What’s better? French Press vs. Pour Over
Ready for a good nerdy coffee brawl? Today we’re putting the classic French Press coffee making technique against its simpler counterpart, the Pour Over. We will examine each of their merits to determine which one is most worthy of the effort.
Let’s start with the French Press
The French Press. This invention has been around for decades, and for good reason. Its filterless design allows for full flavor impact. But let’s take a deeper look into what makes this little gadget so special.
- It gives you everything but the ground coffee. As mentioned above, when using a French press, you are basically sucking out every gram of flavor from your coffee. Essentially guaranteeing you are getting your money’s worth down to the cent.
- Thick Texture. Because using a French Press gives you the advantage of keeping all your coffee’s properties, including the oils, the final product will always consist of a nice smooth and thick taste you just can’t get from any other technique.
- Environment Friendly. This is one of the only methods of brewing coffee where you can manage to do so without a coffee filter. Making this a super convenient choice in general, but also travel friendly and most importantly - environment friendly.
Now let’s look at the Pour Over Method
Now, if this was a “which one can stand the taste of time” contest, then the pour over would win-hands down. This process has been around for centuries, and bonus: it is the reason why coffee filters were invented. This coffee addict's favorite has been enjoying a renaissance lately. It seems to be a barista favorite as well, and it is slowly starting to become the average households go to brewing method. Some of the reasons include:
- This method allows you to have full control over the flavor’s extraction. By going as slowly (or as quickly) as you want, you can control the even saturation of each ground. And of course, the slower you make it the more flavor you will extract.
- This brings us to our next point. If you love rich flavor, and especially if you love black coffee, the pour over method gives you a chance to brew an extremely flavorful cup of coffee. The slow filtering process all but guarantees you have flavorful results - every time.
- The pour over method seems to be less of an overall hassle. It requires minimal clean up, equipment, and overall time to make. A lot of people get turned off by the plunging process in the French press, so the pour over tends to become the next best choice. Once you get used to the process, it takes about 5 minutes in total.
So, what do you think? Who should be crowned the winner of this fight? We think we’re going to let you decide. Both methods clearly have their own merits. They are both easy to use, convenient and a much better alternative to expensive, basic drive-thru coffee.