Cafetière Coffee

A cafetière is basically the definition of lovely, rich, easy-to-achieve coffee.

 

Holding a red mug

 

Cafetière coffee is robust and full-bodied yet fabulously simple – this is a brew method you can master in an instant!

Cafetières are immersion devices, which means they produce your coffee by letting the grounds and water to steep together. The gorgeous flavour this creates makes cafetières the go-to device for millions of coffee fans worldwide.

Their uncomplicated, teapot-like shape looks less intimidating than some of the other devices (although we don’t believe any brew method is too hard to grasp – check out our brew guides to master them all!). Cafetières are great for coffee fans new to home brewing as they create a rich, full-bodied cup that will leave you coming back for more!

 

plunging a cafetiere of coffee

 

Why coffee fans love their cafetière

Cafetières are good. We like them a lot. Why? Well, how long have you got…

Firstly, the cafetière method is easy to get the hang of. Pour, plunge, pour is the general idea, with a bit of waiting in between.

The immersion process gives you a uniform extraction because, unlike pour over methods where the water passes through the grounds and into your cup, the coffee and boiling water steep as one in the cafetière jug. This makes it easy to achieve great coffee again and again – perfect!

 

set pf three coffees and a two chimps tin

 

Cafetières are ideal for your next coffee get-together. The ample size of most cafetières will produce enough coffee to fill around eight small cups and create eight very happy faces. There are also some very dinky single-serve cafetières on the market if you’re brewing coffee pour moi – we love this handy 350 ml design by Barista & Co.

Aaaand, do you want to know what makes the cafetière even better? Yes, even better than it already sounds? They are easy to take care of (only the jug and plunger to wash up) and inexpensive, too. In fact, you might already own one – have a rummage in the kitchen cupboards!

 

Barista & Co cafetieres side by side

 

Cafetière Coffee

Please grind the gap. ⚠

Hello passengers. Welcome to the Coffee Convoy. Want to know how to brew the best coffee? Then please mind your grind.

Getting the right grind is super important when it comes to making coffee. Too coarse, and your coffee will under-extract. Too fine, and the opposite will happen; you’ll get a brew that is over-extracted and bitter. This is because finer grounds have more surface area and, as such, can come into contact with more of the water.

We grind our freshly roasted coffee beans differently depending on the brew device you want to use.

Making coffee in a cafetière? Then we’ll grind the coffee beans to a medium-coarse consistency. The granules will resemble rough sugar – the opposite of the super-fine, spice-like coffee grounds you would use for espresso.

 

Coffee beans in coffee roaster

 

The near-absence of pressure makes medium-coarse the way to go with cafetière coffee. Finer grounds brew very happily in pressure devices such as the espresso machine but just aren’t suited to your cafetière. If you put fine grounds in your cafetière, your lovely coffee would over-extract and be bitter and tasteless rather than bouncing with flavour. Grumpy face. ☹

We know it can be tempting to turn the grind a tad finer if you’re not keen on the bits of sediment that come through the mesh but rest assured, you’ve not gone wrong if you have bits – this is the way good cafetière coffee should be! It all adds to the flavourful body. Alternatively, you might think, hmmmm, I quite like the taste of cafetière coffee with a finer ground and if that’s the case, go for it! You are the best judge, after all.

 

pouring a cafetiere

 

Quantity questions: how much coffee do I put in my cafetière?

There’s a fair amount of flexibility when it comes to coffee quantity. We’re pretty strict on how the beans should be ground, but as for the amount you put in, we’re always up for experimentation!

But if this all sounds a bit scary, don’t panic! We’ve got a starting ratio that’ll get you up and running in no time. For cafetière coffee, a ratio of 1:20 is a great place to start. What does this mean? Well, for every gram of coffee you want 20 ml of just-off-the-boil water. This means that a standard size cafetière of 1000 ml/eight cups will need 50 g coffee and 1000 ml water. If you’re using the smaller three-cup with a 350 ml capacity, try 18 g coffee and 350 ml water. If you find this too strong or if you would like a cup with more oomph, add a smidgen more coffee or let your coffee and water steep together for longer.

 

pouring coffee from a spoon into an empty cafetiere

 

A quick word of warning. You know how the leftover coffee in the pot is so tempting you can’t think of anything else until you’ve drunk it? Well, to save yourself from a disappointing second cup, we recommend transferring your brewed coffee from your cafetière into another container (with a lid, to keep it nice and warm). This will prevent the coffee from over-extracting in your cafetière jug and taking on a strength that even the hardiest chimp might struggle with!

 

What’s the best cafetière coffee?

Whether it’s a medium roast or something nice and fruity, any coffee will be lovely in a cafetière. However, lighter coffees work particularly well because their acidity levels match the way cafetières brew. Lighter coffees (ones that haven’t been in the roaster for as long as dark roasted beans) are naturally quite acidic, making them less suited to pressure methods as pressure brings out acidity. Cafetières, on the other hand, brew by gravity, which brings out just the right amount of acidity in the coffee. So, to recap, your cafetière will welcome any coffee with open arms but will be just thrilled to brew a lighter roast for you.

 

two chimps new rwandan coffee png of bag and label

 

Luckily, the Two Chimps online coffee shop is well-stocked with unmissable light and medium roasts. Currently, there’s Oodles of Ongles, which you’ll love for its rounded, juicy flavour. If you fancy something a little smoother, go for a flutter with Have Faith in the Fairies. Its chocolaty, vanilla-y loveliness is simply irresistible. Then, if you want some llama drama, there’s  How Many Llamas did you say were in the Phonebox? This sweet decaf coffee is light and fruity with a perky peach and mandarin acidity. Yum!

 

have faith in the fairies png coffee image two chimps

 

You’ve got the cafetière (if not – we love these Barista & Co cafetières!). You’ve got your speciality coffee. And yes, you’ve got all the coffee knowledge. Sorted!

Let’s get cracking on some delicious cafetière coffee!

Still not sure which coffee to go for? Head over to our online coffee shop to browse the full range.

Or, give our wizard a call for some super coffee suggestions?

 

See all the coffees!

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