The Coffee Plunger (also known as a French Press) has got to be one of the most popular coffee brewing devices for home use in the entire world, and for good reason.
With designs dating back to 1852, a time when getting Naked meant something totally different, this piston-like coffee brewer has stood the test of time.
Praised for it’s simple and easy to use design, it still has the ability to make large volumes of coffee quickly, and first thing in the morning that is exactly what most people are looking for; lots of coffee and FAST.
This humble device can be looked down upon by some coffee aficionados, criticized for its inability to properly filter all the coffee which leaves a muddy, unappealing mouth feel and flavor (don’t worry, read on and you won’t have this problem).
Why I Fell In Love With Plunger Coffee
I myself was guilty of turning my coffee snob nose up at the humble coffee plunger for many years. That all changed when my wife and I found ourselves in the unenviable situation of having two kids under the age of three who appeared to have an aversion to sleep (i don’t know how they do it without coffee!)
Under the captivity of these small humans and a heavy load of sleep deprivation, the desire to make a ton of coffee pronto re-ignited my love of the Plunger. Over this blossoming underslept love affair, I'd discovered a few solutions to the filtering issue, which I have outlined below.
We’ve created a simple and easy to follow recipe that will hopefully help you get the most out of your coffee plunger, your epic Naked Espresso filter roast, and most importantly your morning routine.
How To Make A Great Plunger Coffee
Tools and Equipment
- Plunger
- Scales if you have them otherwise a table spoon to measure.
- Kettle Coffee grinder
- Timer
- We recommend 30g or 2 tablespoons of Naked espresso filter roast coffee, and 500g of water. Feel free to scale to fit your sized plunger.
Method
- Clean your filter. The metal filter quickly traps small coffee particles. Whilst rinsing the filter under water gets the majority of grind off the filter, it will likely not be enough to clean it thoroughly, we suggest unscrewing the filter from the piston shaft to separate the filter into three sections. This will make it much easier to clean. You will be surprised to find out how dirty this filter gets and how keeping it clean can improve the taste of your brews.
- Boil enough water to fill your plunger twice. This recipe calls for 1 litre of water in the kettle.
- Pour boiled water into the empty French press to preheat it. Discard the water.
- Place 30 grams of ground coffee into the French press. The Plunger typically is best with a coarse grind size similar to that of brown sugar.
- Start a timer and whilst pouring 500mls of water into the French press make sure to saturate all the ground coffee. The idea is to have no dry looking coffee float to the top.
- After four minutes of brewing, take a tablespoon and gently break the crust of coffee that has formed on the top of the brew. You should notice any coffee that was still at the top of the brew start to slowly sink to the bottom.
- All that should remain now is a thin oily layer of coffee on top of the brew. Take the spoon and gently discard this top layer into your sink. This oily layer does not taste particularly good. Feel free to try it for yourself, and you will soon realise what we’re talking about. The course metal filter doesn't do a great job of filtering this out, hence the need to remove it with a spoon.
- Insert the filter and gently push down. Decant and enjoy!
