From Kev @ coffeeblog. Do This One Thing: Don't Take The Plunge.

Hello   Kev here :-), Do This One Thing... Don't Plunge  Maybe you're like me, and you don't use the cafetiere a lot, but sometimes you just crave a good old fashioned cafetiere coffee. Or you may be like many Brits who still swear by their cafetiere. In either case, I have a really quick and simple tip for you today, and that is, don't plunge your cafeitere.   Why Not? The main reason, is because James Hoffmann says so. I've been told by some people that they see me as the Northern James Hoffmann, someone told me they see me as a younger Northern James Hoffmann, which isn't very kind to James, as I'm a couple of years older than him! ;-) But in any case, while I take that as a massive complement, it's one I can't agree with. James Hoffmann has probably forgotten more about coffee today, than I will ever know! I certainly know a heck of a lot more about coffee now than I did in 2015 when I started developing a passion for speciality coffee and home baristering, and I understand enough to allow me to create content that is particularly useful to beginner home baristas & people who're just getting into speciality coffee. But James Hoffmann is one of the people who the other coffee professionals learn from, myself included. So when he gives a suggestion, I try it, and about a year into creating coffeeblog, he published his video on the Ultimate cafetiere technique, OK, he called it the Ultimate French Press technique, but we know what he meant ;-).   Watch the Video I tried his method, and as I suspected it would be, it was the best Cafetiere coffee I'd ever tried, so whenever I brew this way now, I use his technique or a slight variation on it. OK this isn't only down to not plunging, but I think if you just adopt this one part of the technique, your coffee will improve as a result.  What's different about the Hoff's technique, well there are a few things actually.  The first one is that he recommends a finer grind than the traditional very coarse cafetiere grind. If you grind your own, then just try taking the grind slightly finer than you usually would, we're not talking espresso grind, it's more like a medium filter grind. The next one is the brew time, he recommends leaving it initially for four minutes, and then stirring, and then scooping off any bits still floating on the top, and leaving for a further 5 minutes! If you're wondering about the ratio, he uses a 1:17 ratio, 60 grams per litre. After this total 9 minute brew time, what's quite a bit different about the coffee is how clean it is, and this is where the not plunging bit becomes important. What you do is to push the plunger down just until it connects with the top of the coffee, so it's just acting as a strainer, and then very carefully pour in an attempt to leave the settled sediment at the bottom, and just pour lovely clean coffee.  I know a lot of people will struggle with a 9 min total brew time, but I think even if you don't leave your coffee to brew for this long, using the plunger just as a strainer, and being as careful as possible to not disturb the sediment too much, you'll end up with a cleaner cup. So just give this a try the next time you're using your cafetiere, and see what you think.  If you don't currently have one, and this has inspired you to reacquaint yourself with cafetiere brewing, see: Best Cafetieres And to for even better cafetiere coffee, also see: Best Coffee For Cafetiere I hope you enjoyed this edition of Brew Time, and I'll see you next week :-).  Thanks again, Kev coffeeblog.co.uk cworks.co.uk Follow me on Twitter Follow me on Instagram Follow me on Facebook Subscribe to my YouTube Channel Become an Accredited Coffee Botherer

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