It's an uncommon name to most, plunger coffee. But if you're reading this from New Zealand, Australia or South Africa you may be familiar with the phrase. Others would know it as French press coffee or press pot coffee. It's made in a coffee plunger, which is the same as a French press, coffee press or press pot. Regardless of what you call it, there is only one recipe on how to make plunger coffee perfectly.
Prior to its development, coffee was made by placing a pot filled with water and grounds on the stove until the water boiled. The grounds would settle to the bottom and what was left was poured for drinking. Having boiled away the oils that give coffee its flavor, the resulting brew was strong and bitter.
It's unclear where the coffee plunger was first developed. Italy and France both lay claim to its invention. There is a legend though that places it in France at the end of the 19th century.
The story goes that the coffee plunger, called the cafetière à piston in France, was an accidental discovery by an elderly man who forgot to add grounds to the water until it was boiling.
He decided to add the grounds anyway but they just floated on top of the water, creating a heady foam. Being a resourceful man, he put some cheese cloth over a metal screen and pushed the grounds to the bottom of the pot with a stick and, voila, the plunger pot was born.
The story might be true but the fact is the device was patented by an Italian by the name of Attilio Calimani in 1929.
It worked the same as the elderly man's crude device, but was vastly improved to incorporate a fitted plunger and a glass jar instead of a pot. From there we get the French press or coffee plunger used today.
It's a simple process that involves pouring hot water over coarsely ground coffee beans and letting it steep until desired strength is reached then plunging and drinking what rests above the filtered grounds.
What comes out is a full-bodied, richly-flavored, aromatic coffee. It's some of the best coffee I've tasted, really. You have to get the grind right and it might take some time to get the steep time down to where you like it, but once perfected you will have a hard time going back to regular drip coffee.
So here's how to use a coffee plunger to get a perfect pot of coffee.
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
1. You want to use a uniform large coarse ground for your beans. Whether you buy them that way or grind them yourself (fresh ground is better), large and coarse is the way to go as it keeps the grounds from slipping through the filter.
2. You also want to have the freshest pot you can when your coffee is ready to drink. The best way to achieve this is to preheat your glass carafe so that the boiling water isn't cooled too quickly by the cold glass. Add some of your boiled water to the carafe to get it heated.
3. Let the remaining boiled water sit for about 45 seconds to a minute to get the heat down. Boiling water can burn your grounds giving it a bitter taste.
4. Dump the water out of your carafe and add your grounds, typically 2.5 to 3 tablespoons per cup of water, depending on how strong you take it.
5. Pour the hot water into the carafe. Stir with a non-metallic utensil such as a chopstick or wooden spoon handle. Metal stirrers can cause micro-cracks in the glass.
6. Let steep 4 minutes with the plunger lid on. Don't let the filter touch the grounds if you can help it so that it doesn't cool the coffee. After steeping, gently press the plunger down slowly to the bottom of the carafe to filter the coffee. Plunging too quickly will send grounds up over the sides of the filter.
7. After plunging, pour and enjoy!
Enjoy this video if you are the type to do better with visual instruction.
And that is how to make plunger coffee, perfectly!
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