The French Press

My sweet friend, Sharity, asked about making coffee in a French press. 

This is all you need! 

I love coffee, good coffee that is.  I've used an automatic drip coffee maker for the last couple of years.  Before that I used my lovely press.  Why I got out of the habit, I don't remember.  It just happened that one day that I wanted to use the automatic feature of the automatic coffee maker.  I was in love with the idea of waking up to the sound of coffee brewing and then that faint whiff of coffee floating up the stairs to my bedroom!  (Yes, I do really love coffee that much.) 

Anyway, I recently rediscovered my French press.  (So glad I did not give it away.) Oh, what joy!  I really did miss it's rich, deep, almost chocolate-like flavor.  However, let me say, if you are not a coffee snob, you're probably better off just using your old drip coffee maker because there is a huge difference in taste that you might not appreciate.  :-) 

To make about two 8-12 oz. cups of coffee in the French press, I first heat the water in the kettle, and coarse grind my espresso beans in the grinder.  I put the ground coffee in the brew pot, about 1/2 cup of coffee.  Pour the hot water over the grounds.  Put the lid on the press and set my timer for 4 minutes.  When the timer goes off, I press down on the plunger and serve the coffee.

One thing I noticed is that when I have regular brewed coffee, I need a lot of cream.  When I drink pressed coffee, I use a lot less.  It just tastes so good that I don't need as much sugar or cream. 

Do you press or drip?  Or *gasp* not at all? 
~Jenn