French press, also known as press pot or coffee press, is one of the simplest devices for home coffee making. If you use high quality, fresh roasted and ground just before brewing coffee beans, you will gain the highest quality black coffee, which you won't have to be ashamed of, even in front of elegant guests.

In my previous articles I wrote about making coffee with classic devices like Bialetti percolator, Chemex, or Aeropress (which is known for roughly 10 years, but it's already considered a classic). The last one remaining is the "French press". This name is most popular in the USA and Canada, in France it's called "cafetière à piston" , in Italy (where it originated from) "caffettiera a stantuffo" and in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand it's just "coffee plunger".

As I already told, it originated from Italy. It was designed by Attilio Calimani in 1929. At first, it didn't  get much attention. In 1950s another Italian designer, Faliero Bondanini, modified the original device, and found a company which would produce it. It was a French... clarinet factory - Martin SA, which popularized in Europe. The name "French press" comes from the company's origination country.

Later, French press, could be found in other companies offers as well, e.g. English Household Articles and Danish Bodum (which is famous for it's highest quality French presses). The modern French press consists of a narrow cylindrical beaker, usually made of glass or clear plastic, equipped with a metal or plastic lid and plunger that fits tightly in the cylinder and has a fine stainless steel wire or nylon mesh filter. The simplicity of French press is what makes it so popular all over the world.

How to make a coffee using French Press?

Obviously, you need coffee. I always encourage to buy coffee from reliable sources, as coffee loses it's qualities with time. Would you like to eat bread baked 2 weeks ago? Or sweets that have already seen their best moments? The answer is obvious. Why, then would you buy a coffee roasted half a year ago?

I encourage you to read coffee's labels. Even in reputable deli shops, you can find coffees like Illy, Pellini or Lavazza roasted 1 year ago! Although coffee is a long term product and can be storaged for quite a long time (most companies use 2-year expiration period), but there is a gigantic quality gap between coffee roasted 2 or 3 weeks ago and coffee roasted a year ago. Ok, let's assume that you have good quality coffee. Now, you have to grind it. Of course, you can buy ground coffee, but I will again encourage you to buy a grinder and do it yourself. Grinding coffee right before brewing is the easiest method of increasing it's quality even by 50%.

In case of French press, coffee should be coarsely ground, because extraction takes around 4 minutes. For 1 liter of water, you should use around 60-70 g of coffee. You pour it into the press, mix it and wait for 4 minutes. If the grinding level is correct, the time of 4 minutes will result in the best quality coffee. After this time, you should mix it again and put the plunger with lid on the cylinder. Now, it's time for the most enjoyable part: gently press the piston to separate the grounds and hold them at the bottom of the beaker. Try to do it as gently as you can, so you don't scratch the gasket and stop the dregs from getting into the drink.

That's it! Your coffee is ready. You should instantly pour it into mugs/cups and don't leave any amount in the press, as it will get bitter if it keeps in touch with the dregs.

It looks like a chemical laboratory installation element, James Bond makes his coffee in it and Illinois Institute of Technology (USA) considered it as „one of the best designed modern times items”. What is it? It's a Chemex coffee maker!

Glass jug with top widening neck and wooden handle fastened with a leather strap - a very simple, yet so charming and timeless device, that New York city's Musem of Modern Art presents it at the permanent exhibition. Chemex was designed in 1941 by dr Peter Schlumbohm and is produced in a small Chicopee city in state of Massachusetts by Chemex Corporation till this day.

Chemex is a pour-over style coffeemaker - it doesn't use pressure (like Bialetti percolator and AeroPress do). It's so called „drip”, which means a method where water flows through grinded coffee placed in the filter and liquify into the container. Using the appropriately grinded coffee and good paper filter, make the water „collect” only the best properties of the coffee and under the influence of gravity flows down to the container from where it can be poured into cups.

How to use a Chemex coffee maker?

1. Put the paper filter into the top side of Chemex. Boil water and pour it through the filter. This will get rid of papery taste and heat the jug, so the coffee won't cool down by touching with cold glass. Repeal the filter a bit and pour the water out.
2. Grind your coffee! Of course you can use pre-grinded coffee, but I always recommend investing into your own coffee grinder. Using fresh grinded coffee gives the coffee at least +50% quality and taste. Grinding for Chemex shouldn't be either too fine (like for pressure coffee maker) or too coarse (e.g. for French Press). After a few tries, you will find the ideal grinding level.
3. Put the coffee into the filter and pour with water (it shouldn't be scalding, so wait half a minute after the boiling). Pour the water so it barely covers grinded coffee. Wait a moment and slowly add more water. This can take a while, you shouldn'y hurry. 
4. At the end take the filter out and pour the coffee into cups/glasses/mugs. All done!
5. How much coffee? How much water? It's always hard for me to answer these questions. Everyone has their own taste. Coffee from Chemex is quite delicate, so someone who likes stronger „black” coffee should use more coffee and less water.  I think that in the case of coffee/water proportions, everyone should experiment and find what they like best.

Produced since 1970s, Chemex has become an icon in modern books and movies. Ian Fleming, the author of James Bond novels, in his book called „From Russia, with Love” describes agent 007 making a coffee with the use of Chemex. Chemex is also used by Rosemary from Roman Polański's movie „Rosemary's Baby”, Don Draper from popular tv series „Mad Men” and I also noticed that it was used in last years blockbuster „Interstellar” and I can see it everyday in my kitchen and I sincerely recommend you to buy one!

Turkish coffee, a coffee prepared with a specific method, which I describe below, known for over 500 years. It's not that popular and is a bit harder and more time consuming than making a regular coffee, but has an intense and original taste.

Before we get to making Turkish coffee, let's go back in time. First notes describing Turkish coffee come from 15th century from Yemen (by the way, coffee travelling to Yemen was sent through harbor named Mokka, coming from the name of coffee). Over the next few hundred years, coffee spread across the whole Ottoman Empire: Cairo, Mecca, Damascus nad Constantinople. First cafes started to appear and the black drink gained many admirers. The name „Turkish coffee” isn't popular in Turkey, Turks usually refer to it as „coffee”. If you ever visit Turkey, then ordering coffee will most likely result in getting this coffee.

And how is this coffee made? First of all, it's a boiled coffee. Most of you probably use coffee machines. Some of you maybe use alternative brewing methods, e.g. dripper or AeroPress (you can read more about it here). You boil it in a small pot - called cezve. It has to be very finely ground, even more finely than for espresso machine. The beans must be ground to a very fine powder. Most of house grinders can't grind them that finely, that's why it's better to ask a shop or coffee roastery to do it for you.

Cezve should be half filled with water, then you pot coffee in - traditionally 1 spoon for 1 cup. The drink will be strong and aromatic. You can also add (depends on personal preferences) sugar, some spices, like cinnamon or cardamon. Next you have to mix everything together (this is the only moment, that you can mix it, you shouldn't mix it later) and put cezve on small heat. Turkish coffee should be heated slowly, until you can see foam forming on it's surface. Stopping the heating too early results in lack of the foam, which is important for the taste. Heating it for too long results in the foam falling down and the coffee being too bitter.

Turks treat coffee like English treat tea (it's a steretypical comparsion, but it only shows how seriously they treat coffee). They drink coffee when they meet with friends, on buisness meetings and during social rituals. Not that long ago, a fresh married wife could let her in-law parents know, what she thinks of their arranged marriage by making a coffee in a certain way. If the coffee was sweet - she was very pleased, if it was bitter - she was discouraged. Serving a coffee with salt meant insult and objection. French diplomat from the end of 18th and beginning of 19th century, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand said that coffee should be: "black as the devil, hot as hell and swee as love".

AeroPress is a device I discovered almost half a year ago. I heard about it earlier, but I wasn't convinced that such inconspicuous tool can make a good coffee. During that time I had a chance to talk with people who are very familiar with coffee and have access to excellent espresso machines (Polands former baristas champion and a manager of Polish department in a big sized company producing automatic espresso machines). In both cases when I asked "What coffee do you drink at home, sir?" I got the same answer: "At home? Recently, I'am using an AeroPress". These answers convinced me to use an AeroPress. I thought that, if people who have access to espresso machines worth a few hundreds or thousands euros, use a device worth 20€ at home, there has to be something more to it.

I owe you a few explanations. What exactly is an AeroPress? It's a very simple looking and easy to use coffee brewer invented in 2005 by an American named Alan Adler. It consists of a polycarbonate cylinder, ended with a detachable sieve where you put a paper filter on one side, and a gap for the piston with a rubber seal on the other side. In the photos you can see that it's a really simple thing. And that simplicity is its biggest advantage. By using an AeroPress you can make a coffee quickly and without the need of some special skills (however, you can get better at it, there actually are world championships at making coffee in an AeroPress) and it's a really good coffee!

Well then, let's make a coffee! Besides AeroPress, we'll of course need some coffee beans. We should grind them just before brewing - this will make them the most aromatic. I encourage all of you to buy a high quality coffee grinder. A good grinder should cost between 30€ and 50€ and the coffee will be much better (I will make a separate article about coffee grinders and coffee grinding soon).

First thing we need to do is to place the piston with a rubber seal in the cylinder. Seal should be moisted with water, so it will move more smoothly. So, now we have a cylinder closed on the one side. We put ground coffee inside. The coffee I used a was medium roasted Yirgacheffe from Ethiopia. Now, we pour our coffee with water heated up to 80°C and mix it. After a while we pour more water and mix it again. At this moment coffee is brewing, this process takes around 1 minute (here you can experiment, you can brew it longer or shorter; everyone has their own methods of making a coffee in an AeroPress, but keep in mind that coffee grinding level affects that time).

While the coffee is brewing we put the paper filter in the sieve and pour hot water through it - this will get rid of "papery" flavor. We mix our coffee for the last time and close the sieve with filter on top of it. Next we turn everything by 180° and put it on a cup or a glass. Now we slowly press the piston down the cylinder. Coffee is being pushed by the air inside (hence the name „AeroPress") through the filter and our cup is being filled with black and aromatic coffee. When we hear a "hiss of air", we stop pushing the piston down. All done! AeroPress can be easily cleaned. Just get rid of the coffee grounds left and paper filter, and clean detached elements with water.

AeroPress is called an „espresso maker" by its producer. Actually, the coffee we make with AeroPress won't be the real classic espresso, because we can't gain the same pressure as in espresso machines. Anyway, I can't recall any better device for making black coffee. Even while making Caffè Americano using an espresso machine or while making a black coffee using a high quality automatic espresso machine, I didn't end up getting a better coffee than the one made in AeroPress. The simplicity of an AeroPress, the ability to freely experiment with the amount of water, coffee and its grinding level let you make a coffee that will always fit your taste. I highly recommend using an AeroPress!