I've been talking to my boss about new ideas for the fall. And one of the topics that have come up is serving coffee in the french press
The question is...Does anyone here use french press' in your shop? And if so what do you generally charge for coffee for two? And if you do, any tips on serving with a press? I personally think this idea is awesome. You get to talk to your customers about flavours that different regions can produce. And slowly get your regulars into cupping. And just the idea on sitting down with friends and to relax with a great cup of joe.

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While I offer 12 & 32oz Press Pots to order don't sell many anymore. I charge $2.25 & $4.25 respectively served on wood platter with a 3 minute hourglass timer.

Don't sell many since ditching Airpots entirely and switching to 4 station Pour-Over for "house" coffee last November, from a coffee menu of usually about a dozen coffees.
I have sold French Press programs to many cafes in the past. I found that the 17oz size worked the best so I would suggest only selling that size and pricing should be based on what coffee you are selling. I would charge more for a Micro-lot Ethiopian than say a less expensive coffee from Peru. FP programs are a great way of educating your customers. Good luck.
From the consumer side, quite a few shops around here give the option to have coffee served in a french press. Two of them make their airpot coffee in presses as well. I've only bought them a few times (I use one at home so like to mix it up when I got out) and do not see many other customers drinking them either. The primary problem I have experienced is some shops use too large of presses, resulting in needing a lot of time to drink it or needing to bring a friend.
I agree with you on size, that's why I like the 17oz press.

Kevin said:
From the consumer side, quite a few shops around here give the option to have coffee served in a french press. Two of them make their airpot coffee in presses as well. I've only bought them a few times (I use one at home so like to mix it up when I got out) and do not see many other customers drinking them either. The primary problem I have experienced is some shops use too large of presses, resulting in needing a lot of time to drink it or needing to bring a friend.
Definitely go for it. If currently all you are serving for coffee of the day is drip, this will be a good transition to highlight different coffees, and have a brew to order option. Here are a few tips:

-Offer a small handful of your favorite offerings at a time (4-5).

-For the pricing, I would have that be dependent on the coffee itself. If you are paying more for a particular coffee, you should charge more. This opens the door for education. People don't think twice about why wine prices fluctuate at a high end restaurant...this is the direction we want people to start thinking about coffee.

-Offering brew by the cup will also give you the opportunity to serve a higher end coffee that you may not be able to afford to brew as a coffee of the day.

-The square mile video is a good starting point. But make sure to try out these variables yourself and come up with your own results. Play with the dosage, from coffee to coffee.

-Serve with a special touch. A nice tray, and a preheated cup, will bring the esthetic feel up. A lot of people prefer having the coffee to coffee press at there table where they can press it. If you do this make sure you have a timer and give them specific instructions.

Hope this helps. At our shop we are doing all french press for our coffee of the day and filtering into airpots. So if you have any further questions feel free to shoot a message and I'll try to help. Good Luck.
At the second (newest) location, we sell French Press's like their water. I have no clue what it is, but we seriously do about 5-6 an hour, on average. We stick with the 20oz size from Planetary Designs, which works out to about 16-17oz of actual liquor. Served with a heated mug, timer, and explanation about the coffee, and the process/benefits of the french press as well. Works out great! The pricing depends on the coffee, and ranges from $3.45 all the way up to $8 for some of our COE offerings.
Hey Chantelle, I've also been thinking about this marketing idea, but my idea is different.
I sell coffee, I'm not a barista, but we've been toying with the idea of selling a Costa Rican traditional cup of coffee. We provide the traditional chorreador, which you can check out different versions online, and our coffee, Cafe Don Vittorio. Email me if you're boss is interested. I'll talk to you about the traditional way of serving Costa Rican coffee!
I'm with you, I think this will sell, makes your customers come back for more!!
We have french press on our coffee menu, but it is not a big seller for us. We are in Melbourne, so 99% of the time people drink espresso based coffees when they are out. It is only really relevant to customers who drink a lot of high-end french press coffee at home (or work). As long as your staff know how to do brew and present it really well and can talk about the complexities of the coffee it can be a great sampling experience. It may be a more time intensive with the brewing, presenting & discussing process, but in my experience it is really worth spending quality time with those interested customers. Providing you do it right, the follow on effect is well worth the time investment. You want returning, passionate customers who will mention (and recommend) you to people they talk with.

So our French Press is part of our tasting menu, where we also have a 4 piccolo latte taster, and a 4 ceramic drip filter taster --- oh and I am about to add a 4 hot chocolate taster! YUM!
Thanks everyone for all your input. This monday I will be talking to the owner about all the information you guys gave me.
Hi Chantelle,
I offer only French pressed coffee as my coffee of the day. We put it in airpots and make it throughout the day. It is more work in a way but our customers love it. Our pressed coffee is between 1.50 and 2.00 per cup.
Julie
We do french press exclusively—we don't even own a drip-brew machine.

$1.70 for 12oz, $1.95 for 16oz, and our customers love it. As others have said, it really gives us a great way to show off all our different origins and blends.

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