Recommended Water Temperature for your Coffee Press

[CoffeeGeek]

Often overlooked, but a very important fact is to not KILL the flavour of your grinds with boiling HOT water!

Instead, let your water cool off first; if boiled, to an acceptable 80c then pour over your - use a cooking thermometer to gauge! You'll find your coffee more flavoursome if you maintain your water temperature as stated!

 

[CanaCoffee]

I have been wondering about the temperatures at higher altitudes. From my experiences at sea level and such for French Press you typically get the water just before boil for the best press however, my home town is in Denver, CO and loving French Press coffee and understanding that water boils at a different temperature at the higher elevations. Is it then still 80c irregardless?

 

[CoffeeGeek]

Is it then still 80c irregardless?

yes! Very few know of this detail, but it does make alot of difference to the taste!

 

[PinkRose]

Hello "CanaCoffee"

Welcome to the Coffee Forum website!

That's an interesting question.

The temperature where your water boils shouldn't matter much. Once you get it to boil, you still need to let it rest a bit (10-20 seconds) before pouring it into the coffee grounds in the French Press. The water temperature, the room temperature, and the temperature of the preheated French Press are all some of the factors to consider when making coffee in a French Press.

As with most things, you may need to experiment with it to get your coffee to come out the way you want.

Rose

 

[Longtrailahead]

very intersting to read since i just bought my own french press

 

[CoffeeMate]

Often overlooked, but a very important fact is to not KILL the flavour of your grinds with boiling HOT water!

Instead, let your water cool off first; if boiled, to an acceptable 80c then pour over your - use a cooking thermometer to gauge! You'll find your coffee more flavoursome if you maintain your water temperature as stated!

Thank you CG for the info. As I am sure you can expect, some people will test your findings with me being one of them. It just so happens that I received a MyCoffeePress for the 2012 Christmas season.

Anyway, I have used the press (for k-Cups) at various degrees as I use my microwave to heat the water from hot to boiling and I have notice no difference in taste whatsoever.

I will use a thermometer to reach 80c (176f) [I do prefer my drink to hover around the 190f (87c) but for the sake of science, research and a reason to drink coffee, I will comply]. The MyCoffeePress will make this possible and give me a valid reason for drinking several cups of coffee in a row (HAHA)

Stay tuned!

 

[CoffeeJunky]

very interesting.... But i never really liked to use Kcups...

 

[CoffeeMate]

You post is interesting to me CJ as I was a virgin to K-Cups about 3 - 4 months ago and fell for the convience of the prep time. From what I am seeing so far, I will spend a lot more money for that convience.

 

[eldub]

You will spend more money and get less taste from the k-cups, imo.

 

[CoffeeMate]

I do believe that eldub and I think I will maily use MyPress for on the road or in a pinch.

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

The SCAA recommends 200F water for brewed coffee, and with an espresso machine, the extraction temperature is usually between 194F and 202F depending upon the espresso beans. 176F seems extremely low. The SCAA recommends the same temperature water for french press as for brewed coffee - 200F (average temperature). The recommended temperature range over the brewing time is not less than 197.6F and not higher than 204.8F with the ideal temperature being 200F.

Higher temperatures cause the coffee to taste bitter, while lower temperatures cause the coffee to not extact fully making it taste thin, weak, and sour.

 

[vanjait]

nice recommended.. is it applies to all types of coffee and the origin of coffee?

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

nice recommended.. is it applies to all types of coffee and the origin of coffee?

The 200F recommendation is for brewed coffee. The extraction of flavor from the beans is through the interaction of the water with the ground coffee is the same no matter what the bean origin. Roast level will have far more effect on coffee flavor than water temperature.

However.....when the Clover coffee machine was available (it brewed one cup at a time) and gave control over water temperature on a cup-by-cup basis, the few coffee shops using them found that the flavor of the coffee could be improved by "tweaking" the water temperature from the recommended 200F. In reading about the use of the Clover machine, the water temperature for peak coffee flavor seemed to be in the 198F to 202F range when tweaked for a specific bean - tracking the recommendations of the SCAA for water temperature.

The difference with the Clover machine was that the water temperature could be changed easily as it was individually heated for each cup, so it was not difficult to test the brew temperature for each bean. Now what you get into is - who is making the judgement of what tastes "best"? And, is that opinion correct for everyone? What I think is optimum flavor may not be your opinion, which may be different from the next person's.

Espresso is a whole different story. I have a manual espresso machine and expirement with each batch of espresso beans to find the "correct" temperature. On a manual machine, this involves "temperature surfing" the water down to a certain point, letting the boiler momentarily reheat the water - and then pulling the shot. There is a difference in flavor between a "cool" pull and a "hot" pull, and finding the optimum point without the benefit of a dual boiler with PID control of the water boiler / group head heat is a lesson in how variable coffee flavor can be when the water temperature is changed by only 2-3 degrees.

But, that's part of the fun of coffee - everyone's taste is different and you find out what you like and work to make the coffee you like best.