The French Press has a reputation for muddy, over-extracted coffee. James Hoffmann’s technique fixes that with one key insight: don’t plunge. His method produces a surprisingly clean, full-bodied cup by letting gravity and time do the work.
| Method | French Press |
| Coffee | 30g (or 15g for one cup) |
| Water | 500ml (or 250ml for one cup) |
| Ratio | 1:16.67 (60g per litre) |
| Grind | Medium-coarse |
| Water Temp | Boiling (off the kettle) |
| Total Time | ~10 minutes |
Step by Step
- Add coffee to the French Press.
- Pour all the water directly off the boil. Start your timer.
- Wait 4 minutes. Don’t touch it. A crust of grounds will form on top.
- Break the crust (4:00) — Use a spoon to stir the surface, breaking through the crust. Most grounds will sink.
- Scoop the foam — Use two spoons to remove the foam and any floating grounds from the surface.
- Wait 5+ more minutes. This lets the fine particles settle to the bottom. The longer you wait, the cleaner the cup.
- Plunge to the surface only — Push the plunger down just until the mesh sits on top of the liquid. Don’t press it to the bottom.
- Pour gently and stop before you reach the sludge at the bottom.
Watch the Full Guide
Why This Works
The traditional approach — steep for 4 minutes and plunge hard — forces fine particles through the mesh and into your cup. Hoffmann’s method avoids this entirely:
- Breaking the crust lets the grounds sink naturally instead of staying suspended.
- Scooping the foam removes the lightest particles that would otherwise end up in your cup.
- The extra wait time allows everything to settle to the bottom, acting as a natural filter.
- Barely plunging means you’re not forcing any sediment through the mesh.
The result is a French Press coffee that’s remarkably clean but still has the full body the method is known for.
Tips
- Patience pays off. The extra 5-minute wait is what makes this technique work. Don’t rush it.
- Use a coarser grind than you think. Since the brew time is long (~10 minutes total), a medium-coarse grind prevents over-extraction.
- You’ll lose a little volume to the sludge at the bottom. That’s the trade-off for a clean cup.
Scale It with Coffee Calculator
Brewing for one or for a crowd? Coffee Calculator lets you enter any coffee dose and get the exact water weight for the French Press ratio. No mental math, no ratio charts.
Recipe by James Hoffmann. Watch more on his YouTube channel.