Comments on: Seeking Coffee Guidance

by: Kate

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 04:40:10 +0000

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

by: Stolk

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:41:54 +0000

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.

by: tracy d.

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:29:09 +0000

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.

by: Caroline

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:17:03 +0000

Thank you again to all of my coffee advisers. This has been one of my favorite posts so far. Thank you for sharing!

by: johanna

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:03:47 +0000

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!

by: Coffee Messiah

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:53:02 +0000

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! ; )

by: Danielle

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:33:51 +0000

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.

by: Danielle

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:32:20 +0000

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.

by: frelkins

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:37:11 +0000

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!

by: Caroline

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 14:02:01 +0000

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.