My perfect coffee:
- fill bottle of the same volume as my press with water.
- pour ~10% of it in the electric kettle, and start it.
- put two (or three) full teaspoons of light roasted fine ground coffee in the press
- the water boiled. pour it into the press.
- put remaining cold water in kettle, start it again.
- shake the press a bit so coffee hydrates and foams. Cover the press.
- grab a coffee paper filter (circle) fold it in "pizza-like" shape 4 times and cut the outer skirt, so the new radius is about 1cm larger than the press filter.
- rest of the water is boiling now, pre-water+coffee mix has no foam. Fill press with water.
- put the paper filter on top, and insert the plunger so that along all the inner circumference, the paper filter is between the press inner wall and the plunger.
- press the coffee very slowly, don't rush it at all. It will take you a solid minute or a bit more.
Now you have crystal, non acidic, and flavorful golden coffee. I usually pour a cup immediately, and put the rest in an all-metal insulated little bottle.
I divide the water in two parts to quickly get rid of the foam under the paper filter. Foam makes the pressing way slower. If you have time, you can immediately boil the whole water volume, but leave the coffee mix covered for 5-10 mins and the foam will be gone by then.
I am leaning, reading these comments, that I am a crazy coffee nerd...
I use my 1Zpresso handgrinder (the best sub 1000€ grinder I've tried, IMHO) to grind my ultra light roast 20€ 250g frozen coffee beans, then go through ridiculous puck prep, and ultimately make the think in my manual lever flair 58.
I really want to get something with a smaller diameter though, because I recently tried my mother's DeLonghi machine with a 48mm diameter, and it was surprisingly good, despite the bad temperature management.
I'm an espresso guy though, and I can only really enjoy very good medium-light or good light to very light roasts nowadays. And preparing those well is very difficult. I actually don't really recommend the flair for it, because the temp doesn't stay that consistent (and it's 58 mm).
The most important thing with espresso is not how much your machine costs or even how nice your grinder is, though. It's 10000% your beans. I get new, different beans every week to month depending on how much coffee I'm drinking. I almost never get the same beans twice. Only specialty coffee from a select few roasters. Only 250g bags, always freeze them immediately. They are ridiculously expensive but have improved my quality of life immensely. I am a coffee nerd – worship the bean.
The first line about "best sub 1k grinder" should've clued you in to being a bit of a nut. Lol that's a very intense setup.
Damn! I thought I "had a system"... I would love to try one of your espressos.
I didn't even know "ultra-light roast" existed, but now I am curious.
I'm interested in your beans and freezing process. I've never seen gradations of light roast or frozen my beans. Are you getting generally more longevity after freezing? 250g would only last 5 ish days if my wife and I are both having coffee every day.
I will say that I'm an espresso guy when I'm in Europe and for maybe a month after, but I always end up back at plain old drip coffee because I want the volume. It does seem like that may put a limit on the quality of the cup though.