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Permalink Reply by Alexa Baehr on May 15, 2008 at 10:52am

It's a cafe o' lay if you add steamed milk to a drip coffee. It's also damn tasty! We use a Clover coffee brewer at the cafe I work at. It makes single cup, by the cup, coffees. It's way slower, and costs more than your average cup of drip, but it's like the difference between the $4 dollar bottle of wine, and the $25 bottle...

You are right about the error possibility, I've heard some crazy ways people french press a coffee... Anywhere from putting an espresso grind in the press pot, letting it sit for lengths of time, overfilling the pot, to stirring it for the entire 4 minutes (are you kidding me?..) of extraction time.... Yikes!...

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Permalink Reply by Kayakman on May 15, 2008 at 11:41am

I have never used the clover... but I heard Starbucks bought it and will not longer share it. I am searching for a second option of a "long coffee" other than an americano or drip... this is why im starting to experiment with the French Press.

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Permalink Reply by Stickman on May 15, 2008 at 8:50pm

Cafe au lait is from French and it means roughly the same as con leche and latte. Essentially they're all coffees and milk.
in French the word a is a preposition meaning to, at, in, or on. Add the le (as in le lait or the milk) and it becomes au so an au lait is, grammatically and probably simply coffee on milk or on milk. But in order for us to pour art we know it needs to be milk on coffee!
Blah blah blah, right! My point is just that you'll never get an espresso with pressed coffee but you will get some awesome body to your brew - way more body than with a Clover, IMHO. Add milk and you'll get a well-bodied coffee with milk.

Check out Bodum's Columbia series. It's what we use in our shop (no drip) and because they're stainless steel we haven't had to replace one since we switched from the 1.5 litre Chambords.

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Permalink Reply by Alexa Baehr on May 16, 2008 at 5:38pm

single origins typically work best in a press, but you can try blends also.

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Permalink Reply by Brady on May 16, 2008 at 7:38pm

I don't know about that - I've tried with a pretty wide variety of beans and not been disappointed. I love a lighter-roasted Guatemala this way, as well as a darker funkier sumatra. The sediment screen was key here - the Guat was not all that great when masked by that silty-muddy flavor, but that flavor was less objectionable with the darker or roastier-flavored ones.

I know that different beans will require slightly different methods - dose, time, temp, etc to shine in the press. Maybe it requires a bit of experimentation.

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Permalink Reply by Kayakman on May 16, 2008 at 11:26pm

thanks for the advice... i guess i need to learn better how to treat each type of bean in the press to get the best results. so far i have had a higher level of success the lighter roasts

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Permalink Reply by Peter Tam on May 17, 2008 at 9:59am

I guess, the dripped coffee, during the time from press pot to other containers, it exposed to air and so it gets stale very soon.

In general, I understand it as the following.

French press is all hand operated and so it can be managed to make perfect "drip coffee". It is still a drip coffee, some way different from the drip coffee made in other tools. While for other tools, there are always some limitation and the coffee may be made with some problems. In principle, if one can make everything perfectly fit, the drip coffee can be made all the "same" in terms of any tools.

As two different coffee drinks, drip coffee or french pressed coffee cannot be compared to espresso. The original comparation was made between pressed coffee and caffe americano, which is a replacement in a cafe where no drip coffee is available for the people who would drink only drip coffee. For those cafes, where they have drip coffee, caffe americano in fact is really not a must, or better to say is not necessary to serve.

Back to the advantages of french pressed coffee, it can better show the typical and enjoyabloe tastes of those qualified beans from different countries. If one put a lot of milk, and otherthings, like syrups, one cannot enjoy those good tastes again from such a drip coffee. When the advantafes are lost, their disadvantages are shown, that is too soft and week tastes.

I do believe that the improvement and creation is good, but one has to know the traditions well, to avoid too much mistakes. I do not mean that the traditions are all good, but we have to know where and why it is wrong.

The above can be different from normal understanding, but is only our understanding.

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Permalink Reply by Kayakman on May 17, 2008 at 1:28pm

I would disagree with your understanding for a number of reasons.

First, you seem to be using the term "drip coffee" too generally, to cover almost everything that is not espresso. This is not accurate all! There are many different types of brewing besides espresso, each yields totally different results.

At the same time, I would agree with you that the Américano is meant for those who do not wish to drink a coffee concentrate drink like espresso or espresso mixed with milk. The problem is that when mixing espresso with hot water the results are not always that great. While the espresso mixes well with milk, it does not mix as well with hot water.

In my opinion, the worse option after the Américano is the "drip" method of brewing. From my experience, this type of coffee is often lacks depth of flavor.

Because the grounds and the water stay together for a much longer amount of time, the French Press, offers a more full body flavor than the "drip" method or brewing. It also yields a smother end result than the Américano.

As far as mixing the coffee made from the French Press with milk, this needs to be done using different % than with espresso. Far less milk or steamed milk should be used. Cafe au lait need not be mostly milk with weak tasting coffee if prepared correctly.

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Permalink Reply by elaine on May 17, 2008 at 4:33pm

I haven't gotten to read through all the replies- but as a response to your very first question (and I think others would agree) I believe that a French Pressed Single Origin (especially a Guat/El Sal/or some Natural Processed coffees) is perfect alone. French presses, arguably, are specialty coffee beverages without the addition of milk or any other ingredient.

To create a recipe, though, that carefully and subtly complements the flavors of a varietal would be fun- but I wouldn't serve FP that way without first offering it to a customer as is.
Steven, a barista in our cafe, found that green tea and Rwanda Humure (actually just as flat-bottom drip) go beautifully together. It'd be something along those lines.. but long live the traditional french press.

Also, I promote the preparation of French Press ONLY in a cafe setting- ie shunning Fetco and Urns in favor of freshly pressed coffees. Just a thought, there.

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Permalink Reply by Kayakman on May 18, 2008 at 12:17am

I really like your statement "French presses, arguably, are specialty coffee beverages without the addition of milk or any other ingredient", and also, "To create a recipe, though, that carefully and subtly complements the flavors of a varietal would be fun- but I wouldn't serve FP that way without first offering it to a customer as is."

I agree with you on both of those points!

At Stickman's coffeehouse they do serve FP specialty drinks (back a page). He had this to say, "One drink we serve that deviates from the standard cup of pressed coffee is what we call a Con Leche - it's half a cup of coffee served with steamed milk on top. The result is similar to an Africano or Boona or Americano-Misto but with milder flavour. It does let the single origin flaves come out and I really enjoy this drink with medium-roasted Yemen mocca sanani."

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Permalink Reply by Brady on May 18, 2008 at 6:01am

Yeah, I think that those statements pretty well capture the objective.

I've seen a definition somewhere of a "traditional" Cafe' au' lait as being double-strength coffee from a french press combined with an equal part of steamed milk. I guess one could always go this route to avoid overly diluting the flavors of the coffee in the finished drink.

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Permalink Reply by Kayakman on May 18, 2008 at 2:17pm

I just reworded the questions in the French Press thread. Hopefully it will be more clear what I am asking.

PLEASE REREAD THE OPENING STATEMENT TO THIS TREAD AGAIN.

If you did not understand what I asking before, please feel free to offer your comments now.

Thanks for comments so far!!

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