The Art of French Pressing

by Emily J Weitz

Some days you wake up leaping from beneath the sheets, a thousand exciting prospects awaiting you. Some days the sun spills into your window and kisses your eyelids so softly you just melt into morning. Other days, none of these things occur. It’s on these days that I thank the greater forces of the universe for a certain plant that grows abundantly in the hills of Costa Rica and the fields of Colombia. And no, I’m not talking about anything that you’d be hard-pressed to smuggle into the country. I am talking about a more familiar plant, with a more potent scent, that lulls me from my cozy sheets every morning, when the sun isn’t quite so tender and the day doesn’t beckon quite so temptingly.

Coffee. Caféé con leche. Espresso. Cappuccino. It’s all packed with the stuff that mornings are made of and there are more ways to brew it up at home than you might think. Yes, it’s still one of the cheapest and easiest things to pick up on the road (unless you’re on particularly shady roads, where other things might be even cheaper and easier to pick up). But making coffee at home has its perks. (No pun intended.)

First of all, the process of brewing up your own cup of coffee has a therapeutic quality. Bleary eyed and still in PJs, you go about your morning routine, awakening slowly. You drop the coffee beans into the grinder and listen to the cracking and crushing of their dark-roasted shells. Then, when you’ve ground the beans into a fine powder, you scoop spoonfuls into the coffeemaker and listen to it brew. You pull on clothes as the rich scents floats in from the kitchen. Morning is upon you.

But what kind of coffee maker to use is a serious consideration. I have had the spectrum, and am fully satisfied with my current situation. It’s a French Press that I got for $15 at IKEA. Every morning, I fill my teapot with water and grind the beans coarsely. Then, I dump the grounds into the tall, slender glass cylinder and make my toast while the water boils. When the teapot starts shouting at me, I turn off the flame and pour the steaming water over the heaps of dark grounds. The dusty coffee mounds spin towards the surface and I place the top on and leave it to steep. Then I turn on my computer and let it boot up. I log onto my email, and turn back to the kitchen.

Now comes the fun part. Elbow bent, I press down on the “plunger,” which is attached to a filter that separates the grounds from the fresh brewed coffee. The filter is made of nylon or wire mesh, and it does a remarkable job of keeping the grounds out and the flavor in. French presses produce stronger coffee than regular coffee makers, and they use no electricity and create no trash, except for the compost-friendly coffee grounds.

Because the coffee grounds in a French Press are in direct contact with the brewing water, this kind of coffee soaks up more of the flavor and captures the coffee’s essential oil, which would otherwise become trapped in a coffee machine’s paper filter.

There are new French Presses that come in a travel mug version. This means that you can have fresh-brewed coffee for one on the road. All you need is your coffee stash and access to boiling water. These portable French Presses are made of sturdy plastic instead of the traditional glass.

While there are many options to choose from when it comes to coffee makers, the French Press has my vote for convenience, value and quality. In fact, you will find that most real coffee-lovers have an affinity for the French Press. But there are other options for those of you who aren’t sold. Drip coffee makers brew coffee into pots and the warmers below the pot keep the coffee warm. The Pod coffee maker brews coffee by the cup, and uses coffee pods (like tea bags) instead of grounds. Espresso machines are great for afternoon cups of espresso or cappuccino, though they take a little bit longer and are too much of a process for me to decipher first thing in the morning.

Whatever kind of contraption you choose to endorse for your coffee consumption, just consider the benefits of making your own cup in the morning. A new morning ritual is another good reason to get out of bed.