French Press 800 g

Name: French Press 800 g
Total time: 9 min
Yield: 800 g
Ingredients: 55 g coffee; 800 g water at 203F

by Matt KennardUpdated October 1, 2026

Method: James Hoffmann

1:14.5.

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1:14.5.

Brew process

Pour 0:00 · 800 g total

Coffee in the press, then start the timer and pour all 800 g at once, straight onto the grounds so everything is wet from the start. All the water goes in here; there is no second pour.
Agitate 4:00 · the crust broken

Break the crust with a spoon — three or four strokes, no more — then skim the foam and the floaters off the top and throw them away. That layer is where the fines and the bitterness sit.
Steep 4:30 · still, undisturbed

Leave it completely alone. The grounds sink on their own and the coffee above them clears; every stir from here puts fines back into suspension.
Serve 9:00 · poured, not plunged

Pour gently without pushing the plunger down. The screen is there to hold the bed back, not to force water through it — plunging is what makes a press taste muddy.
Serve 9:00 · the press empty

Pour the whole batch into a carafe or thermos and serve from there. Anything left sitting on the bed keeps extracting and the second cup will not taste like the first.

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

55 g to 800 g is about 1:15. 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.