So I have drank coffee on and off since I was a teenager, and I recently took probably a 2 year break from it. When I was drinking coffee, it was usually because they had a pod system at work, and it was an excuse to get up from my desk and take a break. With that said, I have been watching this Netflix show Resident Alien recently, and there is a lot of coffee drinking in it, and I started craving a hot cup. On my way home from dropping my daughter off at daycare, I stopped at the local gas station\market and got a cup and was like “Man, I miss coffee, and this coffee is pretty terrible.”
So this got me thinking that I want to get back into morning coffee tradition, but I no longer work in an office, I work from home. I don’t want to go pod system because they are wasteful, weak, and a pain in the but to clean\maintain. My wife doesn’t drink coffee, so I don’t need to make a whole pot. So I was thinking of going French press, as that seems to be suggested in a lot of places for single-serve.
Do you folks have a suggestion on French press brands? I know it’s a pretty simple mechanism, but I’m not against spending a couple extra bucks to get something that will enhance my coffee making\drinking experience. Additionally, I am looking for something that will filter out as many grounds as possible. Are you guys for\against paper filters? Should I get a metal one? Do I need one of those things that goes on top of my mug to hold the filter? Where do I start?
I know coffee can get really mad scientist really quick, and I’m not trying to go that route (yet). My brother-in-law has one of those electric kettles that gets to an exact temperature, and he grinds his own beans and weights them, and does the whole swirly pour to get “the perfect cup” and while that seems cool, I am not ready to take it to that level.
So what is your suggestion on “starter builds”?
Also, what about beans? Do I grind my own? Do I start with store bought stuff (I always liked Cafe Bustelo)?
Any and all advice is welcome.
Edit: I also forgot to add - I have read about cold brewing being really smooth. How do I cold brew and heat it back up? Do people do that? Would love to hear more about it.
Edit2: Oh man, this community is awesome! I didn’t expect so many great responses. Pulling the trigger on an Aeropress after reading all the comments here and watching some James Hoffman videos about it. It definitely looks like the right fit for me. I’m not going to get a grinder quite yet, as I feel like I am just beginning my journey and I don’t want to go balls to the wall right out the gate. There is a coffee shop right down the street from me that sells\grinds beans, so that sounds like the best bet for trying different things.
Sxan mentioned the Toddy’s kit, and that also has my interest. Maybe that’s next after a grinder. I have a feeling I am about to go down an expensive caffeine fueled rabbit hole. Wish me luck. I will report back.
You are the perfect fit for an Aeropress. Paper filter, dead easy to clean, super versatile (can make strong coffee, normal coffee, can have a ton of variance or be stupid simple), and a single cup with no huge space requirements.
I recommend not grinding coffee yet. See if you like using the aeropress! If you do, consider purchasing a 1zpresso ZP6, which is your best bang for buck hand grinder.
Blade grinders are going to be worse than just buying pre-ground, but freshly ground coffee is an amazing treat. That said, getting an entry-level burr grinder is far more than an aeropress, so that’s why I recommend testing the water first.
I really agree with this. Aeropress is super easy, allows you to experiment, relatively affordable and bulletproof. You can do drip coffee type drinks, or espresso style drinks.
I also agree about grinding. It’s unfortunate cause it’s such a step up in taste, but cheap grinders are all so awful.
OP, if you want to get a grinder eventually, come back to this community for some recommendations. Depending on what kind of coffee you like (and if you mind hand grinding), there’s a bunch of options, but they cost more than you’d think, and I’m assuming you don’t want to drop $150 on something.
For what coffee to use, I’d say to get a small bag once at a time from a local roaster and have them grind it. Keep it airtight; lots of coffee roasters use bags that are airtight and resealable. Air is the enemy of flavor. Avoid supermarket coffee because it is often months old. That’s bad for whole beans, and really bad for preground coffee. Try to only buy from places that include a “roasted on” date.
You said you liked bustelo. If I remember right, that’s preground espresso thats roasted dark. Most of us here are going to steer you towards lighter roasts, but if that’s something you really liked, there’s no reason you can’t get darker roasted coffee.
Aeropress, but be sure you understand how much coffee it makes. You might want the XL version or not.
Oh man there are so many starting points! If I understand the goals you gave us, they are:
- Want good coffee
- No pour over
- Willing to do French Press
- Minimize grounds in the brew
- Single serve
- Brother-in-law is too intense about it for my current state
With that I would recommend an AeroPress. It is great for single serving, it extracts using immersion first (similar to French Press) then pressure, the paper filter ensures it will be a clean cup (no grounds), it is much easier to clean up than a French Press, and there a lot of different recipes to play with should you ever choose to. Plus it’s relatively cheap.
Cold brew is also nice, especially when made in batches. You can probably already do this with vessels you have at home. Toddy cold brew is a well-known system. I also have (and prefer) the Oxo cold brew system - I find it easier to handle and looks better on the counter.
If you are willing to get a burr grinder you will immediately make better coffee, regardless of the method you choose! There are many directions to go here, so you will need to research to find what makes most sense to you. Skip the blade grinder. Conical burr is fine for what you’re getting into. A safe bet that will work fine for French Press, AeroPress, and/or Cold Brew is the Oxo Brew Conical Burr Grinder that you can find for around $100 in the US.
There are so many deep rabbit holes from there. Maybe you’ll come join us someday…it’s a lot of fun and one of my favorite hobbies! Sounds like your brother-in-law is lost somewhere down here too. We all started asking the same questions as you!
After reading through some replies, I don’t think I’m going to rule out pour-over. It sounds like a lot of people like that method. It looks like I have some research to do, but I’ve been given some good starting points. Thanks!
I’d rule out pour over initially. The barrier to entry for pour over requires a good burr grinder, which can add several hundred dollars to your starting total.
If you start with an aeropress, and enjoy it and want fresher, more consistent coffee, then you can buy a burr grinder, and even a pour over setup (which will also include a gooseneck kettle), but you already know you want that.
I would say burr grinder and French press. I usually use a machine to do my coffee, because I’m lazy. Machine tries to mimic a pour over.
But when i choose between my aeropress and French press, I almost always use the French press.
I have a baratza encore grinder, which is a decent entry level grinder. I think my French press is a Bodom, that makes a single 10oz cup.
For research. James Hoffman has a great YouTube channel on lots of coffee topics.
Ahhh great! You’re starting to slide already! A pour over is my daily driver and my preferred method for light roasts. If you go this route you will additionally need a scale and will greatly benefit from a gooseneck kettle.
Folx have some great comments above. Personally, I think a plastic V60 is a great starting point to refine your technique without having to worry about the thermal impact of glass or porcelain on your slurry. A clever dripper is a good option too.
Also a good hand grinder (eg: 1zpresso) makes a world of difference for pour overs!
Came here to also say Areopress. You can’t beat it for price and quality.
Also invest in a good grinder.
I started with a Haro hand grinder and it works fantastically and have upgraded to a good electric burr grinder.
Highly recommend James Hoffman on YouTube. He’s a world class barista (literally the champ one year) and has a ton of fun informational videos. :)
James Hoffman. Check his YouTube channel.
Especially the one where he guides a non coffee drinker through tasting to find one that they would like
Watch some James Hoffman videos on YouTube about the basics. Then progress to everything else.
French press is always going to have some “mouth feel” because of the mesh filters.
I can highly, highly recommend the “Clever” dripper which James Hoffmann reviewed here. It’s very similar to French press in method, great for single serve, almost totally foolproof, and uses paper filters for a very clean cup. I use Hoffmann’s recipe and basically always have a good cup. There’s a similar device called the Hario Switch which some people like more but I haven’t tried it; the Clever has been great.
As for grinding your own, do it. Pre-ground coffee starts to go bad after a day, and just isn’t as good. Start with an inexpensive burr grinder if you don’t want to invest hundreds of dollars right away, but be aware that price/performance increases roughly linearly up to like $250, so spending more gets you a better result. Hand grinders like 1ZPresso can be even better for the price but are a little more work. The nice thing about immersion methods like the Clever though is that they’re more forgiving of bad grinds, so you won’t need to spend too much unless you want to use a drip method like V60.
You’ll also need a cheap scale for weighing beans if you want consistent results. I recommend getting one that goes to 0.1 grams for single serve, with a large enough surface to hold your cup. It shouldn’t cost more than about $20. I use this one.
You’ll also want to experiment with beans. Modern coffee enthusiasts drift towards light to medium roasts instead of dark roasts, because you can extract more subtle interesting flavors and less bitterness. I have a penchant for very light, “natural” processed African coffees for their tart berry flavors. But it’s all personal preference. There’s way too much to get into in terms of processing, country of origin, blend vs single origin, etc. Try everything and see what you like. Coffee subscription services like Trade and Mistobox can be a convenient way to try a lot of things, or you can do what I do and just find a great local roaster to order from.
Btw, welcome! Check out James Hoffmann’s channel on YouTube, it’s my favorite coffee resource on the Internet. He has a ton of great advice in general. If you like print, he also has a small book called “How To Make The Best Coffee At Home” which is excellent and really all you need.
Personally I’d probably get an aero press if I were starting up myself and a DF54/MeeCoffee grinder. I second the comments for looking at James Hoffman.
Hoffman is one of my favorite youtubers. Great presentation, lots of knowledge, straightforward. I know he is the most popular coffee youtuber and that may peeve some people off, but he is the most popular for a reason – because he’s the best.
His aeropress videos really helped me make the best cup of coffee I have ever made – every time – even though I don’t use his exact method. A couple hours watching his videos is well worth the time.
https://m.youtube.com/@jameshoffmann
This guy is great, he is a professional coffee guy so he will get in the weeds a bit but not in a hard to digest way. I personally use a French press that’s metal and insulated but that will get me 3-4 cups of coffee. If you’re looking for strictly single serve then try looking at an aeropress, they are cheap and given the right technique (which James above does go over) you will get tasty coffee. As for good coffee that’s a little bit subjective. Grinding the beans yourself will give the best results but I’m not picky myself and usually pick up the preground stuff. As for my personal way of choosing which, I just look to see if I recognize the label and if it’s a dark roast, if I don’t and it is I’ll give it a whirl
I personally use a French press that’s metal and insulated but that will get me 3-4 cups of coffee
Same here. When I was deciding, most people recommended glass for cleanability and a separate insulated carafe to keep it warm for a while. That seems like extra work. Sure it would be great to run it through a filter to get rid of any grounds that made it there and I’m sure a dedicated carafe would keep it warmer longer, but the steel insulated one works well for my typical usage (plus I wanted to be able to bring it camping so glass was out)
With Hoffmans French press technique I barely get any grounds in the final pour. Basically you break that little puck of grounds on top after brewing and let it sink down for like 5 minutes before you put the plunger in
The coffee is not too bitter? I just looked it up and apparently the technique involves twice the time. However I’ve found my French Press coffee too bitter after only 1-2 minutes extra
It does take longer yeah but no its actually cleaner than at least the way I was doing it which was just to plunge it down real slow right after the brew. I’m not a coffee expert myself but I think the extra bitter compounds find their way to the bottom along with that coffee ground sludge leaving the coffee nice and clean as long as you dont pour out that last little but of liquid at the end. It’s also a lot closer to comfortable drinking temperature after that second phase so you can start drinking it pretty much right away
Another recommendation for getting an aeropress. It makes (IMHO) better choice than a french press and is still cheap, easy to clean and makes great coffee.
The next purchase you want is definitely a decent grinder that’ll go fine /course enough that you can make any type of brew method you might want to in the future. It should also grind consistently size wise. As a setup that could do you for years (it’s more or less what I use, though I also use a Bellman stovetop steamer) before you decide to down any further rabbit holes - e.g. espresso.
Get an Aeropress.
Lots of people have suggested Aeropress, and I agree that if you’re having a single cup, it’s a good fit. It the trick will be getting a good grind without sbending a lot on a grinder.
But I’m really responding to your edit:
I have read about cold brewing being really smooth. How do I cold brew and heat it back up? Do people do that?
At this point I’m starting to feel like a shill for Toddy’s, but if you think you’ll start drinking coffee daily, this is the path I’d recommend. The entire kit will cost you $50. You pour a pound of ground beans in the tub and fill it with cold water, and let it sit overnight; the next day, you pop out the bung and let it drain the brew into the glass decanter (that comes with the kit). What you end up with is 1.5L of concentrated brew that you keep in the fridge. When you want coffee, fill your mug 1/3 with the concentrate, and the rest with hot water. I drink about 2 cups a day, and brew coffee once a week. The cold brewing tends to prevent bitterness, but it can still be as strong as you like - there have been times I’ve gone 50/50 for a strong cup.
I have a not inexpensive Italian hand-press espresso system which I use a couple of times a week, for lattes & cappuccinos and such, but the Toddy is my favorite system. Cheap, easy to clean, easy to brew, it brews a bunch of coffee meant to be stored in the fridge, and it’s super forgiving on bean quality.
My only hesitation in recommending the Toddy to you is because it sounds like you might just be looking for a way to have a cup sometimes. If you can’t drink what the Toddy brews within a week or two - the equivalent of 4.5L of coffee - it may be too much. It’s perfect for 1-2 cups a day drinkers.
Nice and thoughtful post about cold brew and the Toddy! I did Toddy batches weekly for a couple years and enjoyed the smoothness and convenience you described. I had to purchase another container because of the dreaded crack near the stopper. Eventually I switched to the Oxo and haven’t looked back. Benefits are: no need to mess with sponge filters, no reaching under to pull out the stopper, looks great on the countertop, self-contained and packs up nicely for storage.
Same price range as the Toddy, so keep it in mind if your Toddy ever cracks. Happy brewing!
Oh heck, that looks great! Messing with the bung is my least favorite part of the Toddy system; I’ve always just forgiven it as part of an absurdly inexpensive system in a hobby where components can get expensive quickly. But if there’s a similar option that eliminates that? Fantastic!
The Toddy sponges don’t bother me much. Early on I bought a bunch of these unbleached cotton bags that work as inserts to the Toddy; they make dealing with the grounds easier, and I replace the sponge & bag once a year, just because; they’re so inexpensive, but I don’t see new ones make much difference except maybe the new sponges drain a little quicker. However, that isn’t to say I wouldn’t mind easier clean-up. Are those paper filters the same size as the Aeropress, do you know? They look pretty close. From what I can find, those are 2.3", and the Aeropress are 2.5". I’m curious, because I have a stockpile of about a million Aeropress filters.
Oh I forgot about the paper filters for the Oxo! I think you’re right about the slight difference in size. I stopped using the paper filters and only use the mesh screen, as I still enjoy the brews without them.
Do you not get too much sludge in that last cup?
Looks like a great system. I’ve bought three Toddys already (2 as gifts), so I feel as if I’ve been a good customer for them already; this Oxo looks petty nice, and I like the idea of a washable mesh. And, frankly, even if I do use the papers, they’re probably not much worse environmentally than Toddy’s reusable cotton ones.
Can you get extra glass carafes? We do both decaf and caff in our house, so I need two.
Yeah, I think you can buy the Oxo carafe separately if you want an extra, but I haven’t looked into it. We transfer the brew concentrate into taller carafes so they don’t take up as much space in our fridge (I think they’re the 1L Anchor Hocking carafes with lids).
By the time we are pouring the last bit of the concentrate, the small amount of sludge stays in the carafe and doesn’t impact the cup!
Well, thanks for turning me on to something new. I hate to be all consumerist, since I’m happy with the Toddy, but the Oxo does seem to have some improvements and it doesn’t break the bank.
👍
Aeropress is great and relatively easy, but you need to be able to adjust the grind size in order to dial in your cup at all, so I’d absolutely recommend getting a good hand grinder (1zpresso all the way) and grinding your own beans still.
I will also say that pour over setups and techniques can get crazy specific, but they absolutely don’t have to be. With the right cone and a quality grind, you can pretty much just dump water on top of and then give the cone a little swirl to flatten the bed. In my opinion, it’s actually the simplest way to get a clean/non-silty cup. I would get a Kalita Wave, which is more forgiving than the popular V60, and the whole process is just pouring heated water over coffee grounds til the cone is 1/2 to 2/3 full, and then repeating as it drains until you hit the desired amount of water. 3 and a half minutes and you’ve got a better cup than you’ll ever get out of a French press, faster and easier than an aeropress.
A second benefit of starting with a cone is that you’ll never have to, but any time you do feel like getting into deeper experimentation, you won’t have to buy anything new to do so. As someone who owns a nice-ish espresso machine, drip machine, aeropress, French press, immersion brewer, multiple V60s, and a Kalita Wave, I use the Wave nearly every day because it is the simplest to do while half asleep and it produces the best cup in my opinion.
Since you mention wanting to filter really well, I would recommend you take a look at chemex. It’s a pour over type of brewer but their smaller model is for a single serving and will be more lenient with the pour method since the chemex filters are so dense. Other pour over brewers will require more of a setup to maintain consistency (but you can also tweak the brew to your exact liking in this regard!).
Water temp and grind size are somewhat critical for quality coffee but you don’t need it right off the bat of course. I would get a grinder before a kettle, tbh; fresh grounds make a bigger difference than a few degrees difference in water temp. Do work on “calibrating” your water temp in whatever method you use, though. If you microwave the water, figure out how long to let it cool before it reaches 200 or whichever temp you find brews best for your beans.
Search for local roasters and buy some beans from them. Keep searching until you find a brand you like. Grocery store beans are very mid. (There are many weekly “drop” style bean shippers that are pricey but let you discover online roasters that will ship you beans; it’s been invaluable for me to find really good roasts!)
As for cold brew, it’s a separate beast entirely and I wouldn’t explore it just yet. I used to make large batches for my nitro setup and did that in a bucket. Definitely super smooth but a bit more work. You can make smaller batches with a French press. I’ve always gotten my presses from IKEA because they’re cheap yet effective. Far from fancy. I would never consider heating up cold brew personally.
For me, the single cup v60 is where it’s at for a great drink regardless of the cost, and you really don’t have to break the bank for a solid setup. A decent hand grinder, gooseneck kettle with a thermometer, and brewer can all be had within $200. Once you find a recipe you like and get comfy with the technique it’s pretty easy to make brews that are consistently better than most anything you’d get from a shop or cafe.
1zpresso makes nice grinders in the $100-$200 range, and I wouldn’t be very picky about the kettle unless you’re using an induction stove top. Hario v60 brewers are about $20.
If you want to put the grinding issue aside and try things before committing to tools, you might see if you have some local roaster/cafes nearby. Most that sell beans will also grind for you, and they should grind according to whatever brew method you want to try.
Start with a good burr grinder, quality coffee, and a simple way to brew it: French Press if you want a couple standard cups in a session, Moka Pot if you want a nice strong single serving, or an ibrik/cezve if you want a strong single serving with a little mud in the bottom.
