Cafetière Brew Guide

How to make cafetiere coffee

When to use:
The cafetière, or french press, is one of the most popular methods of brewing fresh coffee at home. Its simple design makes it easy to use and it can be one of the cheapest ways to yield a fantastic coffee with very little effort.

Cafetière is one of the few methods that keeps the grounds sitting in the water, known as steeping.  Whilst we think it is suitable for most of our coffees, it tends to result in a full bodied cup with more oils than a paper filter. With this in mind, some of our more delicate or fruity coffees such as our columbian roast are better suited to a brew method such as Aeropress or V60.

How much coffee:
16g for 250ml, 30g for 500ml cafetière, 60g for a 1L cafetière.

Grind size:
8mm, coarse sand, almost grit. Coarser than filter

How long to brew:
2 to 4 minutes

How to brew:

  1. Boil your kettle and use some of the water to heat up the cafetière.
  2. Weigh out the correct amount of coffee, 60g to a litre is a good ratio to start on.
  3. Grind the coffee as indicated above, normally the consistency of coarse sand.
  4. Ensure the cafetière is empty of water and add the grinds. Never use water that is still boiling as this will burn the coffee, wait a minimum of thirty seconds to cool to the correct temperature.
  5. Pour in 1/3 of your hot water and leave for approximately 30 seconds, allowing the coffee to release its CO2 (bloom). Then add the remaining 2/3 of water and stir.
  6. Start a timer for three minutes (our preferred time). Whilst you wait, procure yourself two soup spoons or similar.
  7. When the timer finishes, use the two spoons to push the top layer of grinds (crust) into the water, wait a moment for them to settle, then skim them from the top of the coffee and discard.
  8. Place the plunger on the cafetière and slowly plunge, if it's hard to push the plunger down, you may have ground the coffee too fine. Loosen it up for next time.
  9. Pour the brewed coffee and enjoy. Never let it sit in the cafetière with the grounds as it will over-brew and become bitter, always decant into another container.

Why we like it:
A cafetière is one of the cheapest and easiest devices to use for making fresh coffee at home.  It’s perfect for a special occasion with a small group and using an hourglass egg timer to measure the brew time can add a bit of fun.  But, it is messy and fiddly to clean, especially as the filter needs to be dismantled to be cleaned thoroughly.