French Press Coffee: Ratio and Step-by-Step

The French press has a reputation it does not really deserve. People call it muddy, bitter, or the brewer you use when you cannot be bothered. In practice it is one of the most forgiving methods in the house, and the difference between a gritty cup and a rich, syrupy one comes down to three things: your ratio, your grind, and whether you take thirty seconds to break the crust properly.

Here is how we brew it at The Beanery.

The French press ratio

Start at 1:15. That is one gram of coffee for every fifteen grams of water, and it suits the full-bodied, immersion style of the press.

• 3 cup press (350ml): 23g coffee, 350g water
• 8 cup press (1 litre): 60g coffee, 900g water (leave headroom for the plunger)
• Single mug: 20g coffee, 300g water

If you prefer a lighter cup, push out to 1:16 or 1:17. Darker roasts and older beans usually want the tighter 1:15. Weighing beats scooping every time, because a level tablespoon of a dense Colombian and a level tablespoon of a puffy light-roast Ethiopian are not the same amount of coffee. To see how the press compares with pour over, espresso and cold brew, have a look at our guide to the perfect coffee-to-water ratio for every brew method.

Grind size and water temperature

Go coarse, roughly the texture of raw sugar or coarse sea salt. Too fine and the fines slip past the mesh filter and keep extracting in your cup, which is where the muddy reputation comes from. A burr grinder matters more here than in almost any other method, because the press has no paper filter to hide inconsistency.

Water should sit around 93 to 96 degrees. Off the boil, wait thirty seconds and you are close enough.

The method, step by step

1. Preheat. Rinse the press with hot water and tip it out. Glass sheds heat fast and a cold beaker drags your brew temperature down.
2. Add coffee, start the timer, pour. Add all your water in one steady pour, aiming to saturate every bit of the grounds. Do not stir yet.
3. Wait four minutes. A crust of grounds will form on the surface. Leave it alone.
4. Break the crust. At the four minute mark, stir gently through the crust three or four times with a spoon. Most of the grounds will sink.
5. Skim. Use two spoons to lift off the foam and floating grounds that remain. This one step is the difference between a clean cup and a silty one.
6. Rest, then plunge. Wait another five minutes so the fines settle, then press the plunger down slowly until it just meets the surface of the coffee. Do not force it to the bottom.
7. Decant immediately. Pour the lot into a mug or a carafe. Coffee left sitting on the grounds keeps extracting and turns bitter within minutes.

Total time is around nine minutes, most of it hands-off.

Dialling it in

Tasting thin, sour or sharp? You are under-extracting. Grind a touch finer, or lift the water temperature. Tasting harsh, drying or bitter? You are over-extracting. Grind coarser, shorten the steep to three and a half minutes, and make sure you decanted straight away.

If you would rather not do the maths for your particular press, our French press ratio calculator works out the exact dose and water weight for any brew size, and gives you the full timing sequence alongside it.

Which beans work best

Immersion brewing brings out body and sweetness, so it flatters medium roasts with chocolate, caramel and nutty notes. Our Beanery Special blend is a safe, delicious starting point, with milk chocolate and toasted hazelnut notes, a subtle citrus brightness and a smooth, medium body. Light, fruit-forward single origins can shine too, but they need a slightly finer grind and a full four minutes to open up. You can browse the full range in our coffee beans collection.

Freshness matters more than origin. Beans between five days and four weeks off roast will give you the best results.

The cost side of it

A French press is one of the cheapest ways into properly good coffee. No pump, no boiler, no group head to maintain. Once you factor in a bag of quality beans, a home-brewed cup lands well under a dollar against the five or so you pay at the counter. If you want to see what that adds up to over a year, plug your habit into the coffee savings calculator and it will show you the annual difference. For most people it is the price of a decent grinder in the first few months.

Ready to brew

Weigh your coffee, grind it coarse, steep for four minutes, break the crust and skim. That is the whole game. Use the brew guide and ratio calculator to lock in your numbers for any press size, then run your daily habit through the coffee savings calculator to see what brewing at home is actually worth to you. Both take under a minute, and both will make your next cup better.