My First French Press
 

Just a cheap $20 Bodem, but it did make a mean cup of coffee. I was a little disappointed however, on the box it said 8 cup, so being the literalist that I am, I thought it was 8 cups, well apparently to Bodem, a cup is only 4oz. Over all however, the process was very simple, boil water, add grounds, add water, wait, press, enjoy. Plus as an added bonus, it's frothy!

http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/DSC00153.jpg

Re: My First French Press
 

You never forget your first French! :D

Nice press. Enjoy GREAT coffee now.

Re: My First French Press
 

Love me some french press. Best way to make coffee:2

Re: My First French Press
 

I've been using a drip maker with a gold plated filter, still got all the oils, loved the coffee, just could never get it strong enough. Now I'm happy, strong, smooth, frothy...yummy! :tu

Re: My First French Press
 

Well, depending on the drip machine it probably wasn't getting hot enough anyways. Now you're at 212 when you pour over so you get maximum oily goodness out of them beans!

Re: My First French Press
 

I guess I'd have never thought that made a difference. Our water out of the tap is to hot to handle, but your saying still boil and use that for maximum oilation?

Re: My First French Press
 

TEmp depends on brew time as well. A great temp ratio is 195-205 water and about a 5-6 minute brew time. Out of a drip machine, these specs can yield a pretty decent cup o joe.

We had a few machines (mr. coffee, krups a cuisanart) that we did a test with against the Capresso m500 we had just bought. Each of the cheaper guys had about a 155-165 temp whereas the Capresso was 200 in the basket and 190 going into the pot. Time for a full brew was 6 minutes. Great smooth coffee out of that drip machine.

I don't know all the science behind it, but do know temp & time are important factors. We are back to a $19 cheapo drip now after losing the capresso in the fire and have not had a good cup of coffee since. Plus it takes 15 minutes to brew a bitter pot of coffee now. :(

coffeegeeks dot com can teach you tons about the dark coffee bean goodness

Re: My First French Press
 

Good info!
Bummer man, sorry to hear about the fire.

Re: My First French Press
 

What Beans did you use?

Re: My First French Press
 

Local coffee house, La Java, it's called, Packer Blend. Yeah...I live in Green Bay.

Re: My First French Press
 

I went from a Keurig to a french press and now to cold brewed coffee...hate to even think about going back to the french press. Cold brewed=:banger

Re: My First French Press
 

I'm closing my eyes and not reading this post. I have no freakin' clue what cold brewed even is. I just got into French press, no way in hell I'm gonna start researching another way to make coffee!

Re: My First French Press
 

"8 cups" ...:r:r more like two mugs, or one BFM (big farkin mug) like mine...
Enjoy, the french press is my mainstay, one at home and one at work...:tu

Re: My First French Press
 

Good move. That bodum will give you better coffee than 90% of people will ever get at home. It's funny how some of the greatest coffee comes from some of the cheapest equipment.

Re: My First French Press
 

It's really easy...get one of these. Cold brewing is said to reduce acidity of coffee by 2/3.

http://www.amazon.com/Toddy-T2N-Cold...0578869&sr=8-1

Basically, you just let the grounds/water soak for ~ 12 hours and filter it into the glass. It's a concentrate and you add water to each cup. Give it a try...

Re: My First French Press
 

LA LA LA LA LA LA LA
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VoTMOdI9ad...ak+no+evil.jpg

Re: My First French Press
 

mmm french press

Re: My First French Press
 

Congrats on the French Press. I love using mine but the coffee never really ends up hot enough for me.

I googled about cold brewing yesterday after reading this thread and decided to try it. I just used a pitcher, a carafe, and some coffee filters. After about 18 hours I came up with some fantastic brew. It has so much more flavor with no bitterness whatsoever. I think next time I'll save some time and effort and just cold brew in the French Press for easier filtering.

Re: My First French Press
 

Care to give a step by step?

Re: My First French Press
 

I placed 1 part freshly ground coffee to 3 or so parts room temperature filtered water in a pitcher, stirred it all up to be sure all of the grounds were wet, put the lid on, and let it sit over night on the dining room table for about 18 hours. Instructions I found said to let it sit anywhere from 12-24 hours depending on desired strength. After 18 hours I rubber banded a coffee filter to the carafe (French Press) and would occasionally fill up the filter and let gravity do the rest. When I noticed the filter barely dripping I would gently hand squeeze it and replace it with a different filter. I did this about four times. Last, I rinsed the pitcher and transferred the contents from the carafe to the pitcher.

Next time I will simplify by using the same coffee to water ratio, but I'll just do the whole darned thing in the French Press and transfer it over to the pitcher afterward for storage. I may run it through a paper filter after the press or I may not.

The end result is very concentrated, sort of like espresso. It can be warmed up or drank cold but should be diluted. I tried it heated, cool, and iced, each time with 1-2 parts 2% milk. I like it all three ways and will experiment some more in the future. Everything I read says it will stay fresh and untainted for up to two weeks in the fridge, unlike traditional brew.

Please excuse the grammar and sentence structure right now. It's bed time. Enjoy, I know I will. :)