austin Tom, my hand grinders work really well for french press I might be interested in selling one if you are interested. Works with espresso too but it takes loads longer to do a fine grind rather than coarse. 0 Reply December 14, 2008
Ron Cortez Lovely video production. I do “french press” coffee on a daily basis at least twice and I am convinced that is the most consistent way to brew coffee plus after a while you will develop a taste for it that no other brewing method will match. It has a big advantage over drip; you can taste other components that otherwise end up in the filter/basquet and it definitively makes fresh coffee shine. The coarse grind it is a subjective opinion because when I use a good coffee I want to extract as much as I can and that is done using a medium grind. The “crema” it has to be very dark as the caramels inside the coffee that is being brewed if is not dark the coffee may not be fresh enough for my taste. The steeping time is correct although you may not want to remove the “crema” on top because it also carries a great amount of interesting flavour (almost as the crema in the espresso). Please be careful with keeping the coffee in the press for too long, because it will over extract and will turn coffee a bit bitter after 15 minutes. Finally once you have stirred the coffee and before you plunge the press the coffee solids will settle in the bottom so the press giving you resistance is an indicator that you still need to wait. It will go down easy in the 4 minutes they specify. 0 Reply December 15, 2008
Psyd Hey Austin! What kind of hand-grinders do you have? I have a great Zassenhaus (156) that is perfect for FP, and I need one that will work for espresso. The 156 is just barely able to do espresso with the burrs touching, but is great for drip or French. Oh, and Tom, I’d be willing to work it out so that I eat the shipping, and make it worth your while if you let me snake Austin’s grinder out from under you. And, if you make coffee, and you don’t have a burr grinder, you’re cheating yourself. Fresh beans and a good grinder make coffee along with decent water. Anything else simply makes the water hot and pushes it through the grounds. Ya’ll know that Jim Hoffman is the reigning WBC, right? 0 Reply December 19, 2008
austin Psyd, I have the same model the 156. The one that I got is from an antique store and i have heard that the older ones seem to work better. I can get mine fine enough that it will stop up my Silvia. I also have the turkish mill, which will grind super fine, but doesn’t manage to pull small beans into the burrs. 0 Reply December 20, 2008
