How To Make Cafetiere Coffee

How To Make Perfect Coffee Using a Cafetiere

When you're in the home there's nothing better and almost nothing easier than having perfect Cafetiere coffee. 

Almost every house has a cafetiere somewhere in the cupboard and even the supermarket sells them. It's a classic coffee brewing method but don't confuse classic with common. The simplicity here is the key. While some other brew methods use pressure (e.g espresso)  to concentrate flavour the fact that the cafetiere doesn't is precisely why it's so good. 

Coarsely ground coffee literally steeps gently in water before being plunged. This means 3 things that are great for your coffee experience at home: 

1. The coffee is extracting more slowly than other methods so your margin for error is super forgiving. 
2. The coffee is fully immersed in water and saturated evenly so you're not risking uneven or partial extraction of the grinds
3. The brew method is delicate and doesn't manipulate or influence taste thus giving really clear idea of the coffees inherent characteristics. 

All in all it's basically a fool proof way to express what a coffee really tastes like without having to complicate the brew. For this reason of course it can be used for all sorts of purposes but it really shines when brewing single origins fitter roasted coffees with their unique and sometimes delicate profiles. 

* pro tip -the metal filter means some grinds get through and you can get some grinds in the cup towards the end of the cafetiere. If you feel like splashing out upgrade to an Espro Press that separates the grounds for a super clean cup. 

Cafetiere Coffee Recipe:

• Coarsely ground fresh coffee. We use 57g/ 1000ml water. You can scale this for the size of your cafetiere so, for example, 19-20g for a 350ml cafetiere
• 1 x cafetiere
• Boiling water (filtered Ideal) 
• 1 x digital scales  

1. Clean the cafetiere with boiling water. Let the water sit for a minute to heat up the glass so you don't lose heat once you start to brew. 
2. Discard the spent water and tip your ground coffee into the cafetiere
3. Fill the cafetiere to the top with water just off the boil (leaving a little room) and set the timer running
4. Give the cafetiere a good stir making sure all the coffee floating at the top and resting on the bottom becomes incorporated. 
5. Place the plunger gently in the top and leave to brew
6. At 4 minutes plunge the coffee - decant - and then pour out to serve. 
7. Enjoy

 FAQs

How much coffee should you put in your cafetiere?

We've used a little less in the recipe above to suit our tastes but the basic rule for cafetieres is 60-65g of coffee to 1 litre of water. Obviously this is best measured with digital scales but if you don't want the fuss, 1 heaped tablespoon of coarsely ground coffee is usually about 15g so 4 tablespoons for 1 litre of water should do the trick.

Experiment with more or less (as we have done above) to affect the 'body' or concentration vs. dilution of the coffee flavour in the brew. 

What type of coffee should I use in a cafetiere? 

Use fresh and coarsely ground coffee in a cafetiere. Coffee ground for cafetiere brewing should look looser, with bigger coffee particles and more like sawdust than sand. Request a 'filter' grind if you're buying pre-ground and this should get you what you need to make perfect brews. The cafetiere itself is super versatile and can be used to brew anything from dark espresso roasts to light filter style roasts .

How long should cafetiere coffee infuse for?

A well brewed cafetiere should take about 4 minutes to brew. If the grind size is coarse and your water hot your allowing the coffee to brew for 4 minutes will give you all the good tastes the coffee has to offer.