! So, how hot the water is will dictate how much of coffee’s soluble solids are going to dissolve. The hotter the water, the faster the molecules inside there are moving around, and the more space there is between them, making plenty more room for soluble solids. Science! This is why regular drip pots don’t work extremely well — the water temperature doesn’t get hot enough to extract the right amount. But! Also! Water can be too hot. As in a percolator, where boiling water splashes though the coffee grounds. Boiling water is going to scald the coffee. Let your water kettle whistle for 5 to 10 seconds to ensure a good boil, then take it off the heat source, and let it sit for 10 to 15 seconds or so to drop a few degrees in temperature. We want it to be around 200-205 degrees Farenheit.
Okay now let’s add the water.

Fill it up and start the timer!

Ideally, we want to let it brew for 4 minutes total, so keep your eye on the clock, or buy a timer! This one’s a handy 4 minute timer for brewing coffee, but an un-handy 4 minute timer if you need to time anything else. But there’s an important step that we must take before we let it finish brewing. Remember what we talked about all the way up at the top? Agitation!

Do you see that blond looking foamy stuff at the top there? Those are CO2 gasses that are being released. CO2 naturally occurs in coffee during the roasting stage, but prevents extraction. So for the first 30 seconds, we’re letting the coffee bloom — and you should see it physically expand a bit and form a crust at the top. After that, we’re assuming as much C02 that can escape already has, so we’re going to stir the coffee to finish our extraction process.
Using the handle of the spoon, start a zig-zag, Z shaped stir.

Stir for ten seconds, agitating the coffee thoroughly.

Agitation promotes extraction, so we want a controlled agitation. The best way to do this is a zig-zag stir in a Z shaped pattern — this will help the coffee extract while keeping a controlled environment. A circular, vortex stir could cause a continued extraction due to the inertia of the vortex; objects in motion tend to stay in motion. The zig-zag stir settles quickly, which means you have full control over the way you’re stirring. I like 10 seconds. A lot of folks would recommend not stirring the coffee at all, but this is all to taste, and the best coffee I’ve had from these involves stirring and agitation.
Now this photo is more important than it looks. The biggest part of the theory is that we’re going to pour through the filter instead of plunging the coffee completely. In order to make this work, I’ve left the plunger about an inch above the surface of the coffee.

Time to wait out the rest of the 4 minutes. I spent it trying to figure out how to use my camera to get action shots while pouring the coffee. Pour time!
Starting the pour. Note the slowness of the pour and the thinness of the stream. We want to go as slow as possible in order to let the grounds settle gently in the corner as we pour.

Still pouring, and the grounds are starting to settle as the coffee is going through the filter on the plunger. You can even start to see the change in color.

Fantastically, the Cafe Solo is built so that the V-shaped filter hangs down in the neck — when you pour, the brewed coffee flows through the filter with a very small contact point. What I did here to emulate the pour is keep the rate of flow during the pour very slowly in order to keep the brewed coffee in contact with a very small point of contact with the filter on the press pot’s plunger.
Note how the pour is going through the plunger’s filter and the difference in color before and after, and the coffee grounds that are settling down in the corner. Also, take note as to how the press pot is still tilted upwards at a 30 degree angle or so.

What are we waiting for? Let’s get that into a cup!
Pouring into a cup.

The final product. Boy, I love these glasses.

That really is beautiful, isn’t it? I love the way these glasses make coffee easy to examine. Note the color — it’s like a rich root beer, not an oily shade of black.

The coffee I’m using is a washed coffee from Kirundo and Muyinga in Burundi, and that morning on the Cafe Solo was getting bright orange zest notes, soft vanilla in the body, sweet rosemary in the finish and a nice round body.

This Burundi through this press pot method had similar body and mouthfeel, the same great orange notes and sweet herbal notes in the finish. It wasn’t quite as pronounced as the Cafe Solo, but it definitely was a huge step forward from most of the press pots I’ve had in my lifetime. So the experiment was a sweeping success!

Now there was only one thing left to check out — the grounds in the bottom of the press pot.
Ah, there we go. That’s what we wanted. The proof is in the pudding.

And by pudding, I mean grouped coffee grounds in the corner.

James Hoffman has a great video showcasing an excellent classic press pot technique, so if you think you’re ready to up your game, or just want to see how far off I was, take a look at this:



Videocast #2 - French Press Technique from James Hoffmann on Vimeo.

  1. bitterpress posted this