READY
READY
Four minutes is the standard French press brew: pour, stir the crust at about a minute, wait, then plunge. Pour-over is faster at two and a half to three minutes from first pour to last drip, espresso is twenty-five to thirty seconds, and cold brew is measured in hours rather than minutes: twelve to eighteen in the fridge.
Time is one of three levers, and the least understood. Grind size and water temperature do more to a cup than an extra thirty seconds ever will, but they are hard to change mid-brew, whereas time is the one you can control exactly. That is why a timer is worth having even when nothing else in the setup is precise.
The tip: plunge a French press when the timer rings and pour it out of the pot. Coffee left sitting on the grounds keeps extracting, and the second cup from a press that has been standing is the bitter one people blame on the beans.
Start the countdown as the water hits the grounds. Anything else (a longer bloom, a different method) goes in the address: ?t=3m for a pour-over, ?t=30s for a shot.
Four minutes from pour to plunge, and then get it out of the pot. Leaving it standing is what turns a good press into a bitter one.
Two and a half to three minutes total, including a thirty second bloom at the start. Add ?t=3m to this page for the countdown.
Add ?t=30s. A twenty-five to thirty second shot is the usual target, though your grinder has more to say about the result than the clock does.