This morning, as I made myself a french press of Guatemala Antigua coffee, roasted 3 days ago, I thought I would take a picture of the french press as it brewed. This picture is taken about 30 seconds after pouring near-boiling water on top of coffee, ground just seconds before. From the picture, you can see that this mini, 3-cup french press has a very tall crust!
You can see 3 layers here, a bottom layer of mostly liquid, a middle layer of water steeping with coffee grounds and a top layer of foam, bubbling as carbon dioxide is released from mixing with hot water. If you use stale coffee grounds, or even fresh coffee that hasn’t been properly stored or preground a while before brewing, you’ll likely just see the bottom and middle layers. When you see the top layer, you’ll know you’re getting the best tasting coffee possible. The carbon dioxide plays a huge role in transporting essential coffee oils (what makes coffee taste good) into your cup. Right click on the image above, left click on ‘view image’ then click again to zoom in and take a look at the crust. This is what you want to go for when making french press coffee. P.S. The mini 3-cup french press costs $2.99 at Ross (yes, the ‘dress for less’ place). 
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We have the same grinder!
@chris The Capresso Infinity is a great grinder! One of the best priced conical burr grinders I’ve been able to find… hardly any static, unless you’re grinding more than half a pound of coffee at a time.
Found you via your following me on Twitter. You must have picked up French press from one of my tweets today.
We have the same Capresso grinder and love it. I worked for Caribou Coffee and we sold them in the stores, but I got a great price on mine as an Amazon warehouse deal! The retail box was a little banged up, but everything inside was fine. I think we only paid $50 for it and it’s still going strong with multiple times use each day, three years later.
@gardenwife very cool, that’s a great deal! About half the price I paid for mine, and I thought I got it at a bargain!
Hey, Ken – when are ya gonna have a how-to blog about French press coffee? *nudge nudge* I want to link to it from a blog entry when you have it posted.
Continuing the Discussion