Let me start by saying, I'm a junkie. I appreciate things such as a 100% Kona or a select production roast from Costa Rica as much as I can appreciate Burger King coffee. I just LIKE coffee and it's flavor.
That being said, I've been looking into some FP's, and I ran into an interesting...dilemma. All presses seem to follow the same core design and have acceptable parts (stainless screen/plunger, rubber seal ring and skirt, moderate thickness safety glass body), so what separates that $20 press from Target/Walmart from the $100+ press that I can get at a specialty shop?
I literally looked both over, and other than semantics and aesthetics, it's all the same to my engineering mind. Is it just one is more durable?
Second thought, I looked all over the net, some coffee books, and here, but I never found a definite answer. How hot should the water be? Fresh off the boil, steaming hot but not boiling? Some websites were saying a full rolling boil, while others said hot but not boiling. Seems water that's too hot will kill some of the flavors.
Third, why the hell do I drink so much coffee?
