Yeah it seems like no matter what I did I always ended up with sediment. I still use my stainless steel French press for camping though because it is so simple and I don’t have to worry about breaking it.
I meant re: cholesterol impact
Really? A quarter of every cup is muddy?
If anything close to that % is happening, your grind has far too many fines. There are several possible reasons for that.
You might try an experiment with a pre-ground coffee for drip.
No, a French press grind needs to be really coarse, much coarser than what you’d have for drip.
My suggestion was based on the fact that pre-ground drip coffee really doesn’t have fines. I’ve never seen pre-ground specifically for press.
All my home grinders–burr, blade and manual–generate a considerable volume of fines. You can sieve them out, but I thought pre-ground would be a simpler experiment even if drip isn’t the ideal grind.
Maybe an 1/8, 16th, I dunno. It’s just the thinking about when you’re going to hit that level. You’re bound to get some solids as you find it.
I don’t grind fine. I don’t grind much anymore. Gone drippy most of the time.
If you use a paper filter, you prolly won’t get any mud. Otherwise, you’ll get some, no matter what.
I’m going to experiment with sieving. You might be interested in this: https://www.roastycoffee.com/coffee-sieve/
Or in buying this: https://fellowproducts.com/products/shimmy-coffee-sieve
Interesting… I just ground coffee at a “French Press” setting with my burr grinder. While virtually all the grind passed a flour sieve, most of that passed a very fine Chinoise. That tells me there are a lot of fines making it into even my coarser grinds.
I made espresso with what passed the Chinoise, and it was a taste improvement over what my grinder makes at its finest settings.
When I temporarily relocated out of NYC at the beginning of the pandemic, I had a big adjustment to make in terms of quality coffee availability. For the first little while, I settled on DD hazlenut beans at the grocery store for my best coffee option. (I know. Desperate times etc.)
Since then I’ve sourced some locally-roasted stuff and also found places where I can buy the kind of beans to which I was previously accustomed. I always checked at BJ’s Club to see if they offered bulk beans from a brand I would accept, but they didn’t; they stock pound (or more) tubs of ground coffee from DD, but I didn’t want that. And their “house” brand beans were of unknown quality, and you can’t buy a small bag, so I never went there.
Anyway long story short, this week they suddenly had two pound bags of DD whole bean for 19.99. If I like this product, it’s about to save me a LOT of money.
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Do you have a Costco nearby?
no.
Yeah, even coarse, you have some finings. No biggie, my pressing days are pretty much over. When I want great coffee I’ll buy a pour over from my local spot. My once a week Starbucks, only good.
Currently drip with a Technivorm Moccamaster/ grinder Mazzer Mini.
Still home roasting on a Gene roaster
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Now a days I do pour-over only using a gold cone filter. I’m consistently perplexed by how fast or slow it takes… 10-15 seconds to 60 seconds…from the same bag! One assumes the grind is consistent in the whole bag.
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Yesterday I bought a vintage percolator. I had already tried and failed to produce potable coffee in such a machine; the perc in question, bought on eBay after exhaustive research, now sits in a closet, gathering dust. I came across another one yesterday at a vintage warehouse, and was unable to pass it up - it’s condition was exceptional. I decided to try again.
I spent the evening cleaning it with a water/vinegar solution (1:1), running several brew cycles and replacing the solution each time. Then I boiled the aluminum filter basket and internal tube separately in plain water, and scrubbed them with dish soap (they appeared original but only lightly used.) I used a wire pipe cleaner on the tube, and couldn’t detect any sediment. I washed the inside of the perc as well.
This morning I brewed coffee in it and brewed some in my electric coffee maker at the same time, to do a side-by-side. VICTORY! It’s delicious.
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It looks to be in exceptionally good shape. Congrats!
Going forward, I’d be a little slow to subject the uncoated aluminum parts to any real concentration of acids, and definitely never show it the inside of a dishwasher. A scrub with liquid dish soap should now be enough. But if you ever feel compelled to shine it up, a pad of 000 or 0000 steel or brass wool is OK, as long as you wash it afterward and then leave it to sit for a few hours–aluminum passivates very quickly, so you shouldn’t have any off tastes.
Have you tried putting a few pieces of eggshell in the basket with the grounds yet?
Every single source I could find recommended a cleanse with 1:1 vinegar and water, so that’s what I did.
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Many, many years ago I waitressed in a small cafe. The owner always insisted I add egg shells to the grounds, although we used siphon coffee pots.
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Unless your new percolator was badly stained of scaled up, you did not need to do this. It’s hardly fatal done as a christening, I just wouldn’t acid-bathe it on a regular basis.
Vinegar will strip, to some degree, the oxides formed when aluminum passivates. If this is part of a regular cleaning regimen, it can gradually thin and/or pit the parts. Don’t take my word for it: https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/126498/cleaning-with-vinegar-what-surfaces-does-it-react-badly-with-metal-window-sil
Did the owner tell you why?
