The Crucial Step You're Missing With French Press Coffee

Making the best French press coffee doesn't stop when the steep ends.

French press coffee is arguably the easiest way to make coffee—you pour hot water over coffee grounds, wait, and then pour coffee out. There’s no percolating, slow dripping, or portafilter involved. The ease of it all might be the reason it’s so popular with many coffee lovers (it is for me). But regardless of how many times you’ve made it, you might be missing the final, most crucial step: decanting. 

Why you should decant your French press coffee

Drip coffee, espresso, percolator coffee, and pour-over coffee all brew and reward you with delicious, hot coffee in one area, and used grounds in another. French press coffee has the unique circumstance where the finished coffee doesn’t get separated into a different area. The coffee grounds are pressed to the bottom of the container but some of the brewed coffee is still circulating through them. 

If you pour off a cup of perfectly brewed coffee and leave the rest in the French press, two things start happening: You risk over-extraction of the coffee beans, which can result in growing harsh flavors in each subsequent cup. Secondly, your hot coffee begins to cool. 

The best way to brew French Press

Instead of leaving your coffee to become acrid and cold, you should decant. Let the coffee steep for four to eight minutes (depending on the size of your coffee grounds and your personal preference), and pour out the entire carafe’s worth into an insulated vessel. This stops brewing completely, and the insulated container will keep your coffee piping hot. 

Don’t be fooled by insulated French presses—they’re often expensive and only solve the problem of heat loss. They don’t address the fact that the coffee grounds continue to extract in the hot liquid. Your $12 French press is just fine. Instead, use a stainless steel, double-walled, vacuum-insulated bottle. I’m obsessed with all of mine. Yes, I have a collection now and it’s borderline eccentric, but you’ll understand once you experience their effectiveness. I’m talking about 12-hour-later hot coffee, folks. 

My favorite brands for the job are Klean Kanteen and Yeti. They come in a load of different sizes and shapes, but these two examples are good sizes for handling a decent amount of coffee. And if that isn’t enough, these insulated containers are great for hot and cold liquids. You can finish your hot coffee for the day, clean out that vessel and fill it with an Arnold Palmer for your friend’s picnic in the afternoon.