How to Make French Press Coffee: Ratio, Grind Size and Steep Time

The French press (also called a cafetière or plunger) is the easiest way to make full-bodied coffee at home. There's no paper filter and no special pouring technique. You soak the grounds in hot water, then push a metal mesh down to separate them. That simplicity is also why it goes wrong so often. Get the coffee to water ratio, grind size or steep time wrong and you end up with a thin, sour cup or a bitter, muddy one.

The short reel above shows the whole process in under a minute. The numbers below are the same ones our students use when they practise manual brewing in the lab, and they match recipes widely used by coffee professionals.

What you need

• A French press of any size. Glass, steel and double-walled models all work; double-walled steel holds heat better.
• Freshly roasted whole beans, ideally used within a few weeks of the roast date.
• A burr grinder, or ask your roaster to grind coarse for French press.
• A kitchen scale (grams). Spoon measures vary too much with grind and roast.
• A kettle and a spoon. A timer on your phone is enough.
• Good water. Coffee is more than 98% water, so very hard or very salty tap water flattens the taste. Our guide to the best water for coffee (TDS and hardness) explains what to look for.

What is the best French press ratio?

The best French press ratio for most people is between 1:15 and 1:17, which means 1 g of coffee for every 15 to 17 g (ml) of water. Start at around 1:16. Go towards 1:15 if you like it stronger or drink it with milk, and towards 1:17 for a lighter cup.

A well-known recipe from former World Barista Champion James Hoffmann uses 30 g of coffee to 500 g of water, which is roughly 1:16.7 (recipe summary here). The Specialty Coffee Association's long-standing brewing guidance sits in the same area, at around 55 g of coffee per litre of water. If your coffee tastes weak, change the ratio before you change anything else.

French press coffee to water ratio chart

Presses are sold by "cups", but a French press cup is small (about 120 ml), so check the volume printed on the box. Fill to just below the spout, not to the brim, to leave room for the plunger and the crust.

No scale? A level tablespoon of coarse ground coffee is very roughly 5–7 g depending on the beans, so treat spoon measures as a rough starting point and buy a cheap scale when you can.

What grind size is best for French press?

Use a coarse grind, roughly like coarse sea salt or breadcrumbs, with particles you can easily see and feel. Medium-coarse is fine if you follow the longer settle-and-skim method below.

The metal mesh filter lets fine particles through, so a fine grind gives you a muddy, over-extracted, bitter cup that's also hard to press. Too coarse and the water cannot extract enough flavour in four minutes, so the coffee tastes thin and sour. Blade grinders produce a mix of dust and chunks, which is the biggest single cause of sludge. For a side-by-side view of every brew method, see our coffee grind size chart.

How to make French press coffee: step by step

This recipe is for a 500 ml press (two mugs). Scale it with the chart above.

1. Heat the water. Bring fresh water to the boil. Immersion brewing loses heat quickly, so water just off the boil (around 93–100°C) works well. Pour a little into the empty press to warm it, then tip it out.
2. Weigh and grind. Weigh 30–33 g of beans and grind them coarse, right before brewing.
3. Add coffee and tare. Put the grounds in the press, place it on the scale and zero it.
4. Pour all the water. Start your timer and pour 500 g of water fairly quickly (about 10 seconds), making sure all the grounds get wet. No separate bloom is needed for this method.
5. Steep for 4 minutes. Leave it alone. A crust of grounds and foam will form on top. Put the lid on (plunger up) to hold heat if you like.
6. Break the crust. At 4:00, stir the top gently with a spoon. Most of the grounds will sink.
7. Skim. Use two spoons to scoop off the foam and floating bits left on the surface. This removes a lot of the bitterness and grit.
8. Wait 5–8 minutes. Let the fine particles settle to the bottom. The coffee cools to a drinkable temperature at the same time.
9. Press gently. Lower the plunger only until it sits just under the surface. You're using it as a strainer, not a piston, so don't push it into the grounds at the bottom.
10. Pour slowly and serve. Pour all the coffee out into cups or a jug, and stop before the last few millilitres, which hold the sediment.

In a hurry? You can press and pour straight after the 4-minute steep. The cup will be heavier and a little grittier, but still good.

How long should you steep French press coffee?

Steep French press coffee for about 4 minutes before you break the crust. That's the most widely recommended time. With a coarse grind, anywhere from 4 to 5 minutes works, and darker roasts often taste better on the shorter side.

Steep time and grind work together. If your coffee tastes sour or watery at 4 minutes, grind a little finer or steep a minute longer. If it tastes harsh and drying, grind coarser or shorten the steep. Change one thing at a time so you know what made the difference. The extra 5–8 minutes of settling in the method above adds little extraction, because most of the grounds are already resting at the bottom.

How to make French press coffee without bitterness or sludge

Bitterness and sludge both usually come from fine particles: too fine a grind, a blade grinder, or pressing hard so the fines are forced up through the mesh. Fix the grind first, then use the skim-and-settle method.

• Grind coarser and use a burr grinder for an even grind.
• Skim the crust after stirring rather than pushing it down.
• Let it settle before pressing, and press slowly with light pressure.
• Decant immediately. Coffee left sitting on the grounds keeps extracting and turns bitter, so pour it all into a jug or flask.
• Leave the last bit in the press. Most sediment collects at the bottom.
• Want a totally clean cup? Pour through a paper filter, or try pour-over instead; our pour-over guide for V60 and Chemex covers the paper-filter methods.

Common French press mistakes

Using pre-ground supermarket coffee

Most pre-ground coffee is ground for drip or espresso machines, which is far too fine for a French press. It also goes stale quickly once ground. If you must buy ground coffee, ask for a coarse French press grind.

Measuring with a scoop

A scoop of dark roast weighs less than a scoop of light roast, so your strength changes every time. Weighing takes ten seconds and makes your coffee repeatable.

Leaving coffee in the press

The plunger does not stop extraction. The second cup poured 15 minutes later will be noticeably more bitter than the first.

Forcing the plunger

If the plunger is hard to push, the grind is too fine. Forcing it can spray hot coffee and pushes fines into your cup. Lift it slightly and press again slowly, then grind coarser next time.

Dirty mesh

Old coffee oils build up in the mesh and taste rancid. Take the plunger apart and wash the screens regularly.

Troubleshooting your French press coffee

• Sour, thin or weak: grind finer, use more coffee (towards 1:15) or use hotter water.
• Bitter, harsh or dry: grind coarser, decant straight after pressing and check your beans are not over-roasted.
• Muddy or gritty: grind coarser, skim the crust, wait longer before pressing and do not pour the last bit.
• Flat taste even with good beans: look at your water. Very hard or heavily treated water mutes flavour.

A practical note for Pakistan: in summer heat, freshly roasted beans go stale faster, so buy smaller bags, keep them in an airtight container away from sunlight and the stove, and grind only what you need. In a family that mostly drinks chai, a press is also an easy way to make two or three mugs of coffee at once without buying a machine.

French press vs other brewing methods

A French press gives a heavier body and more texture than paper-filtered coffee, because the oils and very fine particles pass through the metal mesh. Pour-over methods such as the V60 and Chemex give a cleaner, lighter cup that shows more of the bean's acidity and aroma. Espresso is a different technique altogether, using pressure and a fine grind; if you're curious, read our guide to espresso dose, yield and time. For a wider look at every simple home method, see how to make coffee at home.

Learn manual brewing hands-on

At Barista Studio in Bahria Town Phase 6, Islamabad, students practise manual brewing, including French press and V60/Chemex pour-over, alongside espresso and milk work on commercial machines. The 15 Days Program, the 30 Days Program and the 3 Months Professional Program are all hands-on, with a trainer tasting and correcting your cups. See the details on our barista courses page or read about our barista course for students from Islamabad. Students from Lahore, Peshawar and other cities are welcome to travel in, and the 10 AM to 1 PM schedule leaves afternoons free; our coffee training in Pakistan page has more. When you're ready, you can book your seat on WhatsApp.

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