Very nice inexpensive French Press.
Pros:
* Very fine screen mesh keeps out even regular grind grounds, allowing owners to use regular coffiee.
* 2 Mug / 20oz / 600ml glass beaker.
* Attractive, Removable, Stainless Steel Holder for easy cleaning.
* Box says to heat glass with warm water before filling with boiling with water, or it may shatter. I've never heard of hot water shattering a bottle, no matter how old and ill treated. Just don't put the glass in the microwave, or it WILL probably break.
* Makes a tasty cup of coffee, without any bitterness, if prepared correctly.*
Cons:
* Came poorly packaged for shipment.
* This was my 2nd French Press. My first one broke during shipping. This second one was packed just as poorly, but made it unscathed.
Before I move on to the "recipe", I'd like to address some of the things that other reviewers have said about this item.
O Some people have complained that the beaker slides out of the cage, though I have not experienced that. It would be a simple fix though, take the beaker out of the cage, then cup your hands around to the front of the cage, where the metal is split. Gently press the sides inward, in an arc, so that you are not simply bending them inward, which would create an oblong opening, but try to make their circumference smaller by pushing around the diameter and then in. Do this from both sides, but not so much that it's noticeable. Be gentle. Then, with the carafe / beaker still removed from it's cage, also bend the handle a bit inward. Like with the sides, don't simply push it forward, but try to make the arc slightly smaller. Again though, not too much. If you've done it right, the cage will hold the carafe just a little bit tighter, and the handle will help by gently pushing the carafe forward just a bit. Not too tight, or too far. If the metal presses against the glass too much, it will scar and scratch, and eventually break. To avoid that you can use a little bit of thin cork-board with stick-um on the back of it. In fact, a couple of these on the inside of each side of where the two pieces of metal meet at the front of the carafe may be just enough to keep everything in place.
O Someone else mentioned that if he places his thumb upon the lid as he pours, the coffee is want to rush out and burn him. Again, I have no problem with this. In fact, the lid is in two pieces. An outer metal part made of stainless steel, and an inner plastic shell that keeps the worst of the boiling hot coffee off the metal lid.
O A person also mentioned that, using this press, you will be eating grounds. Two things. First, you're NOT supposed to be using regular coffee grounds with a French Press. You are supposed to use a CORSE grind. Looking at the machines in the stores (because you'll never get it as well done with your $10, $40, or even $100 grinder at home) you will see that the scale goes from Espresso (Fine Grind) to Drip (Medium Fine Grind), to Perk (Medium Grind), to Press (Course Grind). There is a reason for that. The French Press cannot, by it's very nature, filter out particles that are smaller than the holes in it's mesh 'filter'. The fix is to get the proper grind (course) for a French Press. Easy peasy. I don't have that problem. And not because I use the course grind either (I've got too much regular grind to use up before I do that!). Rather I am simply a coffee sipper, not a gulper. This French Press makes two nice sized cups of coffee, and I sip on those throughout the day. By the time I'm down to the dregs, ALL the loose grounds (resembling dust in the water) have settled to the bottom, where they STAY, unless I'm foolish enough to try to get every last drop out. I leave only a gram or three of coffee in the cup, and it evaporates even before I'm half way through the next, which I again nurse, which allows the grounds to settle to the bottom of the second cup.
O Then another reviewer shocked me by saying that unless he's careful, the coffee will "shoot up" and burn his hand when he presses the filter down into the coffee. I'm sorry, if you're pushing so hard and so fast that the coffee rebounds and "shoot's up" burning your hand, you sound like a menace, and a danger to others in the kitchen, as well as to yourself. At what point in brewing a cup of coffee, or tea, or even beer for that matter, is it proper to get violent with the liquid? The concept of bruising comes to mind. I don't know if it's possible to bruise coffee, like you can wine, beer, and spirits, but you keep it up and you'll find out. Coffee, like other beverages, depends for it's taste on what are called volatile organics. These can and do begin to evaporate into the air as soon as the coffee bean is cracked, and it doesn't sound too far fetched to me that manhandling your coffee might damage or destroy some of them. That is why even whole beans are often transported inside airtight containers. Also pushing down with great force like that is going to cause some of the coffee grounds up and around the edge of the filter to pass between the mesh and the glass, as the liquid pushes against the screen.
To properly filter out the grinds, you push the screen down SLLOOOOOWWWLLY through the coffee. It should take between 2 and 3 seconds for the filter to travel to the bottom of the coffee. Nothing wrong with taking an extra second or two either. And you should be able to feel the water / coffee resisting your motion. You're making coffee for goodness sake, not plunging a toilet!
It's not a race, it's a cup of coffee.
O Then lastly (or, actually firstly) one gentleman said this French Press is only for people who like warm coffee. And despite the fact that I can't put anything in my mouth that I can't comfortably pour into my lap, he's wrong. I may experience great pain when putting something in my mouth exceeding 100 deg, but coffee BREWING is another matter entirely. Without extremely HOT water, you cannot properly brew coffee, and you end up leaving a lot of the good taste inside the grounds. And extra TIME will not extract those flavors well, but it extracts the bitterness of coffee quite well.
Not having something of the correct 20oz size, like an electric kettle, or an old-fashioned Perk-O-Later, to boil water in, I take a large ceramic oven dish, fill that with water, and nuke it on high for 7 minutes, or until I can see it boiling. (If you do this also, I recommend you first clean the ceiling of the microwave first, your you'll find yourself a proud papa of some pretty squirrelly looking water! I put the French press between the two sinks, then try to pour my boiling water into the carafe without burning myself. (Someone threw out my nice large funnels, and so I can't use those.) So incidentally, a lot of the boiling water misses the carafe, and ends up going down the sink. But I still manage to nearly fill it to the top anyway.
Apparently, there are a good number of people who need a quick course on the proper brewing with a French Press. I'm not saying I'm an expert, but every place I looked, I found nearly the same exact instructions. So, either we're all suffering from the echo-chamber effect, or somebody's doing something right.
*How to prepare coffee using a French Press:
============================================
1) Put 1 tablespoon, or whatever amount you like, into the bottom of your French Press.
2) Bring 2 Cups / 20floz / 600 to a boil, either in microwave, on stove, or in hot water pot.**
3) Pour the nearly boiling water into the beaker and over the coffee grounds. A brownish foam should appear. Start stopwatch or countdown timer for either 4 minutes.
4) Let sit for 60 seconds, stir the foam into the grounds, and the grounds into the foam.
5) Cover with lid to keep as much heat in as possible
6) Wait an additional 3 minutes, allowing the coffee to steep.
7) At the end of 4 minutes total (1 minute + 2 Minutes) Slowly press the plunger down into the French Press as far as it can go.
8) Pour Coffee into two cups.
9) Enjoy two bitter-less cups of coffee!
10) Remove the coffee grounds, wash out and rinse the French Press, screen / filter, and lid with Hot Water and vinagre.
Allowing the grounds to steep for too long can cause bitterness.
Allowing the coffee grounds to sit in the bottom of the French Press, while it still has coffee will cause bitterness.
Failure to wash, of Letting the used grounds sit inside inside the Press / Beaker, even a try one, will cause coffee to impregnate the surface of the glass with stale coffee flavor.
Boiling the water along with the grounds is likely to cause the coffee to taste burned.
======================================
Summery:
Am I disappointed?
- Not with this one I'm not.
Would I recommend it?
- Yes!
To a friend?
- You bet!
Buy or Pass?
- BUY!
Superheated Water Warning: **WARNING! If you are using a microwave to heat your water, be careful how you approach it. It is possible to create super-heated water when using a microwave, and a container with no flaws on it's surface. Bubbles require some kind of surface imperfection to form. Then that first bubble itself becomes a surface imperfection, around which other bubbles grow. Usually it's a scratch or bump of the side or bottom of a cup or pan, but with glass and ceramics, it's possible to create a surface so smooth that the bubbles don't have anything to form around. Usually the act of boiling releases a tremendous amount of heat into the environment, causing the water to remain a fairly consistent temperature, even when everything else around it is much, MUCH hotter. This is why water makes such a good cooling agent. But when the water does not boil, it becomes super-heated, and can become much, much, hotter that water does normally. In this situation every molecule of water is basically searching desperately for just the tiniest little imperfection to become a bubble around, and at this point in time, if anything drops, is placed in, or lowered into the water, that creates a surface imperfection for that desperate H2O to release it's oxygen, which instantly creates more imperfections, that create more... and you get what is described as "Water Exploding", as the water just dumps tons of it's oxygen into the water, pushing that super-heated water up and all over everything in the near vicinity. Including arms and legs, torso's and faces. If you suspect that your water is super-heated, jostle your microwave BEFORE YOU OPEN IT. Or toss something into it from a distance. Remember, many people have gotten badly burned, when they simply picked up a cup of super-heated water, and it exploded into their faces.
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card
More to consider from Amazon Brands
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Reviews with images
Broke after first use.
I just got this product and I can't really describe how the glass broke but it broke in the bazaarest way. The top one third broke off in a complete circle so now the Carafate is two thirds its original size. All I did was pouring hot liquid and then somehow it cracked in a complete circle.
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2013
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2012
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2014
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2013
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2011
