French press coffee: ratio, grind and timing

A good French press ratio is about one part coffee to sixteen parts water. Sofía's recipe, the one she uses for our coffee at home, is 55 g of coarsely ground coffee to 900 g of water at 203°F, steeped for four minutes. That fills a standard 34 oz (1 liter) press and gives about three 8 oz cups.

The rest of this page covers the three things that decide whether a press tastes rich or muddy: the grind, the crust and what you do after you press.

The ratio for your size of press

Presses come in a few common sizes. Keep the ratio near one to sixteen and scale the coffee to the water:

• A small 12 oz press takes about 20 g of coffee and 330 g of water.
• A 17 oz press takes about 30 g of coffee and 480 g of water.
• A 34 oz press takes Sofía's full recipe, 55 g of coffee and 900 g of water.

If you want it stronger, add coffee rather than steeping longer. Going to one part coffee to fourteen parts water makes a heavier cup without the bitterness that a long steep brings. If it is too strong, add hot water to the mug afterward.

Weigh if you can. Scoops of ground coffee vary a lot with the grind and the bean, and our guide to the coffee to water ratio has conversions for when you cannot.

Grind coarse

A French press grind should look like coarse sea salt, with pieces you can see clearly one by one. There are two reasons.

The filter is a metal mesh, and fine particles slip straight through it into your cup as silt. Fine coffee also brews faster, so in four minutes a fine grind turns bitter and makes the plunger hard to push.

Go too coarse and the opposite happens: the water cannot reach enough of the coffee in four minutes, and the cup tastes thin and a little sour. A burr grinder helps here because it makes pieces of a similar size. A blade grinder makes a mix of dust and chunks, and the dust ends up at the bottom of your mug. Our grind size guide describes every setting by what it looks like.

Step by step

1. Heat your water to 203°F (95°C). Without a thermometer, use water that stopped boiling a few moments ago.
2. Warm the empty press with a little hot water, then pour it out.
3. Grind 55 g of coffee, tip it into the press and set the press on your scale. Zero it.
4. Start a timer and pour in all 900 g of water within about 30 seconds, making sure every ground is wet. Put the lid on with the plunger pulled up, to hold the heat in.
5. Leave it for four minutes. The grounds float and form a thick crust on top.
6. At 4:00, lift the lid and break the crust with a spoon. Stir gently across the surface and most of the grounds will sink.
7. Scoop off the foam and the few grounds still floating. Two spoons make this easy.
8. Put the lid back on and press slowly and steadily. It should take about 20 seconds and very little force.
9. Pour all of the coffee out straight away, into mugs or a thermal carafe.

If the plunger fights you, stop. Forcing it pushes grounds around the edge of the mesh and can spray hot coffee out of the spout. Next time grind coarser.

The coffee writer James Hoffmann made a slower version popular: after skimming, wait another five minutes or so before pressing, and push the plunger down only to the top of the liquid. The fine particles settle to the bottom in that time, and the cup comes out cleaner. It is worth trying on a slow weekend.

Why you pour it all off

Pressing does not stop the brew. The plunger only holds the grounds at the bottom, and they are still sitting in hot coffee. Leave a second cup in the press for twenty minutes and it will taste noticeably more bitter and drying than the first.

So pour everything into mugs or a warmed thermal carafe as soon as you press. Leave the last spoonful in the press, since that is mostly silt.

Why a press tastes heavier than pour over

A paper filter holds back the coffee's oils and nearly all the fine particles. A metal mesh lets both through. That is where a French press gets its fuller, rounder body, and it is also why there is always a little sediment at the bottom of the cup.

Which roasts suit a French press

Medium and dark roasts are the easiest match. Their sweetness and body fit the way a press brews, and they forgive a grind that is a little uneven.

Our medium roast from Colombia is the one we would reach for first. Rosa grows it at La Cumbre in Huila at 1,850 meters, washed Pink Bourbon and Caturra, and it has hints of red cherry, panela, cacao nib. Its product page suggests a French press on a slow morning. Our dark roast from Guatemala makes a heavier press with hints of toasted almond and brown sugar.

Light roasts work too, though the extra body can blur their fruit. If a light roast tastes sour in a press, grind one step finer before you change anything else.

A 12 oz bag holds 340 g, which is six full liter presses at Sofía's recipe.

Keep the mesh clean

Oils build up in the mesh screen and turn stale, and you will taste them in the next pot. Unscrew the plunger every week or two and wash each piece in warm soapy water.