Dear Reader,
I am a regular coffee drinker and like all food and drink, I have my share of opinions about it. But, I would not say I am a coffee snob and I do not have a carved-in-stone coffee ritual. I prefer home-brewed coffee as I do not like to waste to-go cups and I really do not like drinking out of plastic or metal travel mugs. Occasionally, I will stop for a latte from a local coffee shop but for the most part, I brew coffee at home or at my office in a regular percolator. I buy various brands of coffee (Intelligentsia, Metropolis, Douwe Egberts), sometimes take cream and sugar and sometimes not. My coffee habits are fickle and I never seem to permanently settle into a routine.
This weekend, I found myself wanting to impress my coffee-drinking houseguest. So, I broke out the Blue Bottle Coffee recently given to me by my friend Molly and decided to grind the beans and use the french press given to me by Stephanie. Well… my first attempt was a bust. I had not used the french press in awhile and I tried to wing it on the amount of grounds and time and in the end, the coffee was too weak. Disappointed and wanting to provide a great cup of joe for my guest, I went back to the percolator and brewed again but this time, the grounds were too coarse and therefore again, it was too weak.
Since I am both obsessive compulsive about entertaining guests and neurotic about getting things right, the double failure rattled me. We drank the coffee as it was really not that bad. But, I started wishing I had both a more romantic ritual and the perfect morning cup.
This brings me to my question. Do you have a coffee ritual, bean brand or brewing secret to set me back on track?
Anxiously awaiting help,
Weak Brew
Powered by FireStats
March 26th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
The link below has been my guidance to perfect press coffee, I have been stuck with watery or sludgy coffee before I was enlightened. I prefer coffee from Batdorf and Bronson in Washington, I used to live right up the road, and I still prefer their coffee.
http://bccy.blogspot.com/2003/11/life-with-cafetire.html
March 26th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Hi Whipped Blogger,
I haven’t been subscribed to your blog that long, so I feel a little out of place stepping up to respond to your post, but here goes nothing.
I live in NYC but grew up in California, so I have Peets send me a pound of beans a month. Kenya’s my favorite, but I’ll often go for whatever “special” roast they’re pushing, as long as it isn’t $60/pound.
I throw the bag in my freezer and grind 4 table spoons worth every morning. The grinds (I like a medium-coarse) get dumped in to a paper filter in a cone. If I’m feeling really fancy I’ll pour some water through the paper filter before dumping the grinds in, but I’ve never tasted the difference. You’ve gotta be dealing with some pretty cheap paper filters if that’s gonna make any difference.
12 ounces of not-quite boiling water go over the grinds and while that brews I froth some skim milk with a battery-frother that was given to me as a gift. I then warm the milk in the microwave and dump it into the coffee.
I then read the news and drink my coffee and the world makes sense for 5 minutes every day.
And I do actually measure the grinds and the water. I keep a measuring cup next to my tea-kettle and a 2-tablespoon scoop next to my coffee grinder. I think it makes all the difference. Oh, and I hate it when people grind the beans too fine — it tends to over-extract and creates bitter coffee.
March 27th, 2007 at 9:02 am
This is JUST what I was hoping for. Keep them coming. I LOVE reading everyone else’s recipe for coffee success! Thank you for sharing.
March 27th, 2007 at 10:37 am
another thing i would add to the cafetiére (french press) picture is the extra nylon filter.
if you have a whirly-blade grinder, you may have a hard time avoiding dusty bits that will come into the cup through the standard metal filters. an inexpensive extra-fine nylon filter will help screen these out for less sediment in the coffee, if the sediment bothers you.
these extra-fine screens can be purchased for less than US$4 at places like sweetmarias.com.
good luck and happy coffee!
March 27th, 2007 at 11:32 am
I’m a big fan of the french press method. I like that it’s just a little more involved than dumping in the coffee and pressing a button. I also like that I don’t have a big coffee maker taking up space on my counter. It does make for a bit of work if I have a lot of company,my family is big on coffee and the little pot goes fast. In that instance I fill a carafe as soon as it’s done and just start on a second right away.
I worked for a snobby coffee shop where every single cup of coffee was brewed in the french press. We weighed the beans for each pot, but now I use roughly 4 heaping tablespoons per pot. Course grind does work better in the press, but I don’t mind it too much if it’s fine. I kind of like the sediment. It makes it seem earthy. One thing that has helped make the process both ritual and convenient is the electric teakettle I received as a gift. It boils the water in just a couple minutes, and makes me a little more likely to “indulge” even on a busy day.
March 27th, 2007 at 11:33 am
I forgot the other rule of the snobby coffee shop! Brewing time: 3 minutes 34 seconds. I don’t actually time it anymore, but it helped a lot in the beginning to get it right.
March 29th, 2007 at 7:53 am
Interesting! While working at the local paper for many years, I spent alot of time at the Caffe Trieste. Your photos of the Ferry Building Farmers Mkt make me miss the bay area even more. I lived in Sausalito and would go to the Marin Farmers Mkt on Thursdays.
Your coffee experience with the French Press…..we also grind our own on the weekends (we have an espresso machine during the week) but we, after having our own coffeehouse out here for 4 yrs, now eyeball our grind and don’t need to time the press. You learn as you go.
We have used Intelligentsia, until we went to Seattle, and now use Vivace. Quite nice.
Will have to check out Metropolis next time in Chi town. We usually end up on Broadway at Intelligentsia after our drive in from Indiana.
Like your pictures of the food too! ; )
March 29th, 2007 at 10:03 am
i love blue bottle coffee and have been ordering it by post for the past year (as i live in new york.) i grind it using a burr grinding machine - not a blade grinder, the difference being that a burr somehow makes the grounds far more even by chopping them between two plates rather than with a single whirring blade. my one is gaggia and looks a bit like a race car. i warm the french press with water - as one might a tea pot - and then tip in an inch i’d say of the ground coffee, then add just boiled water. wait two/three minutes or so (during which time i heat some milk in a pot and section a grapefruit) then stir the coffee. put the toast in. then when the toast pops press the coffee down and pour into a mug or bowl. voila du bon cafe!
March 29th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Thank you again to all of my coffee advisers. This has been one of my favorite posts so far. Thank you for sharing!
March 29th, 2007 at 11:29 am
i have to give a plug for a small coffee roaster/shop local to milwaukee - alterracoffee.com. the best coffee in these united states. since moving away from milwaukee, i buy their coffee on-line and have a five pound bag shipped to me every few months.
after using a fancy expensive coffee maker for about a year, i am convinced that the french press or the simple one cup plastic pourover does it just as well if not better. i recently read over america’s test kitchen’s review of coffee makers - they liked the pourover as well as the vacuum style brewers.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
I’ve not yet tried Blue State Coffee (www.bluestatecoffee.com) and haven’t seen it out here in Portland, but it’s never a bad idea to couple consumption with a good cause. They give half of their profits after taxes to causes that reflect Democratic values. Dare I bring Whipped to the political arena? Yes– go Barack! Good luck, Care-o.
April 18th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Hi, I’m Kate. I work for Blue Bottle. We have really good tips on our website for preparing coffee with a French press. Our website is www.bluebottlecoffee.net.
P.S. The Piccino Blend is an espresso blend created for one of our wholesale accounts and we wouldn’t actually recommend that you prepare it in a French press. Our best blends coffess for a Frech press include 3 Africans and Mesa de los Santos