I may buy an Aeropress. I am not having great results with my old Bodum French Press. I am using “freshly” ground coffees that I grind once a week at the store and even the first days coffee is overly bitter. The odd thing is that these same coffees were making fairly decent coffee out of my Mr. Coffee maker before I got my Illy espresso machine out of storage. I had one rather good month of Ypercapsule coffee from the Illy machine then it started leaking so I took it in to get parts replaced (Illy does not send parts to coffee repair companies) and now all my coffee methods are bitter. I use Mr. Coffee, Illy (clean up the leaks as I go) and Bodum and they all taste really bitter. So bad that I took my Illy apart thinking a bug had died in it.
If I did not know better I would say I had had Covid and it affected my bitter taste buds but it does not show up when I have coffee anywhere but my house.
I am doing something wrong but can not put my finger on it. None of the components were common to all three other than the water and the location. And the water tastes fine when I drink it.
Could this be over-extraction? I was prone to this whenever I had a manual coffee maker (Aeropress or French Press) - I just though a bit more time with the coffee and the hot water would make a ‘better’, stronger cup but it sometimes led to bitter notes and over extraction. I also tend to use very fine coffee (which is what Aeropress recommends; they suggest an espresso grind) that can also lead to over-extraction.
Oh crap. I have been lengthening the steeping trying to get the coffee blacker. I am up to a little over five minutes now. And I only went from espresso grind #3 to using #4 grind, out of 10 (?) possible grinds, 10 being coarsest.
I am going to make another cup of coffee.
Back again, and that helped a lot! I am not making good coffee yet, but it is not bad, bitter coffee this time. I am going to coarsen the grind on a small bag of coffee this afternoon (maybe to #8?) and see if that helps the shorter brew/steep time. I poured the 205 degree water over the 2 heaping tablespoons of #4 ground medium roast coffee, let it sit for 30 seconds, stirred the crusty stuff in, put the French Press lid on but did not press it through. Waited for 2:30 minutes and pressed it through and poured the coffee into a hot cup immediately. And it was much less bitter and i started to taste a little bit of other flavors besides the bitter. But the coffee does not taste as strong, but I am willing to drink slightly weaker coffee, happily, if it is not so bitter that bitter is all I taste.
Fishbait and the best bacon grease keeper made.
Same. I loved watching the bulb on top fill then empty. Psh…psh…psh.
Do you know about the alleged link between Cafestrol and avoiding Parkinson’s Disease? Cafestrol is a compound in coffee that gets concentrated in the “mud” of unfiltered coffee (think French Press). See, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9405141/
I’d drink French Press and Aeropress coffee a lot more if I could make 10 cups at a time. Sadly, no.
I used to drink French press coffee then a few years ago I switched to Chemex with paper filters after reading about increased cholesterol from bean oils - not sure if it’s the Cafestrol but it seems to have made a difference. I’ve also come to like the cleaner flavor from a paper filter, the French press always had excess sediment.
How much do you drink and what brewing method do you use? My understanding is this terpene (and one other, Kawehol) don’t raise serum cholesterol unless you consume more than 2-4 cups daily OR you drink steam-extraction espresso.
This is very cool. Thanks for sharing.
How much espresso can one get away with drinking? 
My cardiologist said that red wine and coffee of any sort are good if you have one or two servings a day. He said that the negatives outweigh the positives when you get to 4 or 5 servings per day.
I think he was a wine drinker not a coffee drinker, though.
Well I have a 10 cup Chemex pour over and I go through it every three days (just a big iced coffee in the morning), so 3.25 cups per day. What I read is that is is on the oils of the beans, so paper filters screen it out. It was some article about a study I read in The NY Times several years ago - I didn’t read the study.
NIH says any can raise it, even in young people. Regular coffee can raise it more smong seniors than youn 'uns.
Cholesterol metabolism is a complicated and as-yet not completely understood thing. Our livers make it in abundance, no matter what we eat and drink.
Thank you all for your help!
I have started to get decent coffee after shortening the steep to 3 minutes. I also ground a 1/4 pound of coffee much coarser to see if that would impact the flavor profile and it seems to have helped as well.
I live at 3,000 feet so water boils a bit cooler, but I am bringing 14 ounces of water to just under a boil and adding it to 2.5 heaping tablespoons of ground coffee in my French press. I grind my coffee at the store so it is not as fresh but I have been grinding it every 3 or 4 days lately, so I get freshly ground coffee a couple times a week. Anyway I steep it for 30 seconds, stir the crud in and then steep it for another 2 1/2 minutes and pour it into a warmed cup.
Compared to the precision in grinding and preparation of many others, my techniques are pretty basic but it has improved my coffee experience a great deal.
I have to admit that I miss the days when my Illy machine gave me a rather good Espresso with almost no work or fuss. But I do like having 10 to 11 ounces of coffee vs. 3 ounces of espresso, so there is that.
Now I just have to work my way through some more coffee roasts/beans and see which ones I like best. I am using 4 Seasons Sumatran right now and it is fairly good.
Bear in mind that (1) recommended water temperatures are for optimal extraction, and (2) that different grinds and roasts can benefit from different temperatures,
Is your French press glass or double-insulated SS? If it’s glass, you probably want water just off the boil, because the brew will immediately begin losing heat through the glass.
What roast are you using? For dark roasts, you may want the water to be 180-190F. Light to medium about 205F.
I also recommend that you steep 4 minutes.
Ziv, you’re not alone in your horrible coffee taste ponderings. All the way back in April of '22 any cup that I had was godawful. I wouldn’t call it bitter but just a “rotten” after taste 
. It was a sudden thing. No, not covid. Me & wife are among the lucky 25% who’ve escaped it (which we find weird 'cause our retirement community had many). I tried diff brands thinking it was a dud bag but all the same. Gave up in May & Switched to Tea. I occasionally tried and 6 months later in Nov-- SUCCESS! 
In one hour?
I used to lunch with some tippling ladies. Since I was usually driving 15-20 miles, I would order double espresso over ice, a rather good drink. Until one day, after 3, maybe 4, I almost had the shakes. Switched to Soda and bitters.
Espresso over ice? The horror!!!
Back in the day, I lived in Arlington Virginia and a guy asked for a triple espresso over ice at Murky Coffee. The barista said it was policy not to do so. And it got worse from there. Some witnesses claimed the barista ended up saying “I am not going to prostitute the bean!” Which is my favorite part.
So the barista thought that the customer was wrong to want an espresso over ice. Small incident, right?
Turns out there were three bloggers who overheard the “incident” and between the three of them they started a minor kerfuffle. It is the Arlington Way, I guess.
I quit pressing for the same reason. Waste 1/4 cup every time bc you don’t want to eat any of it.
