No other brewing method delivers good coffee as reliably, and in such generous quantity, as the French press. In this article, Swiss filter coffee master and 2017 German Coffee Taster of the Year Benjamin Hohlmann shares his two favourite French press recipes. This guide walks you through the brewing process step by step, answers the most common questions, and explains how much coffee you need for a given amount of water and how to find the right brewing temperature.
French Press, Plunger Pot or Coffee Press
What matters more than the name of the brewer is how it works. Coffee grounds go into a round glass or metal vessel. Hot water is added at a ratio of 1:15 to 1:16, which works out to 60 to 70 grams of coffee per litre of water, depending on taste. The water should be around 95°C. After a brew time of 3 to 5 minutes, a central rod pushes a mesh screen, or in some cases a paper filter, down through the liquid. This plunger separates most of the coffee particles from the brewed water, ends the extraction, and gives the French press its name.
That's the whole idea, and it's precisely why the French press has become so popular: anyone can make good coffee with it at home. The two recipes below are both straightforward, and each brings out a different side of the coffee's flavour.
French Press Recipe No. 1: Classic, Strong and Reliable
The method described in the introduction is the classic French press recipe. Here it is again, step by step.
Since water and coffee are still in contact after plunging, extraction technically continues. There's little movement left once the plunger is down, so it slows dramatically, but for the best result I'd still serve the coffee right after those four minutes, or pour it into a separate carafe.
French Press Recipe No. 2: Elegant, Nuanced and Competition-Ready
For an even better result, try a method borrowed from professional coffee tasting: cupping. Green coffee traders and roasters use cupping, or cup tasting, for quality control.
Here, the ground coffee goes straight into a cup and is covered with water at about 94°C. After four minutes, the crust is broken and skimmed off. Four minutes after that, tasting begins with a spoon from the top, taking care not to stir up the grounds that have settled at the bottom.
The result tastes "cleaner" and "clearer" than what you get from recipe 1, and the mouthfeel comes across as "softer" and more refined.
You can get the same result with a French press. Steps 1 through 4 are identical to recipe 1.
Coffee-to-Water Ratio for the French Press
60 to 70 grams of coffee gives the best result for most Central European palates, though the exact amount comes down to personal taste.
Using more coffee, say 7 grams per 100 ml or 70 grams per litre, makes for a "stronger" cup. More grounds give the water more to extract from, but what often gets overlooked is that the drink also turns more acidic as a result.
More coffee makes the drink stronger, but the same amount of water can no longer draw out substances from the grounds as effectively. That tends to lead to underextraction, which tastes more acidic.
If you want a stronger cup without more acidity, a finer grind usually works better. Just keep in mind that a finer grind also pulls more out of the coffee, which tends to taste more bitter.
When the ratio settles somewhere around 60 to 70 grams of coffee, the brew is usually balanced and tastes good.
What Temperature Should You Use for the French Press?
The right brewing temperature is simple: pour at around 95°C. If your kettle has temperature control, set it to 95–96°C. Otherwise, boil the water and wait about two minutes; that gets you roughly into the right range.
Don't go much hotter, or the brew quickly picks up bitter notes. Too cool, and the coffee turns thin and flat. With very light roasts, you can go toward the upper end; with slightly darker roasts, drop a degree or two. Unlike a pour-over, the French press is forgiving here; being a couple of degrees off doesn't do much harm.
If a darker roast tastes too bitter, try brewing it "cooler" next time, say 92–94°C.
What Coffee Works Best with the French Press?
The French press belongs to the immersion brewers, a category of alternative brewing methods. Immersion means water and coffee stay in contact for most of the brew, with the coffee sitting in the water. That's different from percolation systems like the classic pour-over, where water flows through the coffee.
The AeroPress is another immersion method, though it works with a shorter contact time and some added pressure. If you're wondering how it differs from a classic pour-over: with the French press, the coffee sits in the water the whole time, while with a filter, the water runs through it. That makes the French press stronger and less fussy, while the filter gives a clearer cup.
"The French press is a very honest brewing tool. It shows the coffee exactly as it is, without filtering anything out. I like that."
Benjamin Hohlmann, German Cup Tasting Champion and Swiss Brewers Cup ChampionWhich coffee works best depends largely on the strength of the finished drink, which is roughly the same across immersion and percolation methods. Strength refers to the concentration of dissolved coffee particles relative to water. The best results come from a French press brew with about 1.2 to 1.5% dissolved coffee particles. We call this Total Dissolved Solids, or TDS, expressed as a percentage.
To put that in perspective: the remaining 98.5 to 98.2% of the drink is water, which says a lot about how much the water itself matters.
So Which Coffee Suits the French Press?
Filter coffee works best for the French press. Its lighter roast brings out flavour nuances and the coffee's own natural acidity, which balances well against that large share of water (over 98%).
We offer our filter coffees in Switzerland and also in Germany and the EU.
Espresso calls for a darker roast, partly for the same reason: only 90–93% of the finished espresso is water, so the darker roast tones down the intensity of the acidity to keep things balanced.
Worth noting: the acidity we're talking about here is mainly about flavour. As with wine, it's part of what keeps the coffee balanced. In a good cup, acidity, sweetness and bitterness sit in balance with each other.
What Water Should You Use for the French Press?
As with coffee drinks generally, French press coffee tastes best with "soft" water that's free of off-flavours of its own. Soft means lower hardness: fewer minerals like magnesium or calcium.
"Hard" water buffers the coffee's acidity, taking away one of the key factors behind its flavour. Without acidity, coffee tastes flat, dull, and its flavour notes struggle to come through.
For brewing methods like the French press or a classic pour-over, water with a total hardness of 2 to 5 German degrees of hardness and a similar carbonate hardness works best. A table filter from BWT or Brita can bring the hardness down. Mineral waters like Lauretana, Black Forest or Volvic are also quite soft.
Who Is the French Press For?
The French press is the easiest way to make good coffee. It forgives more mistakes than a pour-over, a moka pot or an espresso machine. Even with a slightly off grind size, it still delivers a good result. The Timemore U French Press from our shop is a solid, everyday option to get started.
We always recommend grinding your coffee fresh. But if that's not possible and the grind can't be adjusted, the French press is the method that handles it best, largely because the coffee sits in the water the whole time. There's no wrong movement to throw things off. With a pour-over, if the water doesn't drain because the grind is too fine, the result is always poor. Not so with the French press.
The French press also brews larger quantities without any trouble. The 1-litre Bodum Chambord, for instance, can handle up to 800 ml of coffee, and the results stay just as good at that scale, which makes it a good choice for brewing for a group. It also asks for very little attention: even if step 5 in either recipe isn't timed to the minute, the French press forgives that too.
The Bestargot titanium coffee press* is one of the more interesting brewing options for the outdoors. In our article on coffee brewing on the go, this French press, weighing just 216 g, earned a top spot.
How Much Coffee per Cup, for How Many People?
An average coffee cup holds 150 ml. To brew a full cup for each of four people, you'd need at least 600 ml of coffee.
Pouring 600 ml of water over 36 grams of coffee won't give you enough coffee (remember: about 6 to 7 grams of coffee per 100 ml of water, as noted above). On top of that, every gram of coffee used holds onto 2 to 2.5 grams of water in the spent grounds, which in this example adds up to at least 72 grams. So from 600 ml you actually end up with only around 530 ml of coffee, or a bit less if you deliberately leave the last bit in the pot, which tends to make for a better-tasting cup.
That's why it makes sense to brew a bit more than 150 ml per cup with the French press. Conveniently, this method handles larger volumes just as well as small ones. We've written a separate article on the ideal coffee dose per cup.
Freshly Ground Is Half Brewed
Freshly ground coffee tastes best for the French press too. Grinding breaks open the bean's natural protective layer, and from that point on it starts reacting with oxygen and light. Volatile aroma compounds escape and the coffee's oils begin to oxidize, so the coffee loses complexity and starts to taste stale.
We tested 14 hand grinders under 100 euros, and almost all of them work well for both pour-over and French press. We've also added higher-priced, very good Comandante models to our shop, along with the Timemore C5 ESP PRO, one of the test winners from that same lineup in its latest version.
What Grind Size Should You Use for the French Press?
The grind is only slightly coarser than for a pour-over. Kruve has built a useful reference chart for this. We don't agree with every grind size they recommend for each method, but the chart is a helpful starting point.
A grind size of 700–1000 microns works well for the recipes described here.
Cleaning the French Press
Once you're done, wet grounds are left in the carafe. Tap them out into food waste or compost, not down the sink, or you'll end up clogging the pipe over time. Rinse the glass and plunger with warm water afterward, adding a little dish soap if needed.
Once a week, take a closer look at the plunger. On most models, the metal mesh screen can be unscrewed and taken apart. Coffee oils build up there over time, and once they go rancid, you'll taste it in your next brew. Separate the individual discs occasionally and clean them thoroughly. Most French presses are also dishwasher-safe, though it's worth checking the manufacturer's instructions first.
Cold Brew with the French Press
The French press also works well for cold brew. Aim for a 1:10 ratio, for example 30 grams of coffee with a litre of good water, and let it sit in the fridge for 18 to 24 hours. Then filter and enjoy. For more tips, check out our guide to making cold brew.
