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.
That looks amazing.
My wife and I travelled to Europe many times over the past 30 years. We aren't wealthy, we were a couple of budget travellers that enjoyed seeing as much of the world as possible. One of our favourite things to do was to spend the entire day walking a new European city ... we never spent money on anything, we just enjoyed walking as much of the city as possible. We spent most of our time in southern Spain and northern Italy, the lands of coffee. The only thing we spent money on was coffee because we knew every major Spanish, Italian or French city would always have many great cafes with some of the most amazing espresso machines ever made. The first morning coffee was usually a cappuccino, then a walk and maybe a second one with a croissant or chocolate pastry. Then the rest of the day was an espresso or two and it was all enough to carry us all day until we had a great meal at the end of the day. In Italy, it was customary to eat your pizza meal and wrap it up with an espresso.
Thanks so much for showing me this ... so many great and wonderful memories for me of being with my life partner just enjoying a simple cappuccino or espresso as we watched a new city. My wife passed away this past December, we had been together for just over 30 years. Your image has really made me happy ... at first I was joking that I would act like a silly idiot like Ned Flanders over some coffee ... but now your familiar image has me choking up with joy, sadness and nostalgia (but mostly joy). Enjoy your espresso, it looks amazing, it's made me happy and I'm very happy for you.
EDIT: I was doing a quick search through some of our old photos and I thought you would be interested in this one .. Majestic Café in Porto, Portugal .... open 105 years ago in 1921, its described as a " It's a living museum of Belle Époque architecture where literary figures, artists, and intellectuals once gathered to debate ideas and shape Portuguese culture." ... not only do you get to have a great European coffee, you feel like you're having it after entering a time machine