• UnfortunateShort@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    20 days ago

    I put ground beans in, pour hot water on them and start pressing pretty much immediately. How freakin strong do you need your coffee to wait for 4 whole minutes?

    • Luccus@feddit.org
      13·
      20 days ago

      Coffee is a matter of taste. So no one should tell you that you’re doing it wrong. Maybe it’s just a preference.

      But “immediatly” is… pretty fast. I wonder if your grind is very fine or if you have very dark beans. I don’t like coffee, so I brew mine pretty cool and for 2 minutes max so I get a very cocoy drink.

      If you feel like it, you may want to try different grinds and recipes. Personally I feel like it’s worth it.

      • UnfortunateShort@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        20 days ago

        I won’t go into details, but let’s put it this way: I think what I’m doing will offend french press owners more than a paper filter.

      • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
        5·
        20 days ago

        Coffee is highly personal, I agree. The comment above reminded me of a friend though, a very woke social worker, highly anti exploitation and pro environment. You get the point. She did hand filter, but like… Putting 5 spoons in and then just splashing boiling water over it so that the water hardly even touched the coffee because it just whooshed to the sides. Her coffee was… Brownish water. It was so light, if it were driving in the US, it wouldn’t have been racially profiled. She liked it that way and while it was not drinkable for me, it’s fine, she likes it, but it was just such a waste. It took a lot of careful phrasing to point it out to her that, you do you, but you are wasting coffee (which is, after all, ethically, socially and environmentally quite complicated to say the least) and you could get the same strength/result with like 1/5th of the coffee you use. She is still rather grateful for your coffee needs… more love and has now diverted to more conscious coffee making.

    • WandowsVista@lemmy.world
      3·
      20 days ago

      I think it’s more about taste than strength? I was a skeptic until I started trying things. still prefer a quick and dirty pour over but this is my go-to french press method

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      20 days ago

      So I have an Aeropress (highly recommend because of cleaning ease) but I couldn’t even wait more than a couple minutes because it will start draining through the filter almost immediately. If I waited four minutes there would be nothing to even press… Have I been doing this wrong somehow the whole time?

  • FreeBeard@slrpnk.net
    15·
    20 days ago

    Again we are talking about the coffee maker as if it’s the most important part in the quality of your coffee. It’s also how you spot someone pretending to know coffee. Far more important are the beans. After the beans comes your grinder and water quality.

    A connaisseur can enjoy every style of coffee making but never bad beans. Industrial type of coffee is mostly on the bad side btw…

  • zlatiah@lemmy.world
    92·
    21 days ago

    Sooo what I find funny is… all things considered, French Press isn’t even that sophisticated; it doesn’t involve adjusting the speed at which one pours the water, so it’s a lot less technically demanding than using like a V60 or something… I think the last time I went to a coffee class the instructors were all scoffing at the French Press lol (including one of them not wanting to “waste” a really high-quality batch of coffee on a French Press)

    Also James Hoffmann has an alternative technique for using a French Press that makes coffee that is less “muddy”… basically doing the same as usual, but after 4 minutes instead of plunging, try to us a spoon to remove all the foam, and then keep the coffee inside for another 5-10 min. Then pour out coffee without plunging

    • WalnutLum@lemmy.ml
      2·
      21 days ago

      Pour like 3/4 full, stir, then cover with a coffee filter (that’s the same size as the French press) before filling the rest of the way.

      It’s similar to how a lot of japanese cooking tells you to scoop off the foam, or you can use coffee filters on top of your soup to catch the foam.

    • pastermil@sh.itjust.works
      91·
      21 days ago

      There’s Melita-style and Chemex pourovers which is less demanding on the pouring techniques.

      Also, a lot of people seem to use too fine of grind size for french press, which requires coarse grind.

    • socsa@piefed.socialEnglish
      47·
      21 days ago

      And at the end of the day, all hot brewing methods are still inferior to the stupidest patient person.

      Cold brew is objectively better coffee, and literally just requires you to delay coffee satisfaction by like 15-20 hours.

      • odelik@lemmy.today
        2·
        20 days ago

        There is no objectivity in taste. Coffee drinking is a spectrum of preferences from flavor profiles delivered by growing, bean blending and roasting practices to acidity, particulate matter, strength, caffeine content, additives (milk/sugar/etc), and other subjectivity.

        I personally don’t enjoy most cold brews, or cold coffee in general, as cold coffee tends to allow more fruity flavors come through, which I do not enjoy at all in my coffee experience.

        I however, would not turn down a cold brew if that’s all that’s available. I mean, hell, I’ll drink a cup of black from a rundown diner that’s brewed from folgers and been sitting on a hot plate for 30+ minutes. And if that’s somebody’s favorite cup of coffee, I’m not gonna judge them and tell them their coffee is inferior.

      • Annoyed_🦀 @lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        21 days ago

        I wonder if i can use fine powder to do it, sounds like something that might actually save me times in the morning

    • Pyotr@lemmy.world
      8·
      20 days ago

      I see you found a space on top of the cabinets to cast aspersions on the fridge top squatter in the comic.

      Would make for an excellent hidden panel.

  • PanArab@lemm.ee
    5·
    20 days ago

    I have a French Press and I like the convenience of it. I can make my coffee even if the power is out and I don’t need to buy filter cups.

    • saboteur@sopuli.xyz
      2·
      20 days ago

      When the… power is out? Where do you live where that’s a concern and how do you heat your water without electricity?

      • PanArab@lemm.ee
        1·
        20 days ago

        I boil the water using a kettle on a gas stove. While it is rare, power can still go out sometimes, perhaps once or twice a year. I can’t go without coffee.

  • Artyom@lemm.ee
    76·
    21 days ago

    You don’t want to stir it. Agitation increases bitterness. If it isn’t mixing well, pour slower.

    • KammicRelief@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      21 days ago

      I’ve been using the Stumptown method, which has you pour half the water, wait a minute, then there’ll be a crust on top… you want to break that crust with your spoon then give it a light stir. Then pour the other half of the water, wait til the 4 minute mark, press, and voila.

      If you don’t stir in that crust, you’ll have unevenly brewed grounds. If you’re getting bitterness from stirring, try a coarser grind.

  • Metype @pawb.socialEnglish
    1·
    20 days ago

    I’d been using the cheapest drip coffee machine I could find for a few years. Got gifted a Keurig machine recently and it’s nice, but I really couldn’t care less about how good the coffee is cause it’s a twice a month pick-me-up.

  • faythofdragons@slrpnk.netEnglish
    61·
    20 days ago

    I’ve got the best way to make coffee. You take the absolute cheapest instant coffee you can find, and a bit of salt to make it palatable. My grandpa says they made it like that when he visited Vietnam, so it must be pretty fancy, right?