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I'm going around three cups of coffee powder for one cup of coffee. My frenchpress has a capacity of 1 liter, when I cook about 500 ml coffee at a time, it seems so the coffee which is higher up the french press is much weaker than which is at the bottom.

I brew at the moment for 5 minutes and have attempted agitating the beans in the beginning by mixing with a spoon. Also I use a coarse grind.

tryst with freedom
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    Please [edit] and clarify the question. You say "coffee powder", "beans" and "grind". Which is it? it can't be all 3 ... – DavidPostill Nov 26 '22 at 20:13
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    Also, when you say three cups of powder, surely you don't mean standard 8 oz measuring cups. Are you referring to a coffee scoop? What size (typically come in either 1 or 2 Tbsp size). – fixer1234 Dec 04 '22 at 17:05

3 Answers3

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Try weighing your coffee and start with 60g per litre, so 30g of ground coffee for 500ml. Grind medium to medium fine to increase the surface area and thereby the extraction.

LanzaRoasters
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  • Weighing is good advice. Medium to medium-fine grind not so much without further clarification. You could use a French press simply as a brewing vessel with carefully controlled parameters and a much shorter brewing time. However, normal French press brewing, in the way it was designed, relies on a relatively coarse grind to provide a mix of extraction levels. That's what provides the balanced taste and makes the brewing very forgiving of conditions. – fixer1234 Dec 04 '22 at 17:11
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When making a French press, know that it is extracting as long as you keep the grinds in the water. There are factors involved with how strong your brew will be.

  1. Grind size. Grinding your own coffee beans more coarse than the average pre-ground size will make for a tastier cup and reduce some bitternes.
  2. Brew times. You currently brew for 5 minutes, try 7 minutes. And instead of drinking as you pour it out of the French press, pour the coffee into a separate carafe to prevent over extraction (brewing the coffee for too long).

If you are drinking your coffee straight from the French press, that could contribute to your feeling like the coffee is weaker on top. You are actually drinking over brewed coffee when you reach the end of what's left in the French press.

carlos duran
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  • Good advice, but the OP's complaint of it not extracting enough sounds like it's just too little coffee grinds rather than too short of an extraction (the time sounds about right, but if they're referring to 3 standard scoops, that's too little coffee; proper extraction levels would produce weak coffee). – fixer1234 Dec 04 '22 at 17:21
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French Press actually extracts caffeine (and flavour) significantly better than other methods like espresso for instance. Assuming the same dose of coffee, you can see just how well the French Press does! caffeine content per serving of coffee

French press is also one of the easier methods for good extraction. If you are getting poor extraction, it is likely worth adjusting your grind size or the coffee being used. Here is an example video for a great french press technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st571DYYTR8

Hackeron
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  • Please cite the source of your graphic and the information about caffeine extraction by technique. Most Readers will not readily parse "IFP on behalf of Coffeeness.de" as shown in the graphic's fine print. – hardmath Jan 01 '23 at 17:58
  • Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Community Jan 01 '23 at 17:59
  • Sorry I have the original source and data interpretation here: https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/6112/how-much-caffeine-is-really-in-your-coffee-analysis-questions – Hackeron Jan 02 '23 at 23:56