French Press 1200 g

Name: French Press 1200 g
Total time: 9 min
Yield: 1200 g
Ingredients: 83 g coffee; 1200 g water at 203F

by Matt KennardUpdated October 1, 2026

Method: James Hoffmann

1:14.5, the 800 scaled up.

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1:14.5, the 800 scaled up. Same method.

Brew process

Pour 0:00 · 1200 g total

Coffee in, then start the timer and pour all 1200 g at once. The press is insulated, so there is no need to preheat it. All the water goes in here.
Agitate 4:00 · the crust broken

Break the crust with a few strokes of a spoon, then skim the foam and floaters off and discard them — that is where the fines collect.
Steep 4:00 · still, undisturbed

Leave it alone and let the grounds fall on their own.
Serve 9:00 · poured, not plunged

Pour gently without plunging. The screen holds the bed back; pushing it through is what makes a press muddy.
Serve 9:00 · the press empty

Decant the whole batch into a carafe or thermos. Coffee left on the bed keeps extracting, and at this volume that is most of it.

These numbers were written for a Medium-dark roast. That is what the temperature and the time below assume — it is a setting, not a fact.

Dogspeed Flat Track Coffee Medium-dark · Latin America, varied seasonally — typically Colombia Supremo, Guatemala (Huehuetenango or Marilandia) and Brazil (Vila Boa natural) The one I use
Espresso Blue Bottle Coffee Dark · Organic blend, Latin America and Central Africa
Lucem Merit Coffee Medium · Blend, Honduras and Brazil; components shift, and it has also been listed as Peru and Colombia
Christmas Blend Starbucks Dark · Latin American and Asia-Pacific coffees including aged Sumatra
Roaster's Blend Merit Coffee Medium-dark · Blend, Honduras and Colombia
Sparrows All Seasons Blend Sparrows Coffee Medium · not on the label

If your bag is lighter or darker than that

83 g to 1200 g is about 1:14. Everything below is relative to this recipe's own numbers.

Temperature: Go hotter. A lighter roast is denser and gives up less at the same temperature — take it to the top of the range, or just off the boil.
Time: Give it longer. Another fifteen to thirty seconds of contact, whether that is a slower pour or a longer steep.
Grind: Grind finer, one step. Light roasts under-extract before they over-extract, and sour is the failure you will meet first.
Dose: Leave the dose alone at first. If it is still thin after the other three, add a gram or two.

Temperature: Go cooler. A dark roast is brittle and gives up everything it has immediately — back off five degrees or let the kettle stand a minute.
Time: Cut it short. Stop the brew at the first sign of it slowing down; the last of the drawdown is where the ash comes from.
Grind: Grind coarser, one step. Bitter and hollow is the failure you will meet first, and coarser is the fix.
Dose: You can use slightly less and lose nothing. A dark roast tastes stronger than it is.

Temperature: The temperature on this recipe is written for exactly this roast. Start there.
Time: The time is the time. Change it only after you have tasted it once as written.
Grind: Grind is still the one thing worth moving. Everything else in the recipe is fixed so that it can be.
Dose: The dose below is what these numbers were dialed at.