John Myers
French Press: Perfect coffee with a coarse grind
Whether coffee should be ground coarsely or finely depends on the time it is in contact with water.
- With a short contact time, the water can release more aromas from coffee if it is ground very finely. This is because finely ground coffee has a much larger surface area. For example, choose a fine grind if you make an espresso yourself.
- When preparing coffee with a French press, you usually let the coffee steep for about four minutes before you press down the plunger sieve – that’s quite a long time.
- If you were to use finely ground coffee for the French Press, the coffee would quickly taste bitter, since the bitter substances also quickly transfer into the water.
- For this reason, a coarse grind is ideal for preparing coffee in a French press. Since the surface of coarsely ground coffee is smaller than that of finely ground coffee, the aromas are released more slowly.
