FRENCH PRESS
* For each 8 oz of water use three to four level tablespoons of coffee.
* Measure the capacity of your coffee cup and the amount of servings you wish to make and use the above guide to determine the proper amount of coffee.
* Put double the amount of good quality water than you intend to drink in a kettle or other vessel that is only used for heating water.
* While water is heating, grind the coffee. Press pot coffee requires an even grind, so having a burr grinder is recommended. The grind should be gritty, resembling beach sand: pleasant to walk on, but not too powdery. More Santa Cruz than Carmel.
* Bring water not quite to the boil. Place the kettle on the counter for 30 seconds (or, better yet, until an instant-read thermometer reads 198 degrees). Alternatively, pouring near-boiling water into a glass measuring cup cools the water to nearly the ideal temperature, and allows you to use exactly the amount of water necessary.
* Pour water into the empty press pot to warm it up. After a few seconds, pour this water into your cup to warm it.
* Add ground coffee to the now empty press pot, and pour water in a thin stream over the grounds.
* Gently stir the coffee with a small wooden spoon or chopstick, and place the stem on the pot with the filter about a 1/2 inch from the grounds.
* Wait three minutes for the coffee to steep. Time it. Don't guess.
* Remove the stem briefly and stir gently with a small wooden spoon or chopstick.
* Gently push the grounds down to the bottom of the pot. If the stem thunks to the bottom with almost no resistance, then your grind is too coarse. If you have to sweat and strain to get the stem to the bottom of the pot, then your grind is too fine (note: too fine a grind can be dangerous. If the stem torques as you are wrestling with it, near-boiling water and coffee grounds can spray all over you). Ideal is 15-20 pounds of pressure. If you're not sure what that feels like, press down on your bathroom scale with the flat of your hand until the scale reads 20 pounds. It should take fifteen to twenty seconds to push the stem to the bottom, depending upon the size of your press pot.
* When you have pushed the plunger as far down as it will go, serve entire contents immediately. Do not let it sit. Do not reheat. Drink your coffee. Now.

FILTERDRIP
* For each 8 oz of water use three to five level tablespoons of coffee.
* Put double the amount of good quality water than you intend to drink in a kettle or other vessel that is used only for heating water.
* While water is heating, grind the coffee. The grind should be soft but still a little gritty, fine enough that it forms into a clump when pressed between thumb and forefinger. Almost an espresso grind. One of the most common preparation errors in making filter drip is that the grind is too coarse.
* Bring water to the boil.
* Place the kettle on the counter for 45 seconds or so (or, better yet, until an instant-read thermometer reads 198 degrees). Alternatively, pouring boiling water into a glass measuring cup cools the water to nearly the ideal temperature, and allows you to use exactly the amount of water necessary.
* If you use Chemex filters omit this step. If you do not use Chemex filters, pour water through the empty filter into the cup to get rid of as much papery taste as possible and to warm up the filter and cup.
* When water has drained from the empty filter, empty the hot water from your cup, add ground coffee, and pour several tablespoons of water over the grounds. Let the grounds expand for a few seconds, then pour the rest of the coffee in a thin stream over the grounds.
* When the coffee has drained from the filter, stir. Serve entire contents immediately. Do not let it sit. Do not reheat. Drink your coffee. Now.

If you are making coffee for two, triple the amount of water, so you can heat the cups plus whatever serving vessel is being used. This can be as simple as a mason jar, or a glass carafe, but it should only be used for coffee or hot water. We recommend a porcelain filter holder instead of a plastic one owing to its properties of greater heat retention. Chemex filters are thicker yet somehow less papery-tasting and are our recommendation for the best possible cup, owing to their longer extraction time.

MOKKA POT [STOVETOP ESPRESSO]
The Mokka Pot can be a very tricky mode of preparation. Because of the propensity of the water to be too hot, scalded, harsh coffee can be the result if you're not careful. The grind is very important in Mokka pot coffee - a burr grinder gets better results.

1. Grind your coffee quite powdery, and fill the filter full so that the coffee is mounded above the level of the top of the filter in the center. Do not compress the coffee as you would in an espresso machine.
2. Fill the pot slightly below the line indicating the water level - use good water.
3. Put the heat on low - the brewing cycle should take 4-5 minutes. The goal is to prevent the water from boiling. Just let the heat push the water through the grounds.

If you're not satisfied with the result, experiment with:

1. the grind - most often the grind tends to be too course.
2. water level - using less water can sometimes make a thicker, but sweeter cup.
3. Brewing cycle - slowing down the cycle can eliminate some harshness.
4. The roast - using a lighter roast can sweeten the cup. We are especially fond of Espresso Temescal in the Mokka Pot,

ESPRESSO
Entire volumes have been written about espresso preparation. Rather than a step-by-step guide, what's appropriate here is a handful of general principles, a bibliography, and sincere good wishes.

While the type of machine that you have is important, the grind is a critical part of the process in creating a tasty espresso. You must have a burr grinder that grinds evenly, and it must be easily adjustable.

The single most often repeated error in both home and professional situations is overextraction - too much water through the coffee. In a professional capacity machine, a 17 gram dose of coffee (double shot)should get you no more than 1.5 ounces of intensely flavorful espresso - any more than that and the syrupy goodness that is possible in a great espresso gives way to harsh, thin, brownish water. In a home machine shot volumes should be kept closer to one once.

The tamp should be firm - 30-50 pounds of pressure. The water must work hard to evenly extract the maximum flavor from each speck of coffee in the portafilter.

Brewing times should be around 25 seconds, in a high-quality pump-driven machine. If you get 1.5 ounces of espresso in about 25 seconds, your grind and tamp are about right. More coffee in less time, means that the grind should be finer and the tamp firmer. Less coffee in more time means courser grind and lighter tamp.

ESPRESSO RESOURCES

Espresso Coffee: Professional Techniques, by David Schomer.
Brimming with relevant geekage.

Espresso Coffee: The Chemistry of Quality, by Andrea Illy (yes, that Illy).
A chemical examination of espresso coffee that is only for the most avid espressophile.

Visit the Coffeegeek website.