Almost everyone owns a French press. The ubiquitous brewing device is prized for its simplicity and yet hated by many coffee aficionados for the sludgy mouthfeel. But according to James Hoffmann, you’re probably using it wrong. In a new brewing guide entitled The Ultimate French Press Technique, Hoffmann explains how to get a rich, fully-extract French press with less of the silt. Everything you thought you knew about press pots will be brought into question!
How to's
How to Make Cold Brew Coffee with a French Press
Cold brew coffee has never been hotter. Most of the major brands have ready-to-drink cold brew sold by the bottle or carton. Many cafes are now offering cold brew on tap or even on nitro.
As we’ve written before, Japanese iced coffee is our favorite way to drink coffee in the warmer months, but there are many reasons why cold brew is a great summer treat. For one, cold brew tastes a lot better with cream and sugar than other iced coffee methods. Sure, you might be a coffee snob, but you probably have a friend who likes a little dairy in their coffee. Cold brew is also a great way to use older coffee which would taste stale brewed hot. But, most importantly, cold brew is ridiculously easy to make. In fact, it’s quite possibly the the easiest way to make coffee ever. As an added bonus, cold brew is perfect for larger batches of coffee and it keeps for several days (which solves the age old dilemma, “How can you make coffee before you’ve had coffee?”).
Cold brew is quite possibly the the easiest way to make coffee ever.
The most delicious cold brew we’ve ever had was brewed with a Yama Kyoto dripper. But unless you have $250 burning a hole in your pocket and a overabundance of counter space, you’re probably looking for a simpler option. The good news is that you probably already have everything you need to make delicious cold brew. So, without further ado, here is the official Compass guide on How to Make Cold Brew Coffee with a French Press. …
Learn How to Brew Coffee Like Todd Carmichael
The Indiana Jones of Coffee
Todd Carmichael is an international man of mystery. The man has transversed Antarctica on foot, written for Esquire, and is the star of his own reality show on the Travel Channel. He also knows how to brew an incredible cup of coffee.
Carmichael, who owns La Colombe Coffee Roasters, turned more than a few heads when …
How To Make Japanese Iced Coffee
How to Make Japanese Iced Coffee
All across North America thermometers are rising, windows are being rolled down, and old jeans are being turned into cut-offs. Summer is upon us. One of our favorite ways to beat Kentucky’s brutal heat is sippin’ on a glass of iced coffee. Cold brew coffee has been oh-so-trendy in recent years, and iced lattes are a delicious indulgence, but our go-to brew method is …
How to Drink Espresso
Not X-presso
Espresso. It’s possibly the least understood and most mispronounced way of making coffee. Most people seem to think it’s just for adrenaline junkies or art history professors. But when Luigi Bezzera invented the first espresso machine in Milan in 1901, he wasn’t trying to fuel frat parties or help the literati feel refined. He just wanted to …
Learn How to Brew an Aeropress with Koppi
The Coffee Compass has a serious coffee crush on Koppi in Helsingborg, Sweden. One of our first posts was a review of the coffee IPA they produced with Mikkeller. Since then, we’ve tried some of their delicious, Scandinavian-light roasted coffee, and we have to say, the first crack never tasted so good. We’re also a big fan of wearing their Indian head t-shirt to coffee events and getting mad props from those in the know. Although we’ve never actually been to their Helsingborg cafe, we can read blog posts and plot our dream Nordic cafe crawl.
Even if you’re not visiting Sweden in the near future, you can at least learn how to brew an Aeropress in this awesome video with Koppi co-founder Anne Lunell. The video was produced by Tim Ciasto and features some nice, smooth jazz. So grab an Aeropress, order some of their coffee, and get brewing!
KOPPI – AeroPress Brewing from Tim Ciasto on Vimeo.
Learn How to Brew a Chemex with Cartel Coffee
A CHEMEX BREW GUIDE from Cartel Coffee Lab on Vimeo.
The Chemex
German-born chemist Peter Schlumbohm had a simple goal: invent the best coffee maker ever. After several years of testing and prototypes, the Chemex was patented in 1939. Over the ensuing decades the Chemex became an icon of design and pop culture. The Chemex is James Bond’s brew method of choice in From Russia With Love and is also featured in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, who says it “epitomizes the kitchen–as–laboratory concept—a hallmark of the interwar New Kitchen.” (They stole the words right out of our mouth.) In more recent years it has experienced a revival amongst the craft coffee movement, valued for its ergonomic elegance and the clean, balanced cup it produces.
Cartel Coffee
Out of a plethora of instructional videos on the interwebs, Cartel Coffee Lab in Tempe, Arizona has one of our favorites. This shop is always one of my first destinations whenever I fly back to the Grand Canyon State to visit my family (full review here) and this is the only coffee video I have seen with a No Country For Old Men allusion. So strap on your boots, grab a kettle, and start brewing!
How to Drink Black Coffee
Photo by Brian Moats
As a barista, I firmly believe that people should drink coffee the way they most enjoy it, but a lot of people who want to drink black coffee don’t think they can. Part of the problem is that popular opinion associates black coffee with John Wayne-like tough guys who wear steel-toed boots and have handlebar mustaches. But since most of us don’t commute to work on Harleys or horseback, it’s easy to see why a lot of people are afraid to drink their coffee straight. Here at the Coffee Compass we simultaneously believe that good coffee shouldn’t “put hair on your chest” and that anyone can enjoy a proper cup of black coffee.
Photo by Ben Willis
Simply put, black coffee is coffee in its purist form. It’s healthier, classier, and simpler than its cream-and-sugared counterpart, and who doesn’t want a healthier and simpler life? That’s why we’ve compiled a surefire four step process for skipping the trip to the condiment bar.
Four steps towards enjoying black coffee:…
