Having spent more than a little time brewing coffee in restaurant settings (don’t drink much myself, I’m a tea guy). Barring espresso equipment. You don’t really want to wash coffee equipment that aggressively. Soap leaves a not so tasty residue on that shit. The same is true of wine and beer glasses (though we have to wash those for sanitary reasons, that shit touched your mouth). What we do with the coffee pots is give them a rinse. And after a few pots when coffee residue builds up and is in danger of causing bitter flavors you throw a few table spoons of baking soda in there. And either a bit of seltzer (the bubbles/acidity do the scrubbing work), or if its tenacious a scoop of ice. Then you swirl it around aggressively. And flush with tons of water. Once a week (or more if they really need it) they go through the commercial dishwasher, and the detergent for that is low/no residue and fragrance free. But we still rinse the shit out of the pots with fresh water after.
When I’ve used a french press (don’t drink coffee but I need a way to make it for those who do) the same approach works. Knock the grounds out. Rinse everything really good with clean water. And leave it. If it gets groddy with coffee scum give it some baking soda, as a paste with water. You can swirl some ice around in there for agitation. But that won’t do much for the plunger so I was in the habit of using a dish brush.
I have a Lexan French press for canoe trips, but I was never satisfied with the results. Lack of practice, no doubt. With all the talk about BPA I will probably go back to the throw-a-handful-of-coffee-in-the-kettle method.
At home I have always used a Melitta cone filter, the other retro method that the cool kids call pour over. Like the FP, everything depends on consistent technique. I’ve used it long enough that it has become a ritual rivalling the Japanese tea ceremony.
As others have pointed out, good quality beans and a fresh grind will vastly improve any method, including everyday coffee machines.
Get an Aeropress. Purists will say the result is not technically espresso for arcane reasons, but I’m very happy with it.
You can get nice coffee from a French press once you have your technique right.
The only problem is some people tend to be a bit rough and break glass stuff in kitchens!
Luckily, you can get these: http://www.argos.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10152&catalogId=14551&langId=111&searchTerms=spare+glass+8+cup&authToken=
BTW, they call it an 8 cup but that’d be 8 very small (125ml) cups.
It’s more like a 3 mug job.
The best ones have more of a steel wall up the sides (rather than the thin metal cage) to hold the glass - I’ve found these keep the coffee hotter for longer.
Washing anything is a pain and yep, you get used to a little bit of sludge, if you happen to drain it for the last cupful.
It’s about the same time, but easier to clean up at the end. Instead of pressing the button, you’re just setting the kettle to boil. I have the same workflow.
I like washing them better than coffee pots. It’s easier, but most mornings I just rinse them out with hot water. I’ve tried coffee maker, percolator, those drip cups, and this is for me the easiet method to make and clean up afterwards. Measure coffee (I add sugar too at the same time), boil kettle, wait a bit, plunge, pour and rinse, done.
Very good point; I’m only doing coffee for one, so an Aeropress is ideal. If I was making multiple cups at once an extra-filtered French press would be better. Agreed that the Chemex is TOO ‘clean’ and papery.
Yuuup. I’ve worked a few “manly-man” type jobs in machine shops, auto lube joints, etc. and Bunn machines were a mainstay and in operation 12 hours+ a day 7 days a week keeping hungover psychotic vets from killing one another.
This may rankle some but I’m kinda wedded to egg coffee lately. Sounds weird, tastes great, simple cleanup. Mix your dry grounds up thoroughly with an egg (I’m only making 3 mugs so 1 egg) pour that into a pot of boiling water and have it on the lowest boil for say 5 mins. Then you can pour it from the pot into a mug - great quality coffee and no grounds. The egg binds the grounds and they stay in the pot. Nice smooth cup.
They’re cheap, thankfully. And they really do make the best coffee. For weekday morning, they don’t make a lot of sense for us, but these and using a pour over are nice for other times.
The secret to the sludge at the bottom: embrace it! The sludge from a good fine-grind espresso coffee adds a lovely smokey chocolately subtext to a strong cup of coffee. And also produces more sludge with a better mouth feel.
The secret to the problem of washing it: don’t! Sure. Rinse out the grinds. But the oils that accumulate add to the flavor. And as long as your are immersing everything in freshly boiled water on a daily basis, nothing seems to live. You need to wash it out if you leave it for more than a day; but a day without coffee is like a day without sunshine. So that never happens.
This, like almost all french presses suffers from a fatal design flaw: it is made of glass, and I am clumsy in the morning until I have my coffee. After breaking a few glass french presses, I bought a frieling double wall stainless steel french press, and use it every morning. It is essentially unbreakable, holds heat reasonably well, has a nice tall and narrow aspect ratio, and the screen on it is better than most.
I don’t ever wash it with soap. Just rinse it out, spray the plunger and maybe spend 5 seconds with a bristle brush to knock off as many trapped grounds as I can. If there is space and I remember (rare), I put it in the dish washer.
It still lets through a bit of silt even with a fairly good grinder, but I just don’t drink the bottom tablespoon of my cup, especially the last one.
It only costs more than a glass french press until you break 3, and in any case the cost of equipment is quickly dwarfed by the cost of the coffee.
In New Zealand we call these coffee plungers. I have a double walled plastic one that I’ve been using at work for around 7 years. It’s fricken rad:
I have an espresso machine at home for my morning coffee. We don’t really do percolators in New Zealand. Most people boil water in an electric jog and use instant coffee powder (blerk).
The first time I had Turkish coffee was when I was living in San Francisco; I’d gone to a Persian restaurant for the first time and wanted to try Turkish coffee. They told me they were closing soon and offered to brew me fresh coffee but also give me what they had left, if I wanted it. Sure! So they gave me a Starbucks-sized to-go cup full of Turkish coffee. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I’ll just say I had zero problem not sleeping at all that night.
This is why I’m reluctant to get one. I grind my coffee into a pint Mason jar, pour my water in, and set a timer for 3:30. At the 2:45 mark, I stir it, and when the time runs out, I pour it into a manual pour coffee maker. It sits there for four minutes like a French press but instead of a French press, I have a Mason jar to clean.
Heh in my early 20’s I would meet up with my DJ friend who got off the air at midnight at a coffee house. I learned to order decaf after a bit. Even then it wasn’t uncommon for us to be there till close at 3 and then spend 2 more hours at a 24hr cafe for breakfast.
