I wouldn’t say Nescafe is bad. It has a decent fragrance, and it’s smooth, but the flavor isn’t as nice as what I can get out of a french press.

Since I started french press, I found the taste so rich that I haven’t needed to add creamer anymore like I did when I was drinking instant. Drip coffee from a coffee shop now tastes like weak sauce to me.

Water temperature is important. Hot, but just short of boiling, around 195-205F. I am fortunate to already have a water boiler pot that heats water to a constant 195F, so that’s where I base my brewing recipes from. For those boiling water on a stovetop, it’s heat water to boiling, then remove the pot from the burner, and wait 2-3 minutes for it to cool to the correct temperature. Sample the water temperature with a meat or candy thermometer until you get your own setup’s timing down.

How long to brew though: Dark roasts are more forgiving, and I can brew anywhere from 4-8 minutes to get decent flavor out of them.

Medium roast brewing is trickier. Too long past 4 minutes and the brew acquires an astringent “rough” mouth feel.

Each and every different bag of beans or grounds that I’ve tried takes a slightly different recipe to achieve a decent flavor.

The moment I open a new bag of coffee, it’s a daily experiment until I dial in my process.

I start a new bag with the standard brew time of 4 minutes. Brew is too weak? Add a minute to brew time the next day. Brew tastes astringent? Subtract a minute from brew time. Brew reaches astringency before I can get a good flavor? Grind finer and start over.