French press has a way of making coffee taste bigger. You get more body, more texture, and more of the coffee’s natural oils than you would with a brew that requires a paper filter. That doesn’t mean you need a dark roast, though.
Some of the best coffee beans for French press, in my experience, are medium roasts with plenty of sweetness and bold flavors to keep things interesting.
If you’re thinking about buying a French press or already have one in your kitchen cabinet, your next stop on the coffee train is figuring out a strong bean game. Here’s our take on the best coffee for French press, plus other tips to make your next plunge great.
What coffee to use for French press?
You can make just about any freshly roasted coffee taste good in a French press. The full-immersion brew method produces a heavier body and brings out more sweetness, so it’s an excellent choice for chocolatey medium roasts, bold dark roasts, and fruit-forward light roasts alike (read: coffee roast levels explained).
Personally, I keep coming back to medium roasts that balance chocolate, caramel, and berry notes. They have enough body to stand up to French press without losing the brightness that makes me go “uh, what?” with a smile after my first sip. If that sounds like your kind of coffee, these are the bags I’d start with.
Sweet Bloom Hometown Blend
Sweet Bloom, from Denver, CO, has a special place in our hearts. I can’t quite tell you why except that we always pop by this roastery when we’re in the area, and we’re guilty of buying giant bags of Hometown every now and then (you can purchase 5 lb bags!).
It’s the kind of coffee I can happily drink every morning without getting bored. Its flavor notes include chocolate, praline, and blackberry.
Yum.
Counter Culture Hologram
Apparently I have a type. Hologram combines chocolate and berry notes just like Hometown, but it has a little more fruit and an equally lively finish. I can drink it on any brew method over and over and never get tired of it.
Counter Culture describes it as “a thoughtful combination of natural and washed coffees from our long-term partners in Africa and Latin America,” which is a fancy way of saying it’s consistently delicious.
More of that, please and thank you.
Blue Bottle Bella Donovan
The secret fun fact about this coffee is that it was “Patient 0” for our shared love of the craft. My girlfriend in Oakland sent me this bag of beans via post and David helped me figure out how to brew it well at home. Voila, a hobby business and shared passion was born.
At this point, I had to laugh when I saw the tasting notes for Blue Bottle’s Bella Donavan coffee: raspberry, chocolate, and molasses. It seems I have a type after all (and it’s not just bearded Colorado fellas, though I definitely like a nerdy one of those). 🥰
These beans also play well with milk if that’s how you take your coffee, but I think it’s at its best black, where the jammy berry sweetness and chocolate finish have room to stand out.
Trade Coffee (The best way to find YOUR favorite)
No one can tell you exactly which coffee you’ll love most for your French press. That’s why I like Trade Coffee. Instead of buying random bags and hoping for the best, you do a “quiz” about your taste preferences and brewing methods, and Trade recommends coffees from dozens of independent roasters.
You can do dark roasts (if you dare), medium roasts, and light roasts alike. Choose a roaster that’s around the corner or across the country; that’s part of the fun.
Full list of Trade Coffee brands
- 8th and Roast
- Airship*
- Alma*
- Anodyne*
- Atomic*
- Bean & Bean
- Boxcar*
- Broadcast
- Broadsheet
- Caffe Vita
- Cerberus
- Common Voice
- Cuvée Coffee
- DOMA
- Drink Coffee Do Stuff
- Dune*
- Equator
- Feast
- Gimme!
- Greater Goods
- Highwire
- Huckleberry*
- Irving Farm
- Joe
- Klatch
- Methodical*
- Necessary*
- Novo*
- Onyx
- Oren’s
- Panther
- Peixoto
- PERC*
- Portrait*
- PT’s
- ReAnimator
- Red Rooster*
- Roasted Record
- Sightglass*
- Sightseer*
- Small Planes*
- Sparrows*
- Sterling Coffee Roasters
- Temple
- Thundercloud
- Verve*
- Wonderstate*
It’s one of the fastest ways to discover your preferred French press coffee beans — and one of the best coffee subscription boxes we’ve found this year.
If you’re curious to try Trade for yourself, now’s the perfect time — they’re offering up to $15 off your first order through our link. There’s no free bag on offer, but you can currently get a 50% off discount for a month trial.
How long to brew French press?
Most French press brew recipes will point you toward steeping until the 4 minute mark, but our Dumbledore, James Hoffman 🧙♂️, has a different recommendation — up to 12 minutes, if you’ve got the time to spare.
James suggests stirring and breaking the crust that has formed on top of the coffee at the 4 minute mark, scooping off any “foam or floaty bits” remaining on top, and throwing them down the sink. Then the hard part: do nothing at all for at least five minutes, or even seven or eight minutes.
“The longer you leave it, the better it’s going to taste.”
Learn more about his go-to technique for brewing perfect French press coffee above.
Coffee-to-water ratio for French press
We’ve found that a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio is a good starting point for Frenchies, though others (ahem, star of the video above) state that 60 to 70 grams of coffee per liter of water is more ideal. That works out to a brew ratio of about 1:17 to 1:14.
From there, feel free to adjust up or down depending on how strong you like your brew. If you prefer a lighter cup, stay closer to 60 g/L. For a richer, more intense brew, move toward 70 g/L.
Here’s a summary of ideal water to coffee ratios for French press:
| Water | Coffee (1:17) | Coffee (1:15) |
|---|---|---|
| 350 g | 21 g | 23 g |
| 500 g | 30 g | 33 g |
| 750 g | 45 g | 50 g |
| 1,000 g | 60 g | 67 g |
Use a digital coffee scale to figure out precisely how much ground coffee for French press you should use each time you pull out your brewer.
Best coffee grinder for French press
$149.95
Baratza Encore Coffee Grinder
- Reliable daily performer
- Simple and easy to use
- Built to last and repairable
- BUT not really for espresso
Low-Key Coffee Snobs is funded by affiliate commissions which we (often) make when you buy products we link.
The Baratza Encore is the coffee grinder we recommend to almost anyone brewing French press. It’s been around for years, it’s easy to use, and it delivers a consistent coarse grind without costing a fortune. Unless you’re shopping for an espresso grinder, it’s hard to find a better value.
Read our honest Baratza Encore review »
French press is forgiving, but grind consistency still matters. A blade grinder (boo) creates a mix of boulders and dust, which leads to a cup that’s both weak and bitter at the same time. The Encore’s conical burrs (yay) produce a much more even grind, helping you get the rich body French press is known for without as much sludge in the bottom of your mug.
For most French press recipes, I start between 28 and 32 on the Baratza Encore. That’s just a baseline, though. If it’s bitter or the cup has too much sediment, go a little coarser. If your coffee tastes sour or thin, try grinding a click or two finer.
The Encore also grows with you. If you eventually get into other ways to make good coffee at home, like pour over, AeroPress, Chemex, or drip coffee, there’s a good chance you’ll keep using the same grinder.
Find good coffee for your French press!
French press doesn’t require expensive equipment or years of practice. Start with fresh whole beans, grind them just before brewing, use a coffee-to-water ratio between 1:17 and 1:15, and experiment.
As for the beans themselves, there’s no single “best” choice. I clearly have a soft spot for coffees that combine chocolate and berry notes, but that’s the fun of French press. It can work with just about any well-roasted coffee.
If you’re not sure where to begin, Trade Coffee is one of the easiest ways to discover coffees from great roasters with less legwork.
