Whats The Best Way To Clean A French Press Coffee Maker
Coffee grounds must be dumped in the garbage instead of going down the drain. Cho suggests using a rubber spatula to scoop the grounds out from the bottom of the French press before giving it a rinse. He also suggests taking a picture of the assembly instructions to reference when you disassemble the plunger for a thorough cleaning, and giving the anchor mechanism a gentle turn to the right after each use to keep it tight. It doesnt spin, he notes, so anytime you see it rotating, its working itself looser and will eventually fall apart. Luckily, it will easily fit together again.
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How We Tested Cafetires
We tested a representative sample of cafetières and scored them against the following test criteria:
Smooth operation: we looked for plungers with a smooth plunger action, easy-pour spouts that didnt drip, and handles that were comfortable to hold.
Ease of cleaning: if cleaning your cafetière is time-consuming and fiddly, youre more likely to reach for the jar of instant. We unscrewed the press of our samples to see how easily they came apart and whether they were straightforward to put back together. We checked the instructions to see if they could go in the dishwasher, too.
Value for money: our samples ranged in price from £6.50 to £160.
Good looks: a cafetière is a bit of a party piece, something to bring out with a flourish at the end of a meal. It will usually sit in the middle of the table, so it needs to look stylish.
Best Value: Bodum Brazil French Press
For just about $20, the Bodum Brazil delivers hot coffee every bit as good as that made with the company’s more expensive Chambord model. To cut down the price, Bodum uses plastic instead of steel for some of the coffee maker’s parts. Its carafe, however, is borosilicate glass. The coffee I brewed in the Brazil was satisfyingly strong, yet balanced.
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Le Creuset Stoneware Cafetire Best Iconic Stoneware Cafetire
Pros: it will never go out of fashion, available in 15 coloursCons: doesnt retain heat as well as metal models
Generously sized at 1 litre, a Le Creuset cafetière is ideal if youre making coffee for lots of people. Especially if you want to impress them with a classy piece of kitchen kit , made from brightly coloured enamel and a splash of stainless steel. Its scratch resistant, too, so no need to be overly cautious with it.
Le Creuset cafetières come with a 10-year warranty and when we tested it, the resulting coffee was piping-hot and smooth-textured. There wasnt as much coffee bloom as other models though, and stoneware doesnt match up to metal in terms of heat retention. Dont come back to it in half an hour, expecting more hot coffee. With 15 different colours to choose from, including classic volcanic orange, its great fun choosing a Le Creuset cafetière to compliment your kitchen.
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The Heemburg Stainless Steel Thermal French Press Is Big On Design As Well As Functionality
The matte black double walled stainless steel cafetiere body creates a vacuum inside the chamber which maintains the warmth of the coffee for longer.
The stylish wooden handle makes pouring easy and adds a rustic nature to it making it a great travel cafetiere.
The spout has a flow control button so you lose as little heat as possible while pouring. The plunger with ultra fine mesh makes a clean brew with full flavour.
If the Heemburg French Press is what youre looking for: .
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Which French Press Would You Pick
Which of our French presses should you actually buy?
The Bodum Brazil is the obvious choice for coffee drinkers on a tighter budget. You can get one of these for practically nothing, and its not functionally different than the more expensive Chambord. Its made in Portugal with high-quality materials, and makes excellent coffee. Just dont expect a premium look and feel from it.
The Bellemainis our suggestion to those coffee drinkers who are infuriated by breakable glass vessels. Its close to indestructible, and its also a very good coffee press. We especially like the dual mesh filters. They do an excellent job keeping grounds out of your cup. You may or may not find that the stainless steel vessel affects your taste results, though. This ones also as expensive as the Chambord, for a smaller size brewer.
The Bodum Chambord is our top pick for passionate coffee lovers. It looks superb, and it works even better. The materials are as good as they get in French presses. The many size options are particularly convenient for suiting your specific needs and wants. Be aware that even the best glass vessels are fragile, though. This ones also a fair bit more expensive than the Brazil, and the difference is only aesthetic.
We hope youve found our guide to the best French presses informative and insightful! The simplest way to find out more about any of our recommendations, including current prices, is to click on the links in our reviews.
What Should Someone Look For When Buying A French Press
Also known as a cafetière or press pot, a French press is an immersion brewing device with a plunger filtration system inside a carafe. It allows any coffee or tea to be steeped then pressed to get all of the solid particles out of the drinkable liquid. The most important thing to look for when shopping for a French press is the seal of the plunger against the surrounding glass. The fit should be just right to move up and down smoothly, but also not let any grounds come out around the sides and into your cup, Milos says.
While its design has relatively stayed the same since its invention, not all French presses are the same. Some French press filters are made with a metal plunger that allows for some grounds to pass through the mesh while others have a more advanced filtration system that have a plastic ring around the plunger that ensures no coffee sediments get into the liquid and into your cup. Milos also mentions that glass carafes produce a cleaner cup of coffee over plastic or steel, which can produce chemicals that can get into your coffee.
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Upgrade Pick: Espro P6 French Press
*At the time of publishing, the price was $100.
If you want smooth, harmonious coffee from a modern-looking French pressor you simply dont want to worry about breaking a glass beakerthe stainless steel Espro P6 French Press is sleeker than the glass options we tested and more durable. Available in a black matte or steel finish, the P6 makes an identical brew to the Espro P3, thanks to the same ultra-fine mesh double filter, which preserves tasting notes and traps grit.
The P6s body has insulating double walls that allow it to keep your coffee hot longer than a glass press could. After brewing coffee in this Espro model and leaving it alone for two hours, we returned to find coffee that was not as hot as fresh-brewed, but it was still pleasant enough to drink. In most cases, we find heat retention in a French press unnecessary, since its usually not a good idea to leave your coffee in the pot after pressing. In a conventional press like a Bodum, that coffee continues to extract as it sits, and it can become bitter. However, as with the P3, the P6s bucket-shaped double filter slows extraction as soon as you plunge by separating most of the coffee from the grounds this means you can leave your coffee in the press with little to no change in flavor for roughly the first hour.
The Best Affordable French Press: The Coffee Gator
The Coffee Gator is made of layered stainless steel that’s both sturdy and keeps coffee hot over long periods of time. The dual filter ensures that grit and coffee sludge dont end up in the final cup but still produces coffee with the heft youd expect in a French press. It also comes with a bonus canister to bring your beans on the road.
Best for: Folks looking for a classic cup of French press coffee travelers and campers those who are accident-prone and need a brewer thatll withstand drops.
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Wilko Stainless Steel 800ml Cafetire Best Budget Glass Cafetire
Pros: great valueCons: hand wash only, plain design
If youre looking for something cheap and cheerful, you cant go wrong with Wilkos standard cafetière. It mimics a classic design and creates a decent cup of coffee no complaints there. We were also impressed with the pour and the leftover coffee was reasonably warm upon returning for another cup 10 minutes later.
At 800ml, it isnt the biggest cafetière and you cant put it in the dishwasher. Plus its easy to get smudgy fingerprints all over that stainless steel lid, which can be a pain to clean. Overall, though, at £10 its a good deal.
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Size Do You Really Need A French Press That Large
When you make a cup of coffee, are you really just making a cup, or is it more like two cups? If your morning cup consists of one to wake and one to go, then you probably need something that can keep up.
There are a few standard sizes to choose from, but 12 oz. and 34 oz. are the most popular. If you’re alone or with someone else, I’d recommend going with the 12 oz. To give you some perspective, 12 oz. gives you one large cup of coffee, or two small cups. Needless to say, the 12 oz. model is also by far the more travel-friendly coffee press, for all you road brewers out there.
If you often find yourself brewing for your family, colleagues or groups of friends, opt for the 34 oz. version. This would also be our recommendation if you’re dealing with two coffee guzzlers, as you won’t get two cups of coffee out of the 12oz.
But bigger isn’t always better. French Presses are all about proportions. If you’re going to use the 34oz size you’ll need to put more coffee grounds and hot water in the carafe to make the ratio work with the depth of the plunger.
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Bialetti 6860 Preziosa Stainless Steel 3
The Small-Capacity PickBialetti
While many French press coffee makers have large capacities fit for a small army, this isnt always desirable. If you are a solo coffee drinker or youre limited on storage space, the small-capacity, budget-friendly Bialetti 6860 Preziosa Stainless Steel 3-Cup French Press Coffee Maker is right for you.
French Press Coffee Maker
MATERIALYour first big choice is the material of the beaker. Glass has a nice classic feel to it, and lets you see the coffee level, but it doesnt retain heat as well as stainless steel. It definitely doesnt hold heat as well as double-wall stainless steel. We tried a few other materials in the camping test, but none of them quite measured up.
FILTER CONSTRUCTIONThe most unpleasant part of French press coffee is the last few sips, which can be unpleasantly gritty. Our tests show that theres no magic formula for getting a clean cup. Some manufacturers use a silicone gasket around the outside, some use the classic spring. Some use a two-layer mesh while others do a single layer. None of these things is a silver bullet. Check out the individual reviews for stats on how much grit each filter let through.
CLEANINGBasic dishwashing will get almost all of the coffee grounds out of your carafe and filter, but every now and again, youll want to take apart the filter mechanism and get the last little bits out. None of the French presses in our test had any exciting way to avoid this, so youre stuck with the job if you like the coffee.
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Does It Pour A Silty Or Clean Final Cup
One of the biggest points of consideration and divisive even amongst French press aficionados is whether or not there should be coffee silt in the final cup. This is the result of very fine coffee powder bypassing the filter. Many French press-ers love silt because it gives the brew a heavier body and mouthfeel, while others prefer the clean taste of a more heavily-filtered coffee. Some of the French presses I tried boasted specific filters or designs claiming to reduce silt, to varying degrees of success. To measure silt during my tests, I poured the coffee through a paper filter to see how much would have made it into the final cup. Generally, metal mesh filters let more silt through than polyester mesh filters , however silt also had to do with brew method.
Hoffmanns method which has a couple of extra steps and makes the brew time a touch longer worked best for eliminating silt, as well as producing the best-tasting, most full-flavored brew. While I personally like silt, I highly recommend trying out this French press method.
Variations Of The French Press
Although it may seem that French Press coffee maker is unique, there are actually some variations of it. For example, there is a travel mug version of the French Press which is made from tough plastic instead of glass and it has a sealed lid with a closable drinking hole.
Other versions of the French Press include the stainless steel version. It helps you to keep your coffee hot with its insulated press similar to the thermos flasks. Another variation uses a pull design in which you place your coffee grounds in a mesh basket and pull them into the lid after brewing. Last but not least, you can use french press cold brew too. There are variations of the French Press that are designed to make a cold brew coffee.
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Best For Travel: Oxo Brew Venture
The OXO BREW Venture is a 32-ounce French press made of Tritan plastic, a super-durable plastic that is shatter- and stain-resistant and stays crystal clear after dishwashing.
The main canister slips into a removable carry-all, which is convenient but not necessary. With the carry-all, the OXO Venture weighs 15 ounces without the carry-all, it weighs only 8 ounces, so its ideal for packing into an overnight bag or a backpack.
Best for Travel: OXO BREW – Venture
Made of lightweight and durable Tritan plastic, the OXO BREW – Venture can easily be packed into an overnight bag or backpack. Its superb design filters out every bit of sediment, making a smooth, full-bodied cup of coffee
The OXO Venture has a single filtering screen, but the plunger has an innovative silicone gasket that seals the coffee grinds in the bottom of the canister. And just in case an errant grind somehow manages to slip through, its trapped in the pouring spouts filter. Of the new French presses we tested, the OXO Venture gave us one of the best cups of coffee: smooth, full-bodied and sediment-free.
Weve tested many OXO products and find that at times theyre overpriced. The OXO Venture, however, is only $20, and if youre a frequent flier or camper, you can take this excellent travel French press anywhere.
The Best French Press Coffee Maker In Canada In 2022 Reviews And Buying Guide
While modern-day coffee makers are intricate machines that can make fancy, unique beverages, and old-school kettles still work well enough to boil water and make coffee the traditional way, there is something classically special about a French press coffee maker.
Not only is it a simple process that creates a delicious drink, but it provides an experience. You have a hands on role in the coffee making process that cannot be obtained by pressing a button on a machine.
Every brand and style offers a little something different, and you wont really know what works for you until youve tried it.
Whether you are looking for a portable unit to take travelling, or a statement piece to liven up your kitchen and engage your guests, there is a French press coffee maker to suit your lifestyle.
To give you the best chance of success, we assessed 47 products over 29 hours and considered 1285 reviews to create a guide of the best French press coffee makers in Canada.
Following our last update, we recommend the Cafe du Chateau B01J4O0T4E French Press Coffee Maker for its ease of use, aesthetically-pleasing design, and great performance.
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Why Choose A French Press For Camp Coffee
A French press is a good choice for camping because its a simple way to get a great cup of coffee with minimal equipment and waste. French press coffee is tastier than boiled coffee or a percolator. Its easier than pourover, especially if youre making it on the ground. Theres no paper filters needed, and no extraneous parts to lose. The French press doesnt care what heat source to heat up your water, so its versatile.
Not every good French press is a good choice for camping, though. Glass is just fine around the house, but you need something stronger for camp use, usually metal or plastic. While youre better off transferring your coffee to a thermos to get it off the grounds once its brewed, I dont go to that kind of trouble when camping. A good camping French press should be well-insulated so it holds onto the heat for your second cup of coffee. This is also useful for cold mornings where youre brewing your coffee at well below room temperature. A bad pot wont even give you a hot first cup of coffee.
When you take your French press camping, you should do a little prep-work to make your morning coffee easier. Pregrind your coffee and portion it out at home into one-pot units. I recommend reusable plastic 1-cup containers, since theyre useful around camp for storing leftovers or easy to stack and store for taking home. Ziptop plastic bags are fine too, but are harder to empty all the way and leave you with more trash.