How to Make French Press Coffee (Ratio Chart + the No-Plunge Method)
Use 1 gram of coffee for every 15 grams of water, grind medium, brew with water just off the boil, and steep for 4 minutes. For a standard 1 litre press that is about 67 g of coffee, roughly 13 level tablespoons.
That is the whole recipe. The rest of this guide is the ratio chart for your press size, the two things people get wrong, and a technique that gets rid of most of the sludge at the bottom of the cup.
French press ratio chart
A word of warning on press sizes: the "cups" printed on a French press are about 4 oz (120 ml) each, not mugs. An "8-cup" press holds roughly 1 litre, which is about three actual mugs of coffee.
| Press size | Water | Coffee | Tablespoons |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-cup (350 ml) | 350 g | 23 g | about 4½ |
| 4-cup (500 ml) | 500 g | 33 g | about 6½ |
| Two mugs (600 ml) | 600 g | 40 g | about 8 |
| 8-cup (1 litre) | 1000 g | 67 g | about 13 |
| 12-cup (1.5 litre) | 1500 g | 100 g | about 20 |
Water is measured in grams because 1 ml of water weighs 1 g. Tablespoon figures are approximate: a level tablespoon of coarse coffee is around 5 g, but that shifts with roast and grind, which is why a cheap kitchen scale improves French press coffee more than almost anything else you can buy.
How much to adjust
The National Coffee Association gives a working range of 1:10 to 1:16 for French press. That is deliberately wide, because it is a matter of taste.
- 1:12 is strong and heavy, closer to how a lot of European cafes serve it.
- 1:15 is our default. Full-bodied but still clean.
- 1:17 is lighter and more tea-like, which suits fruity light roasts.
Note that a French press ratio is stronger than a pour-over ratio. There is no paper filter absorbing oils here, so the same numbers produce a heavier cup. Our pour-over ratio guide covers the comparison.
A note on the "official" ratio
You will see blogs cite an SCA-approved French press ratio. There isn't one. The Specialty Coffee Association's brewing standard explicitly excludes non-filter devices such as the French press from its scope, so any recipe presented as the SCA French press standard has been invented.
The figures worth trusting are the National Coffee Association's range above, and the recipes published by roasters and brewers who have actually tested them.
What you need
- A French press
- Coarse to medium ground coffee
- A kettle
- A scale, ideally, and a timer
- A spoon
The method, step by step
- Preheat the press. Swirl some hot water in it and tip it out. A cold glass carafe drops your brew temperature immediately.
- Add the coffee. Weigh it if you can. Give the press a shake so the bed sits flat.
- Pour. Add all the water at once, in a steady stream, making sure every ground is wet. Water should be just off the boil, around 90 to 96°C. The NCA specifies 93°C plus or minus 3°. If you have no thermometer, boil the kettle and wait 30 seconds.
- Start the timer and leave it alone. A crust of grounds will form on the surface. Do not stir it yet. Put the lid on, plunger up, to keep the heat in.
- At 4 minutes, break the crust. Stir gently a few times with a spoon. Most of the grounds will sink.
- Skim. Use two spoons to scoop off the foam and the grounds still floating on top, and discard them. This is where a lot of the bitterness lives.
- Plunge slowly and pour. Press down with gentle, even pressure over about 20 seconds. Pour all of it out straight away.
That last point matters. Coffee left sitting in the press keeps extracting against the grounds and turns bitter within minutes. If you are not drinking it all at once, decant it into a jug or a thermos.
The no-plunge method (fewer fines, cleaner cup)
The main complaint about French press is the silt at the bottom of the mug. James Hoffmann's widely used technique deals with it by changing two things: you skim, and you wait.
- Use 60 to 70 g of coffee per litre and a medium grind. Notably, he argues against going very coarse, which is the opposite of standard advice.
- Pour boiling water over the grounds and leave it completely undisturbed for 4 minutes.
- Stir the crust, then scoop off all the foam and floating grounds and throw them away.
- Wait another 5 minutes or more. This is the key step. The fine particles settle to the bottom on their own.
- Do not plunge. Rest the plunger on the surface of the liquid so it acts as a screen, and pour gently, leaving the sediment behind.
The trade-off is that you drink it at around 8 to 10 minutes and slightly cooler. What you get is a noticeably cleaner cup without the grit. Worth trying once before you decide which camp you are in.
Grind size
Conventional advice is coarse, like raw sugar or breadcrumbs, because the metal mesh lets fines through.
The nuance: if you skim and settle rather than plunge, a medium grind extracts better and the fines are no longer a problem. If you plunge conventionally, stay coarse.
What almost never works is fine grind in a French press. It clogs the mesh, makes the plunger hard to press, and floods the cup with sludge.
Five things that ruin French press coffee
- Boiling water straight onto the grounds. Wait 30 seconds after the kettle clicks off.
- Leaving the coffee in the press. It keeps brewing. Decant it.
- Plunging hard and fast. This forces fines through the mesh and stirs up the bed. Slow and even.
- Guessing the dose with a scoop. Coffee density varies enough that scoops drift badly. Weigh it.
- A dirty press. Old coffee oils go rancid in the mesh and taint every cup after. Take the filter assembly apart and wash it properly.
Is French press worth it?
It makes a rich, full-bodied cup with almost no equipment, it is forgiving, and it scales up for a group easily. Those are real advantages.
What it asks in return is the washing up. Wet grounds in a mesh filter are genuinely annoying to clean, they should not go down the sink, and the press takes up cupboard space. It is also unfiltered coffee, so the oils that a paper filter would trap stay in your cup.
If you want the convenience without the cleanup, that is exactly what a drip bag is for. Each KNDZ drip bag is a single-serve pour-over, pre-measured and pre-ground, that brews in your mug with nothing but hot water and leaves nothing to wash. The coffee inside is 100% Arabica specialty-grade beans from Ethiopia and Colombia, roasted in micro-batches in Toronto by a Certified Q Grader.
Frequently asked questions
How much coffee do you put in a French press?
About 1 gram of coffee per 15 grams of water. For a standard 1 litre (8-cup) press that is roughly 67 g, or about 13 level tablespoons. For a 350 ml press, about 23 g or 4½ tablespoons.
What is the golden ratio of coffee to water in a French press?
1:15 is the most reliable starting point. The National Coffee Association gives a working range of 1:10 to 1:16 for French press, which is stronger than a typical pour-over ratio because there is no paper filter absorbing the oils. Note that the Specialty Coffee Association does not publish a French press standard at all, so any "SCA French press ratio" you see quoted is not real.
What's the ratio of water to coffee for a French press?
Fifteen parts water to one part coffee by weight. Move to 1:12 for a stronger, heavier cup or 1:17 for a lighter, more tea-like one. Adjust the ratio first and the grind second, and change only one at a time.
How do I make 2 cups of coffee in a French press?
For two standard mugs, roughly 600 ml, use 40 g of coffee, about 8 level tablespoons. Preheat the press, add the coffee, pour all the water at once at 90 to 96°C, steep 4 minutes, break the crust, skim the foam, plunge slowly and pour it all out.
How long should French press steep?
Four minutes is the standard, and it is a good default. Longer than about 5 minutes starts to taste bitter and heavy. If you use the no-plunge method you leave the coffee in the press longer, but you have already skimmed the grounds off the top by then.
What grind size is best for French press?
Coarse, like raw sugar, if you plunge normally, because the metal mesh lets fine particles through. If you use the skim-and-settle method instead of plunging, a medium grind extracts better and the fines settle out anyway. Avoid fine grinds entirely: they clog the mesh and make the cup muddy.
Why is my French press coffee bitter?
Usually one of three things: the water was boiling rather than just off the boil, the coffee steeped longer than about 5 minutes, or it was left sitting in the press after brewing. Skimming the foam and floating grounds before you pour also removes a fair amount of bitterness.
Related guides
- Pour-over coffee ratio The 1:16 golden ratio and how it differs from French press.
- What is drip bag coffee? Single-serve pour-over with no cleanup.
- Coffee for camping Why a French press is a poor choice outdoors.