The cafetière is probably the most forgiving way to make coffee at home. There's no paper filter, no pressure and nothing to plug in. Coffee and hot water sit together for a few minutes, you press, you pour. Most kitchens have one somewhere, even if it lives at the back of a cupboard.
Because it's so simple, small changes make a noticeable difference. Here's a method that works well as a starting point, and what to change if your cup isn't quite how you like it.
The short version
- Put 18g of coffee, ground for a cafetière, into the pot.
- Pour in about 300ml of water that's just come off the boil.
- Give it a stir, put the lid on and leave it for about four minutes.
- Press the plunger down slowly and pour straight away.
That's it. Everything below is detail, for anyone who wants it.
What you need
A cafetière, some coffee, a kettle and a mug. Kitchen scales help, but you don't need to buy anything to make a good cup.
If you don't have scales, use the same scoop or spoon every time and adjust from there. Spoons hold different amounts depending on the coffee and how heaped they are, so we'd rather not give you a number that might be off. Consistency matters more than precision: once you've found an amount you like, you can repeat it.
How much coffee to use
We use 18g of coffee to about 300ml of water. That makes one good mugful, and it sits comfortably within the range coffee brewing standards suggest for this kind of coffee.
Making more? Keep roughly the same proportion: about 1g of coffee for every 16ml of water. So a larger pot of 600ml takes about 36g.
Think of it as a starting point rather than a rule. If you like a lighter cup, use a little less coffee. If you like it richer, use a little more. Change one thing at a time and you'll soon find where you like it.
Which grind?
For a cafetière you want a coarse grind, roughly like coarse sea salt. Coarser grounds let the water through the mesh filter cleanly, and they're less likely to end up as sludge in the bottom of your mug.
If you buy ground coffee, choose the cafetière grind. Every one of our coffees can be ground for a cafetière before it's sent, so you don't need a grinder to make this well. Pre ground coffee is a perfectly good way to make cafetière coffee, and plenty of people never use anything else.
If you grind your own, start coarse and adjust from there. If the plunger drops with almost no resistance, you can probably go a touch finer. If it's hard work to press, go coarser.
The method, step by step
Warm the pot, if you like. A splash of hot water swirled round the cafetière and poured away stops the glass taking the heat out of your coffee. It's optional, but it's an easy habit.
Add the coffee. Put your 18g into the empty pot and give it a gentle shake to level it.
Pour the water. Boil the kettle and let it sit for a moment before you pour, so the water is just off the boil rather than bubbling hard. Brewing standards put the ideal range at around 90 to 96°C, a little below boiling. Pour it all in, steadily, so all the coffee gets wet.
Stir. A quick stir with a spoon helps the grounds that float on top to mix in properly.
Lid on and wait. Put the lid on with the plunger pulled right up, and leave it for about four minutes. This is the time most cafetière makers suggest, and it's a reliable place to start.
Press slowly. Push the plunger down gently and evenly. If you force it, hot coffee can spray out of the spout, and you'll stir up more fine grounds. Taking your time is easier on you and on the coffee.
Pour straight away. Once it's pressed, pour it all out. Coffee left sitting on the grounds carries on brewing, and the last cup from a pot that's been standing for twenty minutes rarely tastes as good as the first. If you've made more than you'll drink right away, pour the rest into a jug or flask.
If it isn't quite right
Too weak or watery. Use a gram or two more coffee next time and keep everything else the same. If you grind your own, you could also try a slightly finer grind.
Too strong. Use a gram or two less coffee, or a little more water.
Too bitter. Check the grind first: if it's too fine, it can taste harsh. Make sure you're pouring as soon as you've pressed, rather than leaving it sitting. Water poured on at a rolling boil can also make things taste harsher than they need to.
Too silty. A little sediment is part of cafetière coffee, because the metal mesh lets through more than a paper filter does. To keep it down, press slowly, use a coarser grind if you grind your own, and leave the last little bit in the pot rather than pouring every drop. That last bit is where most of the fine grounds settle.
Lost in the milk. Try a little less milk before you change anything else. If it still disappears, a gram or two more coffee usually sorts it.
Change one thing at a time. If you change the amount, the grind and the timing all at once, you won't know which one made the difference.
Which coffee works well in a cafetière?
Any coffee you enjoy will work. The cafetière tends to give a fuller, rounder cup than a paper filter, so coffees with plenty of body and chocolatey depth feel very much at home in one.
Conquered Signature is the one we'd reach for first: smooth caramel and dark chocolate, a medium dark roast, and particularly good if you take milk. If you like more roast character in your mug, Conquered Dark is the same coffee taken darker, with more roast presence and a richer cup.
Not sure which suits you? The Coffee Finder asks how you make your coffee and how you take it, then suggests one of ours and the grind to go with it.
Once you've got the hang of it
There are more involved ways to use a cafetière, with longer brewing times, stirring the crust part way through and skimming off the foam. They're worth a go on a quiet weekend if you're curious. But the method above makes a very good cup of coffee on an ordinary weekday morning, and that's really the whole point of a cafetière.