How to Brew Coffee With a French Press: Ratio, Grind and Time

The French press is an immersion brewer. The grounds sit in the water the whole time, then a metal mesh pushes them to the bottom. That makes it forgiving and cheap, and it gives a heavier, oilier cup than drip coffee because no paper filter catches the oils.

Below is a starting recipe with amounts for every common press size, a troubleshooting table, and a straight answer on the cholesterol question. If you are brand new to brewing, our beginner home brewing lesson covers the basics that apply to every method.

What do you need to make French press coffee?

You need a French press, whole bean or coarsely ground coffee, hot water, and a timer. A kitchen scale and a burr grinder make the results far more consistent, but they are optional. A kettle with a thermometer helps you hit 195 to 205°F, though resting boiled water about 30 seconds gets you close.

• A French press in any size. Glass, steel and ceramic all brew the same way.
• Coffee, ideally whole beans you grind right before brewing.
• A burr grinder, which makes even, coarse particles. A blade grinder works in a pinch but makes more fine dust.
• A kettle. You don't need a gooseneck spout for this method.
• A digital scale that reads in grams, or a level tablespoon if you don't have one.
• A timer. Your phone is fine.

Use fresh, cold water, filtered if your tap water tastes of chlorine. The National Coffee Association recommends avoiding distilled or softened water, since coffee needs some minerals to taste right.

How much coffee do you use in a French press?

Start with 1 gram of coffee for every 15 grams of water, which is a 1:15 ratio. That is 24 grams of coffee for 12 ounces of water or 67 grams for 34 ounces. The National Coffee Association gives a range of 1:10 to 1:16, so go stronger or lighter to taste.

Weighing is the most reliable way to measure, because a tablespoon of coffee changes weight with roast level and grind. One gram of water is one milliliter, so you can also weigh the water straight into the press on the scale.

Tablespoon figures assume about 4 grams per level tablespoon of ground medium roast, as measured by Trade Coffee. Dark roasts weigh less per spoon, light roasts a little more.

Leave about an inch of space at the top of the press. The grounds float and form a crust, and you need room to stir. If you like a stronger cup, move toward 1:13 before you change anything else. If the coffee feels heavy and you'd rather drink it black in larger mugs, try 1:16.

How do you brew French press coffee, step by step?

Heat water to 195 to 205°F (90 to 96°C), add coarse coffee to the press, pour all the water, and start a 4-minute timer. Stir the crust at 1 minute, put the lid on, and press slowly at 4 minutes. Pour every drop into cups or a carafe right away so the coffee stops brewing.

1. Bring water to a boil, then let it rest off the heat for about 30 seconds. That drops it into the 195 to 205°F range. At high altitude water boils cooler, so you can pour it straight off the boil.
2. Warm the press with a splash of hot water and dump it out. This keeps the brew from losing heat into cold glass.
3. Weigh and grind your coffee coarse, then add it to the press. For a 17-ounce press, that is 33 grams.
4. Start your timer and pour all the water in, wetting every bit of the grounds. A crust will form on top within a minute.
5. At 1 minute, stir the crust gently with a spoon three or four times so the floating grounds sink and brew evenly.
6. Set the lid on with the plunger pulled all the way up. Let it steep for about 3 more minutes, for 4 minutes total.
7. Press the plunger down slowly and steadily. If it fights you hard, the grind is too fine.
8. Pour all the coffee out right away. Coffee left sitting on the grounds keeps extracting and turns bitter, which the National Coffee Association also warns about.

Stop pouring when you reach the last half inch. The bottom of the press holds the finest silt, and leaving it behind makes a cleaner cup.

What grind size works best for a French press?

Use a coarse grind, roughly the size of rock salt or coarse sea salt. Coarse particles brew evenly over 4 minutes and stay behind the mesh filter. Ground too fine, the coffee turns bitter, the plunger gets hard to push, and more sludge ends up in your cup.

A burr grinder is the best tool because it crushes beans to a consistent size. Blade grinders chop unevenly and make a mix of chunks and powder. The powder slips through the mesh and over-extracts, which is a common reason for a gritty, harsh press pot.

How fine is too fine?

If the plunger needs real force, or the coffee looks like mud at the bottom of your cup, go one or two steps coarser on your grinder. If the cup tastes thin and sour even after a full 4 minutes, go one step finer. Change the grind in small steps and keep everything else the same so you know what made the difference.

Pre-ground supermarket coffee is usually ground for drip machines, which is medium. It works in a press, but expect more silt and a slightly more bitter edge. Shorten the steep to about 3 minutes to help.

How do you fix French press coffee that tastes wrong?

Most bad French press cups trace back to grind size, steep time or a ratio that drifted. Bitter and harsh usually means too fine or too long. Sour and thin means too coarse, too short or water that is too cool. Muddy means fines, so grind coarser and leave the last half inch in the press.

Change one thing per brew. If you change the grind and the ratio at once, you won't know which one helped.

Which coffees taste best in a French press?

Coffees with chocolate, caramel and nut notes and a medium to dark roast tend to shine in a French press, because the method keeps the oils that give a heavy, rounded body. Light, fruity coffees work too, but their bright, delicate notes can feel muted next to that heavier texture.

For a classic press cup, Partners Coffee Brooklyn Blend is a medium roast of Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras, and the roaster lists creamy cocoa, toffee and dried fruit. Peace Coffee Birchwood Breakfast Blend is another easy medium roast, with roaster notes of bittersweet chocolate, honey and cedar. If you drink your coffee with milk, the Coffee Bros. Dark Roast blends natural and wet-hulled beans from Brazil and Indonesia, with listed notes of dark chocolate, creamy caramel and maple syrup.

For fruit from your press, try the Coffee Bros. Ethiopia Daye Bensa, a light natural from Sidama with caramel, fresh apple and peach on the roaster's list. You can browse more options on our coffee explorer, but check the roast level first. In our look at 124 coffees, 35% of listings didn't publish one.

Is French press coffee bad for your cholesterol?

French press coffee contains more cafestol and kahweol than filtered coffee. These natural oils, called diterpenes, can raise blood cholesterol. Harvard Health reports that unfiltered coffee has about 30 times more of them than paper-filtered coffee. How much that matters depends on how much you drink and your own health.

Researchers at Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands reviewed the evidence in 1996 and found that cafestol and kahweol raise serum cholesterol in people, that paper-filtered and instant coffee contain little of them, and that the effect fades after people stop drinking unfiltered coffee. An observational study published in 2020 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology linked filtered coffee with better outcomes than unfiltered coffee, though an observational study can't prove cause and effect.

If your doctor is watching your LDL cholesterol, ask whether to keep French press as an occasional treat and make paper-filtered coffee your daily cup. Pouring the pressed coffee through a paper filter is a simple middle ground, since paper is what traps these oils.

How do you clean a French press?

Clean the whole press after every use, including taking apart the plunger and washing the mesh filter. Old grounds and coffee oil build up in the screen and make the next pot taste stale and bitter. A quick rinse is fine day to day, with a full take-apart wash every few brews.

• Add a little water to the spent grounds, swirl, and pour them into the trash or compost. Grounds can clog sink drains.
• Unscrew the mesh, spring plate and cross plate, and wash them in warm, soapy water.
• Check the mesh for bends or gaps. A damaged screen lets grounds into the cup and is cheap to replace.
• Let every part dry fully before you put the press back together.

Frequently asked questions