Cafetière (French Press)
Full-immersion brewer with a metal mesh plunger.
Simple, brews for several people at once, and produces a fuller-bodied cup.
How to use a French press
A French press and a cafetière are the same device. This guide mirrors our cafetière guide, which is the main version of the page.
A French press — cafetière in the UK, press pot elsewhere — brews by full immersion. Grounds and water steep together, then a mesh plunger holds the grounds down while you pour.
It is the most forgiving brewer there is: no filter papers, no pouring technique, and it scales easily to several cups.
- Ratio
- 60–70 g per litre
- Grind
- Coarse
- Steep
- 4 minutes
Step by step
- 1
Preheat the press
Rinse the glass jug with hot water and tip it away so the brew does not lose heat to cold glass.
- 2
Dose and grind coarse
As a starting point use 60 g of coffee per litre of water (about 15 g of coffee to 250 ml) — the ratio range published by the Specialty Coffee Association for filter coffee — then adjust to taste. Grind coarse — like coarse sea salt. Too fine and the plunger clogs and the cup turns silty.
- 3
Pour all the water at once
Use water just off the boil (about 93–96C) and saturate all of the coffee in one pour, starting the timer as you go.
- 4
Break the crust at one minute
Stir the floating crust back into the brew with a spoon so every ground is extracting evenly.
- 5
Steep to four minutes
Fit the lid, plunger up, and wait. Four minutes total is the standard; a minute longer gives a heavier, more bitter cup.
- 6
Plunge gently, then decant
Press down slowly and evenly, then pour out the whole jug immediately so the coffee stops extracting.
Decant straight away — never leave coffee on the grounds.
Tips
- For a cleaner cup, skim the foam and floating grounds off after the stir instead of plunging them down.
- Cold brew works in the same brewer: same coarse grind, 1 part coffee to 8 parts cold water, 12–18 hours in the fridge, then plunge.
- Glass jugs crack with sudden temperature changes — warm the jug before pouring boiling water in.
What you need
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Comandante C40 MK4
Premium German-made manual grinder with high-nitrogen steel burrs.
The benchmark hand grinder for pour-over; excellent grind uniformity and built to last.
Coffee Scale with Timer
Digital scale with 0.1 g precision and an integrated brew timer.
Lets you follow roaster recipes exactly and repeat a great cup.
See the full list on our coffee gear page, and buy beans direct from UK specialty roasters.