After spoiling myself on coffee shop beverages, my post-college palette was too refined to accept K-Cups and pre-ground Community Coffee in my mom’s Mr. Coffee pot. I knew I had to start making my own coffee at home so I didn’t have to spend $5.00 on a good cup of coffee. How do they do it in the cafés? I thought, And what is an easy coffee maker that I can use without training?

Below I will share my journey of brewing at home as a beginner home-barista using a French Press. It was the very first of my brewers. Not only is it an easy coffee maker to use, but it is affordable. When I was straight-outta college, I couldn’t purchase an espresso machine outright. To begin, I will discuss equipment you might need to prepare for your at-home coffee bar. Now…onto the coffee!

Supplies

let’s talk beans

The first step to good coffee is finding a bean that you enjoy, one that is so tasty that it makes you close your eyes upon first sip. I love any of the roasts from Stumptown Coffee. Freshly-ground coffee always tastes better than pre-ground coffee. When you grind your own beans, just enough for the serving you need, you are extracting all of the wonderful flavors that bean offers. By grinding a whole bag, you’re forcing the beans to get rid of all their flavor, even as the bag sits in your pantry for the next couple of weeks! Nobody likes water-tasting coffee.

I’d recommend getting a small, affordable grinder (this is the simple one I use), and it will make all the difference in the taste of your coffee. Also…I don’t recommend buying so many bags of coffee that you can’t drink them, because a lot of coffee is sitting sadly in my pantry, waiting for me to drink it. So sad. I just like to be adventurous!

Please note that burr grinders produce a more accurate grind of coffee. If you want to start investing in the good stuff, start with one of those!

H2O

Obviously, you’ll need hot water to brew! When I began brewing with easy coffee makers at home, I just boiled some water in a pot on my stove. The instruction I was given, though I am not a trained barista, is to brew in your French Press and pour-overs with water that is right off of boiling. So you’ll let your water boil, take it off the heat, and then wait for the bubbling to stop. This method will probably not yield the best brew of coffee, as water too hot or too cool will not work as well.

Once you’re ready to invest in an electric kettle, absolutely DO IT! It is one of the most useful appliances in my kitchen. This version here is mine, but also check out Amazon’s prices on kettles. I would get one that has a goose neck as the spout, possibly with a thermometer. The long spout makes it easy for pouring, and is absolutely necessary to make pour-over coffee, which we will discuss with other brewing methods.

A kettle with a thermometer (digital or not) is helpful when brewing with specific brewers that recommend certain temperatures for a proper extraction from your freshly-ground beans. It also is useful in your kitchen when boiling water quickly, or heating to specific temperatures for delicate beverages such as tea leaves. For example, green teas can easily burn and become bitter if your water is too hot when steeping. Simply choose which kettle will be most useful for your personal kitchen!

scale

The most accurate way to measure the ratio of coffee:water, is to measure the weight of each ingredient (in grams). I found a small kitchen scale at Walmart for about $15.00 or so. It’s really handy to have for baking, too. Be careful not to mix metric and imperial systems of measurement! You don’t want to measure x ounces of water to y grams of coffee. Fluid ounces and liters are not interchangeable!

decanter

It’s always helpful to have something to serve or store your coffee in after it’s brewed. Invest in a small, tempered glass pitcher or carafe, especially when brewing with the French Press. I found this one on Amazon. If you have a few people over for coffee and want to brew a few pots to be prepared for refills, the decanter gives you that option.

Let’s brew, shall we?

French Press – Ooh la la!

My very first investment on my journey to Home Coffee Enlightenment (and also an easy coffee maker to learn) was a Bodum French Press. I bought the 4-Cup brewer, thinking it was going to give me 4 full mugs of coffee. Ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary friends, I was mistaken. One cup of coffee is equal to 6 fluid ounces. Not 8 ounces like a normal fluid cup. I believe this is because 6 ounces is one serving. I digress; but, please, invest in the 8 cup brewer. It is worth it!

step-by-step

1. Turn on your kettle or start boiling water on the stove (because this will take a while), before pulling out your coffee. This coffee pot is used to brew over coarse-ground coffee. It allows the coffee to give off enough flavor, but it also doesn’t float up around the filter. If you are getting your bag of coffee from the store and don’t own a grinder, try to find a place that sells whole bean coffee and also provides access to a coffee grinder where you can choose your grind size. I used to go to World Market!
2. Put your grounds into the French Press until your water is ready. The coffee-to-water ratio I researched was 1 tsp coffee to 1 Cup water. You can adjust this to your taste, of course. There are also recipe videos online that show you how much coffee and water to use by weight. (Here’s where you can use your scale.)
3. Pour enough water over the grounds to dampen them. The first pour is to wet all the grounds and let them “bloom,” or allow them to release their CO2 gases. With fresh beans, you’ll notice lots of bubbles and see the coffee come to life! After that rests for a few seconds, pour the rest of the water you plan to use into the pot. I like to stick my plunger/filter on top of the pot to keep in as much heat as possible.
4. DO NOT PLUNGE. Your coffee needs to sit here for 4 minutes to steep. Exactly 4–no less, no more.
5. Once time is up, then plunge! Do this slowly. The grounds are loose beneath the filter you are pushing down on top of them, and you are trying to catch them all slowly and bring them to the bottom.
6. (Optional) At this point, I would transfer the coffee into a tempered glass decanter (which means it can withstand high heats without cracking) for serving. I’ve served straight out of my pot, only because it is so small, but ideally you want to separate the coffee from the grounds beneath it. I’ve been told that the coffee will continue to steep and become bitter, but I’ve also read that once water becomes coffee, it is harder for the coffee to extract anything more from the grounds.

*Leave a comment below if you know whether or not the coffee in a French Press becomes stronger as it sits, already pressed!

enjoy!

Be proud of the coffee you just made–for it is one of the tastiest! A lot of the appearance and texture of your resulting cup of coffee depends on the brewer you use. What I’ve noticed about French Press coffee, is that it’s full-bodied, muddy, and strong. Just the slight orange color of the foam that sits around the edge of your mug, staining it for the next 10 years, is special. No K-Cup can achieve this level of mastery. Wasn’t it simple, too? Though this easy coffee maker might not be super quick, it eliminates the waste of K-cup packaging, and I can assure you that it will taste divine.

Now that you’ve had a taste of how easy brewing coffee at home can be, come back for the next installment where I give you the low-down on another at-home brewing method:: Easy Coffee Maker, Part 2: Chemex Coffee Brewer!