Things You'll Need
French press
Whole coffee beans
Coffee bean grinder
Tea kettle
Wooden chop sticks/spoon
Most people get their morning coffee from a drip coffee maker. It's an easy and reliable source of caffeine, with predictable flavors, tastes and textures. But when it comes time to treat yourself, there's no better way to do so with coffee than by using an Ikea French press coffee maker. In less time than it takes to make a full pot of drip coffee, you can have smooth, rich coffee, with bolder flavors and stronger taste. It's like having a barista in your own kitchen.
Step 1
Fill your tea kettle with water and set it on the stove to boil. Always do this before beginning the French press process, as the water you use in the press cannot be boiling hot and needs to cool down slightly before use.
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Step 2
Fill the Ikea French press with hot tap water to warm up the glass carafe while the water boils on the stove top. When the water on the stove is heated, pour the tap water from the carafe and let the boiling water settle.
Step 3
Grind your whole coffee beans to a medium or coarse grind, but no finer. Try using 1 tbsp. of ground coffee to 5 ounces of water, then adjust your portions accordingly.
Step 4
Add your ground coffee to the French press, which should be empty of warm tap water at this point. When finished, slowly pour the desired amount of nearly boiling water into the carafe, making sure you leave enough room for the plunger.
Step 5
Stir coffee grounds and water with wooden chop sticks or a wooden spoon. Avoid using anything metal, as that could crack your carafe.
Step 6
Place the top of your French press into place, and depress the plunger roughly 2 inches into the coffee, but not completely down to the bottom. Allow your coffee to steep for four or five minutes, but more or less time depending on the strength of the coffee you want - the longer it steeps, the stronger it is.
Step 7
Slowly depress the plunger all the way to the bottom using no more pressure than simply resting your hand on the handle of the plunger. Avoid pressing down in one fell swoop, as that could let grounds escape beyond the filter or let water seep too high and spill out above the mesh filter.
Step 8
Turn the pour spout toward the spout on the carafe and pour a glass of fresh French press in a coffee cup. From here, you can determine if your ratio of grounds to water was correct.
Step 9
Rinse out the glass carafe and mesh filter and hand dry it. Do this after every use to remove oils and sediment so you can have a clean, fresh cup of coffee every time.
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