Rombalds Senior Member Joined: 25 Aug 2012 Posts: 4 Location: Austin Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sat Aug 25, 2012, 5:54am Subject: Advice please: individual coffee filters or French press ?????
Good morning. Each morning I make two cups of coffee for my wife and myself. We currently use individual coffee cones with a filter paper in each. I know that French presses are also very popular. Please advise which is the best method for a superior cup. I do know that fresh ground quality coffee and appropriate water are also important. Thanks for any advice.
Posted Sat Aug 25, 2012, 7:55am Subject: Re: Advice please: individual coffee filters or French press ?????
Rombalds Said:
Good morning. Each morning I make two cups of coffee for my wife and myself. We currently use individual coffee cones with a filter paper in each. I know that French presses are also very popular. Please advise which is the best method for a superior cup. I do know that fresh ground quality coffee and appropriate water are also important. Thanks for any advice.
Personally I enjoy the french press. WHen you say you currently use individual coffee cones with a filter paper in each, are you doing pourovers (i.e. Do you place the cone on your much with a filter in it and pour hot water over the coffee grounds?)
I enjoy the french press over the pourover as it produces a cup with a fuller body. For convenience, however, I would choose the Clever coffee pourover with a gold filter in place of paper. It is as close to french press as I have experienced, without the somewhat tedious french press cleanup process.
Len
"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water." ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674
Posted Sat Aug 25, 2012, 8:49am Subject: Re: Advice please: individual coffee filters or French press ?????
I'd agree with Len here - the CCD is a decent device and you can do it like a pourover or immersion.
Making two cups - adjust the brew ratio to achieve a yield that you can dilute to two cups and have it the strength you want. If you have a brew ratio that you like with immersion brewing (steep and release, the way the CCD is originally designed to work), one first attempt would be to simply double the coffee but keep the rest of the brew parameters the same. When done, just dilute to two servings worth and see how that works. From a technical standpoint, it's not mathematically possible to max out a coffee brewer for one cup and then produce two cups at same extraction for same capacity (because the increased coffee absorbs more of the produced coffee, reducing the yield while the overall strength increases) - BUT you can get two pretty good cups at slightly less volume.
Superior is a subjective term - I personally don't "enjoy" the fines and sometimes overly heavy body and slightly chocolatey muddyness of a French Press for a brighter coffee like a Guat, Costa Rica, or many of the African coffees. I also don't really like what it does for the Yemen/Ugandan/Ethiopian varieties, which tend to have many nice fruit notes that get lost in the depth of a Press Pot.
Press Pot is really wonderful for a nice hearty dark roasted Sumatra, though. Like anything, you may love it - the only way is to try it.
I've found that Starbucks coffees respond really well to a Press Pot. Head into a shop and ask for one of their blonde roasts (I'd recommend the Willow blend) as a French Press or Press Pot.
DON'T get Starbuck's version of a pourover - they really just take hot water and instead of regulating the pour into the cone, they just dump and drain it - it's like a CCD that is released from the start. I tasted one they did, and had them (really) re-pour my coffee through the spent grounds - it was THAT weak.
------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- 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
Rombalds Senior Member Joined: 25 Aug 2012 Posts: 4 Location: Austin Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sun Aug 26, 2012, 6:56am Subject: Re: Advice please: individual coffee filters or French press ?????
Thanks to both of you for the excellent advice. I will buy a CCD and gold filter and experiment further. I am also in the market for a new grinder and will most likely pick the Baratza Virtuoso as the Rancilio Rocky is outside of my price range for non-expresso (those I get at our best local coffee shops).
Great choice. I think you will really like it. After you get it let us know how you like it.
Len
"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water." ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674
CSG Senior Member Joined: 8 Feb 2002 Posts: 42 Location: Idaho Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sun Aug 26, 2012, 8:28pm Subject: Re: Advice please: individual coffee filters or French press ?????
We've been quite happy for three decades using Melitta single cup cones and filters. I don't care for the sludge or cleanup of the French press. People make coffee too dang complicated.
Posted Mon Aug 27, 2012, 4:25am Subject: Re: Advice please: individual coffee filters or French press ?????
Edited for civility preservation.
------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- 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 27, 2012, 8:05am Subject: Re: Advice please: individual coffee filters or French press ?????
CSG Said:
Excuse me for posting my opinion on which was the better choice to make a better cup of coffee as the OP asked - drip or French press. Nobody except you brought up all the other methods.
Don't lecture to me, son, you have no idea what my background is.
"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water." ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674
Posted Mon Aug 27, 2012, 11:13am Subject: Re: Advice please: individual coffee filters or French press ?????
CSG Said:
Excuse me for posting my opinion on which was the better choice to make a better cup of coffee as the OP asked - drip or French press. Nobody except you brought up all the other methods.
Don't lecture to me, son, you have no idea what my background is.
BTW - in case you didn't notice, I agree with you - press pot has the baggage of sludge ("fines" for those seeking this quality) for all but the absolute best grinders.
------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- 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
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