pstam Senior Member Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 2,305 Location: Beijing Expertise: Professional
Espresso: ECM, SAN MARCO, EURO 2000 Grinder: MAZZER Vac Pot: YES Drip: YES Roaster: YES, HOME STYLE
Posted Sat Aug 13, 2011, 12:31am Subject: French Press - it is great for Tam's Brewing Method
I used to say a lot of times that the French Press is the greatest tool for filter coffee brewing because it is fully controlled by hand. How do you think of it?
A couple of years ago, I started a new way to manage it and found that it was really great if one can use it in my way.
The Tam's way of French Press is this,
Preheat the pot.
put about XX grams of ground coffee in the pot
evenly and steadily pour about XXX ml XX degrees hot water on the coffee
put on the lid to keep the heat in the pot
now smaller particles start to sink to the bottom as they absorb the water, but still a large part of the particles float on the surface, the bubbles around the them prevent the extraction process
now gently and slowly swirl the pot, or use a wooden spoon in case the pot is full and will easily spill
Do not time the extraction period! No matter it is 4min, 5min, or 6min, you won't know when the over-extraction starts until you taste your coffee--but it is already too late! And do you know how many cups of over-extraction or under-extraction coffee you have to make until you find the steeping time that suits? It's such a waste of time and coffee beans!
The perfect moment for ending the steeping is when most of the particles start to fall from the surface.
So, when you swirl your pot, watch sideways and when you find a large part of coffee particles start to fall you can start push the plunge down. A few larger particles will remain on the surface and smaller particles have already been sitting at the bottom for a little longer than we want. But that's what the press pot flavor is from. As long as most of the particles start to fall, the coffee is generally fully not overly extracted.
The plunging process is surprisingly effortless, since there won't be much resistance left on the surface!
Some of the steps in this method originate from the Old West cowboy coffee brewing method, which I got independently by myself.
Peter in Beijing ------------------- http://www.kaffa.cn/ ------------------- I am looking for the way and the place to extend our trainning courses.
Posted Mon Aug 15, 2011, 1:17am Subject: Re: French Press - it is great for Tam's Brewing Method
The perfect moment for ending the steeping is when most of the particles start to fall from the surface.
Huh. That's an interesting concept. I don't use FPs but this one's still worth trying out since I do use an aeropress and also a steep-and-release method in my pour overs.
I wouldn't mind reading a more detailed explanation about this though since finer particles do, in fact, start falling faster than bigger particles so I'm very curious to know if this actually has some sort of relationship with extraction time.
Besides, if there's any way to simply eyeball the proper extraction time of my grind and actually get good results then I'm absolutely down with it.
pstam Senior Member Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 2,305 Location: Beijing Expertise: Professional
Espresso: ECM, SAN MARCO, EURO 2000 Grinder: MAZZER Vac Pot: YES Drip: YES Roaster: YES, HOME STYLE
Posted Mon Aug 15, 2011, 2:25am Subject: Re: French Press - it is great for Tam's Brewing Method
Let me try to explain.
The coffee particles are not even, but you have to watch only the most coffee grounds fall down to the bottom, and the crema-like (not real crema) disappears, the extraction can be finished by pressing the filter.
It does make good coffee by auto-timing for different grinding size, at least in a reasonable range of grinding.
You can try it by yourself.
Peter in Beijing ------------------- http://www.kaffa.cn/ ------------------- I am looking for the way and the place to extend our trainning courses.
Posted Mon Aug 15, 2011, 3:57am Subject: Re: French Press - it is great for Tam's Brewing Method
Coincidentally, I wanted to test out just how big the "safe zone" can get when using a brew ratio that's somewhat within the standards given by the SCAA, SCAE, and NCA (i.e. 55-63g of coffee per 1 liter of water). So, outside of weighing my coffee and water and using a 500 micron average grind, I basically did the steeping time using only your suggestion. Results were pretty good and this has convinced me to save up for a digital scale first before getting a better burr grinder.
Posted Mon Aug 15, 2011, 5:01am Subject: Re: French Press - it is great for Tam's Brewing Method
RaptorHornet Said:
Coincidentally, I wanted to test out just how big the "safe zone" can get when using a brew ratio that's somewhat within the standards given by the SCAA, SCAE, and NCA (i.e. 55-63g of coffee per 1 liter of water). So, outside of weighing my coffee and water and using a 500 micron average grind, I basically did the steeping time using only your suggestion. Results were pretty good and this has convinced me to save up for a digital scale first before getting a better burr grinder.
$19 with shipping here in the states - dunno how it would handle international stuff tho.
------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- Le café doit être noir comme le diable, chaud comme l'enfer, pur comme un ange, et doux comme l'amour.
"There is no right answer with coffee. There is only the elixir in your cup at the moment you partake."
"...I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind;..." - Lord Kelvin RECIPES thread => http://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/machines/585708
Posted Mon Aug 15, 2011, 5:20am Subject: Re: French Press - it is great for Tam's Brewing Method
Haha. Thanks for the suggestion. The only ones available here cost about 30-35$.
Although, my aeropress costed about 47$ when I bought it from the store so I wouldn't be surprised if the scales I just mentioned could have easily costed around 19$ too if I were to buy them from the US.
Posted Tue Aug 16, 2011, 7:51am Subject: Re: French Press - it is great for Tam's Brewing Method
I finally got one for 13$. Well that was suprising. Funny how random mindless trips to the department store can turn out sometimes. Seriously, I was just looking for a plastic measuring cup when I accidentally saw one on display. Apparently, these things get sold out pretty fast which was why I could never find one for myself before. The more expensive scales I mentioned before are actually from a different store.
It can only display integers for grams though while ounces and pounds can go up to 2 and 3 decimals respectively. Whatever. I have one now and that's that.
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