If you only own one coffee brewer, I'd make it a cafetière. There are no filters to buy and nothing to plug in, and it's hard to ruin as long as you get three things right: the grind, the timing and when you pour. This is the same method printed on the brew guide for every Amici bag.
The short version
Use 30g of coarsely ground coffee to 500ml of water just off the boil, around 93–96°C. Pour, stir once, leave it for four minutes, then press slowly and pour it all out straight away. That's it.
What you need
- A cafetière (French press)
- Freshly roasted coffee, ground coarse
- A kettle and a timer
- Scales, if you have them. A spoon will do, but scales make every cup the same.
Step by step
- Weigh out 30g of coffee and grind it coarse, a bit like sea salt.
- Tip the grounds into the empty cafetière.
- Boil the kettle, give it 30 seconds to settle, then pour in 500ml and make sure all the grounds are wet.
- Stir once, gently, to break up the crust on top.
- Put the lid on with the plunger up and set a timer for four minutes.
- Press down slowly and steadily. Don't force it.
- Pour it all out straight away, into your cup or a flask.
The mistakes that spoil it
Grinding too fine. This is the big one. Fine grounds slip through the mesh and keep extracting, so you get a muddy, gritty, bitter cup. If yours tastes like that, go coarser before you change anything else.
Leaving the coffee in the pot. Pressing the plunger doesn't stop the brew. The grounds stay in the water and keep going, so anything you don't drink right away turns harsh. Decant it.
Water straight off a rolling boil. It scorches the coffee. Thirty seconds of patience fixes it.
A dirty mesh. Old coffee oils go stale and make every cup taste flat and bitter, even when the pot looks clean. Take the plunger apart and rinse every part after use, and give the mesh a proper scrub with washing-up liquid every few days.
Tweaking it to your taste
If it tastes thin or sour, go a touch finer or leave it a little longer. If it's bitter or harsh, go coarser or press a bit earlier. Change one thing at a time, otherwise you won't know what worked.
Whole beans or ground?
Ground coffee starts losing its aroma within minutes, so grinding just before you brew gives the best cup. If you don't have a grinder yet, order your beans ground and choose coarse for a cafetière when you buy.
Which Amici coffee suits a cafetière?
A cafetière keeps the oils and fine particles in the cup, so it flatters coffees with some body. I'd pick the Peruvian (plum, chocolate and honey) or the Ugandan (toffee, milk chocolate and biscuit). The House Roast is a smooth, easy choice too. Not sure which? Our guide to choosing an Amici coffee goes through the lot.
Quick questions
How long should I leave it? Four minutes is where I'd start.
Why is my cafetière coffee gritty? Your grind is too fine for the mesh. Go coarser.
Can I use the grind from my filter machine? Usually not. A cafetière needs it coarser.
Once you've found your routine, a coffee subscription keeps the fresh beans coming so you never run out.
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