Blade Grinders and French Press

Thanks or filling out our Better Coffee questionnaire. I can definitely help you make better coffee.

It seems you’re at a similar place to where I found myself years ago on my coffee journey. People told me that French Press was an excellent way of brewing coffee, so I bought one, and didn’t like the results. I started doing research, and figured out what the problem was: the blade grinder.

Blade grinders aren’t really coffee grinders; they are spice mills. They’ve been marketed as coffee grinders because they are cheap and simple. But what you really need is a burr grinder. This will make the biggest difference in your coffee. Nothing is more crucial than getting the proper grind size, and a burr grinder is adjustable so that coffee will be ground to a consistent size. For French Press, you want to grind coarse- maybe the size of sesame seeds or a tad smaller. 

Tips on brewing: I like to use around 60 grams of coffee for a 32 ounce press. Grind just before brewing. Use water that is 200ºF. Fill up, wait 2 minutes and then stir. Put on the lid and wait another two minutes, and press. It’s best if you decant it after this so the fines in the bottom don’t continue to extract and make the coffee bitter. We pour ours through a metal filter just to get out as much sediment as possible. 

If you’d like to purchase a burr grinder, this is an excellent entry-level: DoubleShotCoffee.com

A scale and a thermometer are also important, if you don’t have one.

We have an amazing Ethiopian coffee right now: Worka Sakaro anaerobic natural.