James always seems to be chasing a better and better French press brew. He shared this video earlier today and it seems to be rather simple and straightforward.

Interesting. I'm glad to see some experimenting with the French press. I feel it has become the specialty-coffee world's whipping-boy as of late. It's also interesting that people used to say to pour the coffee right away because, if you didn't, it'd just continue extracting--leading to over-extraction. But, I wonder if letting it sit longer also helps because some roasters are roasting coffee quite light now.

Mark Burness has written some interesting blog posts about immersion brewing that seems to contradict the assumption that the coffee will over extract. I've done tons of Bonavita "clever" immersion brews that go for 10 minutes as well, and find them quite good.

Here's Mark's video
And his blog.

https://markwjburness.wordpress.com/page/2/

TomC wrote:James always seems to be chasing a better and better French press brew. He shared this video earlier today and it seems to be rather simple and straightforward.

Thanks, Tom, for sharing with your HB friends. It's the cupper's french press.

Thank you Tom for sharing this great video. Never try french press before, got to buy one and try out.

Will give a chance to his two different suggestions which are new to me:
~ Medium grind
~ 9 min extraction

Though a skeptic, will dive in.

The medium grind idea has been around for a while but the 9 minute brew sets a new FP record. I think that George Howell's 6 minute steep was the longest in any FP recipe I'd seen prior to this. You'll need a Coffee Cozy or an insulated press pot if you want hot coffee.

I backed up and checked three times, thinking, did he just suggest a nine minute brew time??? Yep.

I am thinking now about this technique:
Medium grind
Water off boil
Set four minutes
Break crust and clean the top with spoons
Wait five minutes until cooler

It seemed familiar to me, ah, I remembered! this is exactly how I was taught to do cupping. Just adding the French press screen at the end.

Very nice cup this morning of Costa Rica Las Lajas. Thanks, James, Tom and Mill City. This might even bring my cupping up a notch.

I've been using a medium grind at work for a couple of years now with my Espro press and Aeropress. I grind with my Pharos. I settled on this grind through trial and error. It just tasted better than coarser. Although the Pharos is primarily an espresso grinder.

I always use a spoon to remove the crust, rather than mix it in and let it sink as James suggests.

There also was a time when I would let my press pot steep for 10 minutes or more, but that was when I only used a Hario slim and I was less methodical about my prep. I remember the brew getting sweeter beyond 4 minutes. But I haven't tried going longer for a while. So I'll try it today and see how it goes.