Three and a half months ago I set on making an investment for a better cup of coffee. There was an initial setback with some poor customer service but it was quickly rectified and on went my quest.

As a small recap, I purchased this French press mug, a Brita water pitcher and started to search for better beans instead of grocery store bought goods.

The mug is built like a tank. The powder coating process on it was done very well and even after using daily, washing daily and a trip through the washing machine once a week, it looked as new even after 3 months of daily use. The function of the French press inside worked great and the plastic all seems to have held up really well. Now for the negatives. Knowing what I do now, I’d probably advise against buying one of these again. The metal cup keeps the hot coffee at an undrinkable temperature for almost 90 minutes. During that time, the coffee continues to steep even though it is contained in the bottom of the cup. As my palette has started to become a little more refined, the second half of this cup become rather bitter to me.

The Brita water pitcher has become my fridges new best friend. I use all the time and have cut out nearly every other beverage at home outside of milk and orange juice. If you don’t have one of these, buy one.

Beans. I was reluctant to buy a coffee grinder for several reasons, more on that later. I did however want to try some “real” coffee. A local roaster sold beans at a store near my house in both ground and whole, so I set off and bought a 12oz bag each of Ethiopian Harrar and Sumatran Mandheling. Both beans are considered to be some of the best single origin beans for daily drinking and cost about the same as a bag of premium coffee from a grocery store.

The first thing was the smell, it was unreal. Like nothing I’ve ever smelled from a bag of coffee in my life. Simply amazing. Eager to try it, I made a cup at home in my French press mug, but then poured it into a traditional coffee cup so I could enjoy it right away. That is when I first noticed how much better coffee could taste when the steeping process was closely controlled. Amazing. Each coffee had something I liked about it and something that I wasn’t too sure about. Also, for the first time, I tried coffee without sugar. Amazingly, I liked it. Fifteen years of drinking coffee with sugar and this is the first time I could enjoy it without. Later I learned the reason for this is that freshly roasted coffee has a natural sweetness to it and only older, stale coffee requires me to add sugar to compensate for what has left the natural bean. While both of these bags were ground, I was pretty content. A few weeks later I by chance found a small coffee shop that also roasted and picked up a pound of Costa Rican La Amistad, to date this is my favorite coffee. Super smooth, not a long after taste and sweet chocolate notes towards the last sip as you swallow. At this point, I was still buying ground beans though and noticed that 10 days after purchase the flavor was changing drastically and once again I was adding sugar.

After more than two months of drinking coffee through the French press mug, I knew it was time to retire it. The mug still gets used from time to time, but only as a mug.

About a month ago I purchased a Bodum Shin French press to replace my French press mug. This is one of their more plain looking units, but functionality meant more to me and for $20, I wasn’t going to complain. $30 will get you the Chambord model, which is essentially the Shin with a nicer top and a pretty “cage” around it. The only negative side to the Shin is that it could be easier to crack if you dropped it on a counter top and I’d suggest using a cutting board or heat-safe countertop pad when you fill it with boiling water. The Chambord model has the cage around it to help protect your countertop. Both function the same. I’d also suggest buying at least an 8-cup model. There doesn’t seem to be a standard for what is considered a “cup” in the coffee world, the French press is no exception to this. A “cup” could be 4, 6 or 8 ounces, depending on who the manufactor is, my experience has been that your average home coffee cup is around 10 ounces and the average travel mug is between 16 and 24 ounces. The Bodum seems to consider a “cup” to be closer to 6 ounces.

Likewise, the coffee scooper provided with the Bodum and most commercially available ones are meant for 6oz of water, so some experimenting will be needed. This is how I’ve been using my Bodum:

  • I use the same mug daily to take to work with coffee, so I filled the mug with tap water, then poured the water into a measuring cup, noting how full it gets. My mug holds just about 16oz of water.
  • Going by the 6oz rule for the coffee scooper, I need to use just less than three even, not heaping scoops of coffee; this goes in the bottom of the bodum.
  • Filtered water from my Brita Pitcher goes into an empty tea kettle making sure to never use any water left from the day before and boil.
  • As soon as the teapot whistles, pull it off the burner and pour into a measuring cup, in my case it is a full 2 cups.
  • Quickly pour that water into the Bodum and do nothing for 2-4 minutes. You choose the steep time that you enjoy the best, some experimenting will tell you.
  • After steep stir the coffee with a wooden object, metal could chip the glass. I’ve been using chopsticks since they always give me more than I need when I get sushi take-out.
  • Put the top on the Bodum and evenly, slowly press down.
  • Pour coffee and consume.
  • It is best not to reheat coffee since the taste will change and it is easy enough to boil more water and make some more.

The unit does need to be cleaned daily but it is not as hard as one would think. I’ve found a pretty simply way to clean them out, fast. Rinse out the coffee grinds and off the bottom of the plunger, putting a small amount of dishwashing soap into the Bodum and filling half way with hot water. Put the top on and move the plunger up and down a few times, empty out water, use a sponge or towel to wipe the inside, rinse again and let air-dry. Takes less than two minutes.

I’ve also broken down and bought a grinder. Some of the coffee I wanted to experiment with only came in whole beans and, as stated before, I noticed a pretty short shelf life of freshly roasted coffee that has been pre-ground. After some searching around, I decided on a Cuisinart grinder. It was essential that it had burr grinders in it, not the whirly blade seen in the bottom of a blender. With a French press, you want the grind to be very coarse, it helps with the extraction of the coffee, and this one has been working great for me and looks really nice on my counter top. My only concern with it was whether or not it would do a fine enough grind should I ever buy an espresso machine, since most espresso machine quality grinders cost $200 and up. Not my concern at the time of buying this one though.

When using a grinder, only grind enough beans for what you will consume right away. Trust me when I say that a grinder, a quality, freshly roasted bean and a French press will provide you with one of the best cups of coffee you have ever tasted. I’d also strongly suggest trying coffee naked, that is, without cream, milk or sugar first.

My total investment at this point is around $90 in equipment and around $10 per pound of coffee. I fully expect that the $20 French press and $50 grinder will last for 3-5 years or longer, the French press mug was probably not the wisest of investments I could have made, but I’m not sad I bought it. My coffee experience now is much better, more controlled and tastes 100% better than anything I’ve made at home through a drip coffee maker and substantially cheaper in the long run than going to a coffee store every morning. I have not and will not go back to buying coffee from a grocery store, I plan to stick to using the local company I found as well as a few online sources that roast daily and ship the following day.

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