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Pour Over Vs French Press: What Is The Better Brewing Method?

Among a large population of coffee lovers around the world, some people like their coffee straight from the coffee machine in the morning. There are also a growing number of people who prefer their coffee manually made.

For those who like their coffee made manually, the question to ask is, which coffee tastes better? Coffee from the pour-over or the French press? The Pour Over vs French Press coffee is one debate among manual coffee makers that is going on for a while now.

We will look into the pour-over and the French press coffee makers in this article. You can read on to find out how to use the French press and the pour-over to make coffee. You will also learn along the way which coffee from both manual coffee makers tastes better than the other.

Pour Over Vs French Press


French Overview

It’s easy to use the French press to make your morning coffee.
It’s easy to use the French press to make your morning coffee.

It’s easy to use the French press to make your morning coffee. You only have to fill the carafe with enough coffee grounds for a cup or two of coffee. Then, add hot water to it. And lastly, you’ll only have to let the grounds steep in the hot water and you get your fresh cup of manually made or brewed coffee.

The French press comes with a plunger that helps to separate the coffee grounds with your brewed coffee. Simply press the plunger down. Pour the resulting manual brew into your cup. Then you can enjoy your rich-tasting, very satisfying manually brewed coffee. Easy, right? Yes, it’s that easy.

Quick Fact: Coffee from the French press is thicker than from the pour-over coffee makers because the water there remains in contact longer with the coffee grounds.

The resulting coffee brew from the French press contains more oil than those extracted from the pour-over. This is why manually making coffee using the French press is preferred by many over using the pour-over to make coffee.


Pour Over Overview

In Pour-over, the resulting coffee is lighter than that made with the French press.
In Pour-over, the resulting coffee is lighter than that made with the French press.

People have been using the pour-over coffee makers far longer than they have moved to use the French press. This way of making brewed coffee manual has been around for a long time.

Pour-over coffee makers have, of course, been improved over time for modern-day use. They are not the same as the ones used by coffee lovers hundreds of years ago. It’s as easy to make brewed coffee using the pour-over as coffee-making with the French press.

The first step to using the pour-over that’s similar to using the French press to make coffee is boiling water manually and letting it cool a bit first. Once you’ve finished with that, make sure that your coffee grounds are ready on the filter. And, lastly, to make your freshly brewed coffee, pour the water into the filter and grounds.

The resulting brewed coffee then drips into the carafe and finally, you have your freshly brewed coffee.

In the case of the pour-over, the resulting coffee is lighter than that made with the French press. The reason for this is that the water doesn’t stay in contact with the coffee grounds compared to making coffee with the French press. People who love strongly brewed coffee in the morning may prefer coffee made with the French press to the pour-over due to this.


Is French Press or Pour Over Easier?

It’s not hard to make coffee with the French press and the pour-over.
It’s not hard to make coffee with the French press and the pour-over.

It’s not hard to make coffee with the French press and the pour-over. You only need the coffee grounds you like when you already have the French press ready. Only the filter and coffee grounds, meanwhile, are needed to make coffee using the pour-over coffee maker.

It literally takes only a few minutes to get light brewed coffee with the pour-over, for example. Preparing to make coffee using both is easy and quick, too. It starts with manually boiling water, letting that cool down a bit before adding it into the pour-over or the French press.

It may, however, take time for you to calibrate your preferred brewed coffee’s taste and strength using the French press. Due to this, more people will say making coffee with the pour-over is easier.


Which is Better?

Now, the question is: pour over vs French press, which makes the better coffee? The answer to this can differ from one person to another. People that prefer their coffee strong and rich-tasting will say the French press makes better coffee. Others that like their coffee lighter will go with coffee made manually with the pour-over.

People have different tastes and preferences when it comes to coffee. It’s hard to say which makes the best freshly brewed coffee between the two, the pour-over or the French press.

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About David Dewitt

Hi, my name is David and I come from Columbus, Ohio. I am a amateur photographer, and a coffee lover. I love to write, and don't mind me a cup of joe!