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You can brew great coffee in a lot of different ways, from simple filter machines to elaborate vacuum brewing siphons. For many though, a French press still can’t be beaten. The traditional method is still one of the best, but you’ll need some specific beans to get the most out of your French press.
A French press can bring out the subtlest of flavors in a brew, or make the strongest tastes overwhelming, so choosing the right blend is important. You might be wondering how you can find the right ones, we’ve researched those on the market and found the best coffee beans for your French press.
The Lavazza Super Crema is a medium blend that is roasted to have both a great taste and a strong crema. This is the foam that forms on the top of coffees, with a rich creamy taste. It is often hard to achieve with a French press.
This is a taste which is going to be distinctive, but also light and drinkable. That is a perfect balance for a coffee going in your French press. If you’re looking for a bold and distinctive taste, then this is a great choice for you.
The Kicking Horse Dark Roast Coffee is a dark roast, which gives it a distinctive earthy taste. Brewing the best French press beans means the flavor will be brought out by the long soak times. This is perfect for delicate flavors like those found in this coffee. It has a taste of dark chocolate, brown sugar, and roasted hazelnuts.
This is a dark roast, but it is specifically formulated for use in a French press. It is also certified as fair trade and organic, so you’re getting something grown ethically. This Kicking Horse coffee is a great choice for you to find the best French press beans for its strong flavor.
This Café Don Pablo Gourmet coffee is a medium to dark roast. It is formulated to have low acidity. French press coffee does tend to come out on the more acidic side. You can account for this in your brewing method by adjusting your seeping time and ratio, but it is a natural aspect of the French press. This coffee gets around that trait. So if you’re looking to brew in your French press without the acidity, this is a great choice.
This Koffee Kult coffee blend has a strong flavor and aroma. There is a taste of cinnamon with a strong and clear body. It is a dark roast that gives it these distinctive elements. This roast of coffee makes a great choice for your French press beans as the brew method brings out their nuances.
With a distinctive taste and aroma, it is a pleasant blend to have on hand for your morning coffee. This is one of the best French Press coffees as it has flavors that really suit the brew method.
This Mayorga coffee is sourced from quite a few origins but specifically designed to give a consistent taste profile. It gives you notes of vanilla and a smoky smooth finish. This combination of subtle sweetness and savory textures can really make your French press coffee stand out.
If you’re looking for a coffee blend that has been grown both carefully and ethically, then this is a great choice. This blend uses shade-grown Arabica beans. They’re sourced directly from small farmers and with a USDA organic and GMO-free certification. This means you that you’re getting the best possible quality for your beans.
This Café Don Pablo Blen comes in on the lighter end of the dark roast spectrum. This gives it that full body and rich flavor you associate with dark roast, but with the subtle notes that you would find in a medium roast.
These beans are from a single origin, this has a few benefits. A single-origin coffee can be more consistent in taste by coming from similarly grown plants. This isn’t essential for your coffee beans, but it is beneficial. If you’re looking out for healthy beans, this GMO-free full Arabica blend is going to be great for you.
SF Bay coffee is a producer that is committed to environmentally sustainable coffee production, good news if you’re worried about the footprint of your morning refreshment.
This blend is a dark roast, which gives it that earthy taste that will make for a satisfying cup. On top of that, there are sweet notes of chocolate and even toasted cinnamon. These are some of the best beans you can find for your French press.
Death Wish Coffee produces beans that are formulated to have a very high caffeine content! It is kind of their thing, and these French press beans are no exception. They do this by combining a mixture of Robusta and Arabica beans. The balance of the two types manages to bring a nice earthy flavor and high caffeine content to your coffee.
This blend from Real Good Coffee Co is dark roasted for a full body. It also has notes of bell peppers and an acidity that has a lemony kind of flavor. If you’re not averse to a little acidity in your coffee’s flavor profile, then this citrus note can help brighten up a morning.
These beans also have great sustainability credentials, a relief if you’re worried about the footprint of your coffee.
Seattle’s Best is a pretty well-known producer of coffee beans. Their Portside blend is as high quality as their other products. This blend is made up of beans from many different origins. However, they’re all subjected to a medium roast that gives them a smooth and less acidic taste.
This is a medium roasted coffee so you can expect strong flavors. Although, it is soft enough to make it very drinkable.
Coffee tastes better fresh. The closer you brew the coffee to grinding the beans, the better it tastes. The closer you grind the beans to when they’re roasted, the better it tastes too. Stumptown Coffee tries to cut down that time between roasting and you actually drinking the coffee. This is reflected in the beans’ quality. A unique bag design can keep this coffee fresh for up to 90 days and the roasting date is labeled.
When properly brewed Hair Bender has a rich dark taste, with notes of citrus and dark chocolate. These are the exact sort of intense flavors that work best with your French press.
When the right coffee is brewed in your French press, it can become a layered and nuanced cup. This Major Dickenson’s Blend has a full-bodied taste, with subtle notes discoverable in every cup so it is a great blend for this format.
This is a multiple origin coffee. However, the roast is specifically formulated for a full taste, so there shouldn’t be much of a drop off compared with a single origin. It is also roasted exactly to order, so you can be sure you’re getting the best beans for your French press.
Hawaii might not be the first place you think of when considering your coffee’s origin. However, the climate does make for some delicious beans. This coffee is grown roasted and processed in the same place, to give a really unique experience for your morning coffee.
This is a medium roast coffee, which brings some lighter notes to its taste and floral hints throughout. This is one of the more unique French press coffee beans we’ve listed here, so if you’re looking for something different this is a great choice.
Death Wish brew up coffee that tries to be as high on caffeine as possible, this is a different blend offered by them. The trouble with these brews is that dark roasted coffees don’t have the highest caffeine, but they do have that distinctive ‘strong coffee’ taste. This Valhalla coffee manages to be heavy in caffeine and has that distinctive strong taste by using a mixture of Arabica and Robusta beans.
These blends of coffee can work well in a French press as it brings out more flavor. In the case of a coffee that is as intense as this one, that can give you a distinctive cup. If that’s what you’re looking for, then this is a solid choice.
The roast of a blend of coffee is one of the most important things about it. Roasting beans brings out the flavor and turns them into the drink we recognize. It is in this process that coffee gets a lot of its characteristics, so you can tell a lot about how it is going to taste from the roast.
Roasts can be confusing at first, there isn’t even an industry-wide standard for what each roast is. This might complicate things, but most coffee is separated into three distinct categories.
Light roasts have the lightest taste, which tends to mean that the sweetness and notes are much more pronounced compare with that distinctive ‘coffee’ taste. These beans are roasted to have no oil on their surface. Their roasting is the lightest since it is the shortest process.
Medium roast coffee sits somewhere between light and dark. These coffees are roasted for longer, to give them a non-oily surface but a strong flavor. This coffee is a balance between that dark taste and the rich flavor of lighter blends.
Dark roasted coffee produces dark beans that have a very oily surface. These are the beans that taste the most bitter. They’re earthy, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have more flavors going on in them. These roasts provide a full-body, which has its benefits.
Which coffee roast is for you is purely down to preference, and most people alternate between a few depending on what taste they find interesting. Dark roasts are a great place to start to find your French press beans since they have that most distinctive ‘coffee’ flavor.
Choosing the best coffee beans is a bit of a difficult task. While all of the French press beans in this list are great choices, you’ll need to find the ones that are right for you.
What you’re looking for in coffee beans outside of taste is quality. High-quality beans are going to give you a better flavor. Generic coffees are often burned to give a consistent flavor. Over-roasted beans always give you a taste that is vaguely coffee, so most general bags of plain coffee go for this method.
Looking at the origins of the coffee, what defines the blend they’re used, and the roast can show you that those beans are high-quality.
Out of high-quality coffee beans, choosing the best ones for you is to do with taste. To find the taste that is right for you, start with the roast. Each roast has different characteristics, so it is important to give each a try. Experimenting with different roasts will help you find which ones are right for you. However, your grind, water temperature, brew method, and ratio can all have a big effect on the taste of the coffee. Keep this in mind when comparing beans.
The choice of which coffee beans are the best for you will come down to flavor. You should look for beans that have qualities that appeal to you and give them a go. Our choices here are all quality beans, so you just have to decide what taste you’re in the market for.
There are two main types of coffee beans you’ve seen mentioned on this list, understanding the difference is important for figuring out which coffee is right for you.
You’ll primarily see beans that proudly show they’re 100% Arabica. These beans are generally thought of as being high quality. They take longer to grow and need a specific environment to thrive, this gives them a unique taste. They are sweeter, more acidic, and often with more complex flavor profiles. These beans make great choices for you to use in a French press which brings out a lot of their subtleties.
Robusta beans are the other type of coffee you’ve likely heard of. These are typically thought of as being of lower quality. They can be grown quicker and they’re much more forgiving to produce. This doesn’t necessarily mean you should avoid them though. They have a considerably higher caffeine content and can give you a good taste. Robusta beans can have a less acidic taste than Arabica. They can also produce a really impressive crema, even when you’re using a French press.
While most people will stick with Arabica beans, you should go for Robusta if you’re after a coffee with high caffeine content.
Coffee tastes better when it’s fresh. Stale coffee loses the complexity of its flavors, along with becoming more and more bitter with time. In a French press, good and bad qualities are amplified so the faults of old coffee become even more pronounced.
Storing your coffee properly can significantly increase its shelf life, important if you want to drink decent coffee without having to pick up a new bag twice a week. Grinding your own beans is a big help since taste degrades fast once ground, but there is more you can do.
These are the important things to keep in mind about coffee storage to get the longest shelf-life from your beans:
Dark- Store your coffee somewhere away from direct light. This one is a pretty easy rule to follow, just put in a cupboard, cabinet, or pantry.
https://www.ncausa.org/about-coffee/coffee-roasts-guide
https://www.craftcoffee.com/how-to-make-coffee/french-press-brew-guide
http://www.craftcoffeeguru.com/arabica-robusta-coffee-what-is-the-difference/
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/dining/better-coffee-depends-on-good-grinding.html
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/oct/04/green-coffee
