This breakdown will show you how to make a sludge-free cup of coffee using the French press.

Brewing with a French press can seem a little intimidating, but once you learn how to use it, you can get an amazing full-bodied cup of coffee using this method. Full-bodied just means the coffee has a thicker mouth-feel. The thickness comes from using the immersion brew method. Immersion brew means there is a longer contact time between the coffee and water. 

Supplies

You'll need just a couple of things to get started:

• Scale
• Timer
• Coffee
• Water
• Spoon
• French press

Recipe

• 40g of medium-coarse coffee
• 500g water
• Water temp: 207°F

Brewing

Place your French press on top of your scale. Once your coffee is ground, take off the top of the French press, and add your coffee. Tare out your scale, and add 500g of water directly on top of the coffee. After all the water is in, you will now wait 4 minutes while the coffee steeps.

When the 4 minutes is up, take your spoon, and "break" the coffee floating on the top. This will make most of the coffee grounds fall to the bottom of the vessel and stop the brew process.

Next, take your spoon and scoop up any remaining grounds and foam from the top of your coffee.

Now, you can grab the plunger and barely press down until the filter is sitting on just on top of the coffee.

Set a timer for 2 minutes to allow the coffee to bloom, and the rest of the sediment to fall to the bottom.

Once the 2 minutes are up, you can grab a cup, serve, and enjoy!

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If you want a more visual tutorial on brewing with the French press, check out our YouTube video below where our Director of Coffee Education, Austin, walks us through it.