The Virtues of the French Press

I woke up this morning, and I could not feel my fingers or my toes. I was wrapped up like one of those old people in the movie "Cocoon" except I was in my bed, wearing clothing and socks. Suffice it to say South Florida doesn't have many frigid winter nights and subsequent (and in this case consequent as well) frigid winter mornings. My home's central cooling system, unequipped with no heater element as it is, affords me no temperature modulation. Meaning that on cold nights I freeze, and as the night gets colder, the interior of this house which is all tile and wood and vaulted ceilings becomes an icebox. After a few days of this sort of weather, the house becomes permanently cold and all in it must suffer the arctic existence or turn to other measures of warming up. Enter, the cup of coffee.

Coffee drinking, though not as old as tea drinking, has been an integral part of many cultures going back hundreds of years. The origins of the drink are unclear, but the consensus seems to be that the drink originated in northern Africa and the middle east. Interestingly, coffee drinking in America is incredibly popular, my guess as to why this drink rather than Tea is the drink of the day (as it is to our ex-overlords the British) has to do with the event in Boston harbor during the revolutionary war. I am no anthropologist and can do nothing but venture a guess. But the fact remains, Americans love coffee! But this has caused a real problem... The problem is, when Americans love and must have something, industry starts spinning its wheels, trying to figure out how to make it faster, cheaper, easier. Sounds like a win/win for everybody right? Wrong...

The first time I tasted coffee out of a French Press, it was like opening my eyes for the first time. I was taught to drink it straight, no cream, no sugar. The concept of this scared me, because frankly, coffee to me always tasted kind of bitter and acidic, even with spoons of sugar and laboratory-formulated non-dairy creamers. As the velvety liquid, viscous with a wispy brown foam reminiscent of a good espresso crossed the expanse of my taste buds I was drawn, for the first time ever into the taste and even-more-pleasant aftertaste of real coffee. You know that smell of coffee, whole coffee, that people know (even non-coffee drinkers sometimes!) and love? Imagine being able to taste it. Such, is the advantage of the French Press. Perhaps, it is not the press itself but rather the steps one must take before the finished product is ready to drink. Mainly, the grinding and the brewing.

You probably drink your Coffee in the office, or on the go... Even if you make it at home, you probably buy the stuff that comes in the bricks, or the cans, or god-forbid the freeze-dried instant crystals of dehydrated coffee... Most people see nothing wrong with this, but let me ask you, if it were another food, say... steak, would you compare a re-hydrated piece of beef Jerky to a prime, center-cut fillet of beef? I don't think you would mistake those two, and coffee should be no different. If you are drinking anything other than coffee ground from whole beans right before you use them you are missing the show for want of looking at the carpet on the floor.

Vacuum-sealed coffee is completely fresh, 100%, as it exists in a dark, airless environment and as such does not oxidize, but, the minute you pop that seal and hear that refreshing hiss you are up against the clock, and oxidation is a very impatient process. Whole beans also have a shelf-life, and not a very long one, but the upside is that you know what you're getting, you are grinding it yourself, and you know there are no byproducts or additives, just pure, 100% roasted beans.

The other thing that makes French Press coffee superior in my opinion is the time it takes to steep. If you've ever observed your coffee-maker at work, you will notice that almost as soon as the water pours out, it begins pouring out the other end brown. This is supposed to be coffee, but in my opinion it lacks all the flavor and character of real coffee. Sure, it's a finer grind, supposed to brew faster, but the French Press has the coffee suspended in water for 4 entire minutes before you drop the plunger and drink it. That's four minutes for flavor to infuse out of the grind... By the way home-gamers, do *NOT* ever, ever, use fine grinds in a French Press, the bitter, chalky, poison that results will turn your stomach.

At the end of the day, the French Press is cumbersome and takes time... You have to boil the water, you have to measure and grind the beans, you have to wait 4 minutes, you have to push a plunger... You cannot simply set the machine to go off at 6am and wake up to hot coffee... But what you will wake up to is ten minutes of work followed by a few minutes of sheer ecstasy.

If you love coffee, it's worth trying... You don't even need to go buy a fancy press and a bunch of coffee and a grinder. Just go to Starbucks and order a pot of French Press coffee, it's like 3-4 dollars, and they will do all the work for you. Just remember, before you go killing the flavor with Half and Half and lab created artificial sweeteners, try it as is. You won't regret it.