# Getting used to consuming and preparing coffee

I just started out with drinking and preparing coffee at home.

How I became a coffee drinker

Today I just want to write down some of my experiences so far.

Due to "Reasons (TM)", I have constrained myself to prepare my coffee using a French Press.

There are of course several other ways to accomplish this, but since there is no consent that this is a decidedly bad way for making coffee and I like the procedure how it's done, I will stick with it. For now. I am not saying that it is "the best" or "the one" way; it is just what I have chosen for myself.

From all the different brews that I produced over the last couple of months, I can deduce the following assertions, which hold true most of the time:

I prefer a dark roast over a light roast.

I prefer Canephora (aka Robusta) over Arabica.

I prefer a fine grind over a coarse one, despite the inevitable sludge that gets through the 'Press.

I pour the water boiling hot.

I prefer a somewhat extended steeping time over the proposed 4-and-a-half minutes.

I prefer to agitate the brew before letting it steep and before pushing the plunger.

I prefer to decaf my Arabica brews.

You're still with me? Good ;).

Most of the points above run pretty contrary to the recommendations you will find around the interwebs on preparing your coffee using a French Press. Let me elaborate on some of my findings.

Light vs. Dark roast

Use the dark roast for Espresso with a nice Crema, while the light roast brings out the natural acidity and finer flavours. Or so they say. I don't know. I have yet to find a light roast that doesn't taste like hot dog flavoured water to me. I certainly don't like overly acidic and sour tasting brews. The darker the roast, the more bitterness and "body" there is to counter the acidity.

Canephora vs. Arabica

Wherever you look, Arabica is always the preferred bean. It certainly is the more expensive one. Robusta is mostly cheap and thus disregarded by the "Baristas" of the world (a little tounge-in-cheek here, I don't want to offend anybody, really!). Try to find an Organic 100% Robusta - they're few and far between. Why is that? I certainly like them the most.

Fine vs. coarse grind

All the guides tell you to use a medium-coarse to coarse grind for the French Press. The obvious advantage is, that the coarse particles are properly held back by the sieve of the plunger, which is not as fine as a paper filter, for example. The other point is, that the grounds are fully immersed in water and take a longer time to steep, compared with a pour-over or fully automatic machine.

What I found is that the acids and sour flavours (which I don't like) get extracted right at the beginning of the brewing. The bitter flavours and those that are more to my liking are harder to extract and take longer to develop. A finer ground really helps with the tasty bitterness here, while a coarse grind does not inhibit the sourness in any meaningful way.

Boiling water

Don't pour boiling water over your grounds! Never ever!! The coffee will taste burned and bitter!!1!

Oh really? Well, I tell you what. The colder the water is, the more sour the coffee will taste. For my taste, everything below boiling will be too sour. I use a kettle to bring the water to a boil and wait until it automatically shuts off. I don't rush to get the water over to the grounds in an instant, but I don't wait until it stops bubbling either. A couple of seconds from shut-off 'til the water hits the grounds in the cold French Press. The water will lose several Centigrades at once when it makes contact with the cold glass anyway.

I don't see any problem here. Where's the difference to Mocca or Turkish Coffee, where you bring the whole brew to a boil, three times in a row? Granted, they add sugar afterwards (sometimes plenty), but I don't think that they complain about a burned taste.

Longer steeping time

Letting the brew steep for 8 to 10 minutes helps with extracting more flavours. It's not that the coffee tastes much better after 10 minutes compared to only 4 minutes, but it certainly doesn't get any more sour. Try to taste your coffee after steeping it for only a minute or two: it will taste sour already, and become more tasty the longer you let it steep.

I didn't try to let it sit for half an hour, because it will probably be cold by then - and where's the sense in that?

Takeaway message: There's no need for me to watch the timer and push the plunger after exactly 4'30"00''', because brewing coffee is not like the ripeness of an avocado ("not ripe yet; not ripe yet; still not ripe yet; nope; oh - now it's mush!").

Agitate the brew

Reading some of the instructions made me think that the coffee grounds are a pretty fragile thing. You carefully pour some water, give it a gentle stir, but not too much!, just so that all of it gets in contact with the water. Then give it 30 seconds to "bloom", carefully pour the rest of the water and don't touch the coffee cake swimming on top for the rest of the steeping time.

Yeah. Well. I pour some of the water (boiling hot, see above) and then vigorously swirl the sludge around to get it thoroughly mixed. Then I add the rest of the water, give it another swirl, and put the plunger on the Press (but don't plunge) to act like a lid and retain the heat. After about half a minute I'll give it another swirl, and then another one shortly before pushing the plunger down. All that agitating helps with extracting more of the flavours that I prefer, while at the same time make most of the coffee grounds sink to the bottom of the Press early on. This in turn makes it easier to push the plunger down, as you will have a hard time plunging with an inch-thick and firm coffee cake swimming on top. This is especially helpful with fine grounds (which I prefer).

Decaf?

Yes, you can manually decaffeinate your brew to some extent. Most of the caffeine will extract early on in the brewing process, right where the water hits the grounds. Coincidentally, caffeine is supposed to taste sour. So, to get rid off most of the caffeine and the sour taste, I initially pour only a little water, give it a thorough swirl (or stir, if you prefer), a couple seconds to bloom, and then I push the plunger and discard the first run of that water. Then I remove the plunger, add the rest of the water and proceed as usual.

The final coffee WILL taste a little weak, or "blah", but for me it makes all the difference between a cup that I can finish, versus one that I have to pour down the drain after the first two or three sips. Well, at least for all the Arabicas that I have tried so far.

Paradoxically, I don't have to decaf my favourite Robusta dark roast, although Robusta supposedly contains more caffeine (and less aroma) than Arabica. Seems like caffeine is not the only thing that makes coffee taste sour - or, there's enough bitter flavour in that Robusta to complement the caffeine for an overall good and balanced taste.

So much for now.

Any comments? Let me know:

gemini@preamp.org

preamp's gemlog on 2022-06-25,

still a sunny and warm saturday afternoon

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