TIL my old French press method was secretly ruining every cup

I finally looked up what the guy at Blue Bottle in San Francisco told me back in 2018, something about the plunger screen needing a 4 minute steep before pressing. Turns out I was doing 2 minutes and blaming my beans this whole time, even swapped roasters 3 times in Portland thinking that was the issue. The coffee world moves fast with all these new gadgets but the basics still got me, you know? Anyone else hang onto a bad routine for way too long before fact-checking it?

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1 Comment

averymartin18d agoMost Upvoted

Hold on, is a 2 minute vs 4 minute steep really "ruining" every cup? I get that it changes the flavor, but unless your coffee tastes like battery acid, it's still drinkable. People act like brewing coffee is brain surgery these days. I've had great cups from a 30 second press and garbage from a perfectly timed one, it all depends on the beans and water temp anyway. Honestly, the bigger issue might be that you spent years blaming different roasters instead of just tweaking your own process. But if the 4 minute steep makes you happy, cool, just don't act like you discovered a cheat code for life.