French press
Also called a cafetière or a plunger
A French press brews by immersion: coarse grounds sit in hot water for a few minutes, then a plunger with a metal mesh filter pushes them to the bottom of the pot. The mesh lets coffee oils and very fine particles through, so the cup is fuller-bodied and slightly cloudier than filter coffee.
At a glance
- In the cup
- Coffee and water, strained through metal mesh
- Grind
- Coarse
- Method
- Steep, then press
- Body
- Heavy, with a little sediment
Is the French press actually French?
Partly. Two French inventors, Mayer and Delforge, patented a plunger device in 1852, but Barista Hustle’s history of the brewer found no evidence that their design was ever produced.
Source: The History of French Press, Barista Hustle
The design most presses still follow comes from Milan. Ugo Paolini’s coffee press — a vessel with a piston-like filter held in place by a spring — was filed in Italy in 1928 and in the United States in 1929, with the rights assigned to Attilio Calimani and Giulio Moneta. The US patent was granted in 1931.
Sources: US1797672A: Apparatus for preparing infusions, particularly for preparing coffee, Google Patents (1931); The History of French Press, Barista Hustle
Why does French press coffee taste heavier?
Only a mesh stands between the grounds and the cup, so the coffee’s oils come through with it. Those oils carry diterpenes such as cafestol, which Harvard’s Nutrition Source says can raise LDL cholesterol; filtered coffee contains almost none. Pouring the finished press through a paper filter removes them if that matters to you, at the cost of some of the body.
Source: Coffee, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, The Nutrition Source
Read next
Brewing at home? The map can narrow to cafés that sell beans.
Open the map