- If your water tastes terrible, your coffee will taste terrible. Before seeking ways to tweak the brewing process, taste your water. If it tastes bad, try pouring your water from the hot tap instead. Allow it to cool to room temperature and taste it again. This step helps to remove the chlorine smell and taste from your water.
- For best results, only use fresh, roasted coffee. If you bought your coffee more than two weeks ago, it probably will taste stale. Grinding your coffee ahead of time also will cause it to lose its freshness. Don't grind your coffee until you are ready to use it.
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The right size coffee grounds are essential for great tasting French press coffee. If you get your beans ground at the store, the grounds will be the perfect size. However, they begin to lose their freshness and flavor immediately. Instead, buy a quality coffee grinder for maximum freshness.
When choosing a grinder, the cheapest options aren't the best ones. You need your beans to be ground to a consistent size. The fine grind provided by a blade grinder will make your coffee bitter. Blade grinders also grind the beans too coarsely sometimes, which results in weak coffee. Investing a little more for a burr grinder will provide the correct size and consistency you need for great tasting coffee. - If your coffee steeps too long, it will taste bitter. Finding the right amount of time to steep your coffee requires experimentation, but the perfect steeping time is usually between four and five minutes.
- Your water temperature must be hot enough to produce quality coffee before you add it to the French press. According to Food Network's Alton Brown, the perfect temperature is just short of boiling. Bring the water for your coffee to a boil in a small kettle, and let the water sit for about 10 seconds to one achieve the perfect temperature. Then pour enough water into the French press to barely cover the grounds. In about four minutes, you'll have a rich, delicious cup of coffee to enjoy.
