Friday, February 19, 2010

French Press

I am now trying out my third coffee brewing device.

First I had a single cup brewer that I picked up on woot. It came with 2 travel mugs and the option to brew into one or both with the turn of a dial.
Pros: re-usable mesh filter and single cup brewing (DBF doesn't do coffee)
Cons: the travel mugs that had to be used with the machine were poorly insulated so I had to transfer the product to a different mug for consumption and transportation (more dishes and the base of one of the mugs was cracked) and the extraction was too fast despite multiple attempts using different grinds, quantities and spritzing the top of the grounds (it would only brew sex in a canoe coffee).

Then I dug out the camp coffee maker. It's a cone with a little filter basket on the bottom that the coffee grinds go into.
Pros: doesn't take up space on the counter, doesn't require an outlet, re-usable mesh filter basket and single cup brewing (do you see a pattern here?)
Cons: the extraction rate was too fast even when tightly packing the basket, wetting the basket, or trying different grinds (again, sex in a canoe coffee)

So I brought back my coffee press from Hawaii; it was a gift and I had never used it because both of my parents drink coffee so there was always drip coffee available in the morning. It's a small 12 oz Bodum Chambord.
Pros: doesn't take up space on the counter, doesn't require an outlet, doesn't need filters and single cup brewing
Cons: user error, I need to get better coffee

This is definitely not sex in a canoe coffee but better extraction means that better quality coffee is needed to avoid undesirable flavors.

Happy Eating! - KP

2 comments:

  1. I have two ways of making coffee at my house and one of them involves a french press that I also use at Pennsic. However, my usual coffee maker is the Michael Graves Design one with the big blue light in front. What convinced me to try it was that it had a removable (and washable) water resevoir and that it would produce two different strengths of coffee at a touch of a button. Yeah, it kind of looks like it should be called "Zul", but on the days I want a "chewier" coffee, I can have it and in a 12 cup quantity.

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  2. @bronx_baroness Thank you so much for being my first commenter and follower. I read some of the reviews and the Michael Graves Design drip coffee maker looks very tempting. I like that the water reservoir is removable, that it can be used with a reusable filter basket, that it's programmable and the price point is very appealing. A couple of my co-workers suggested that I get a Keurig since this is a single coffee drinker home but the K-Cups are bloody expensive and I am yet to meet somebody that uses their reusable cartridge. They all rave about how great the coffee is but it seems like a lot of counter and cabinet (for all the K-Cups that come with the unit) real estate for a one cup brewer.

    I'm going to give the French press a three month trial then decide if I'm a) going to keep drinking coffee (I had planned to quit in March but changed my mind again) b) will be drinking more than 2 cups a day c) can get over my "I won't drink coffee if it's more than two hours old" hang-up so I can brew a full pot and microwave cups as I want them. Why three months? I contemplated paying for a one year Pandora subscription but decided to try it on a month to month basis as I ran out of free hours; I stopped running out of free hours after three months.

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