Which coffee to choose for its piston coffee maker?

Want to learn how to make good coffee with your plunger coffee maker? Before you start, don't choose your coffee maker at random.

To make sure you don't make a mistake, ask yourself the right questions before making a choice: Where does the coffee come from? What is its roasting degree? Which variety? Arabica or Robusta? Is the grind adapted to a coffee maker with my French Press (the other name of the piston coffee maker, because yes the piston coffee maker is a French invention).

All of these factors must be taken into account because they will influence the taste of your coffee and its appearance in a cup.

First, ask yourself what kind of intensity you are looking for. If you want a strong and very intense coffee, turn to robusta. On the contrary, if you are looking for something lighter, with different tastes and a better balance, then Arabica-based coffees are for you. The 100% Arabica coffees are a very good choice.

You can also opt for the blends (Blend in English) which marry arabica and robusta.

Then there is the question of bitterness. Coffees with a lot of bitterness are often very roasted, even toasted. This is called the "Dark Roast", very dear to our Italian friends. If too much bitterness bothers you, then turn to medium roasts, like those we offer at L'Arbre à Café.

These have the advantage of offering light and mild coffees, with more complex and deep aromatic notes, as well as a more pronounced length in the mouth.

Which grind for a piston coffee maker?

We have seen that the variety of your coffee, its origin and its roasting are criteria not to be neglected when choosing a coffee for your French Press or your Bodum Piston coffee maker (surely one of the most famous manual coffee makers). The same goes for the grind.

For a quality cup result, we recommend using a coarse grind so that the water can pass through the material properly and the particles are large enough not to pass through the filter of your stainless steel or glass piston coffee maker.

If you have a coffee grinder: choose a coffee bean. Then, simply adjust your machine to obtain a grind with a texture similar to that of crystal sugar.

If you don't have a grinder, you can buy ground coffee for a piston coffee maker. To do this, nothing could be easier, just go to the page of your favorite coffee in our online store and choose "Coffee grinder piston".

How to dose coffee for a piston coffee maker?

Finally, the last important element to take into account: the dosage of your coffee for piston coffee maker. Here it is also necessary to be precise.

If you overdose it, you will get a coffee that is sometimes too thick and does not flow well.

By under-dosing it, a coffee that is too clear will pass through the material too quickly. If you want good results, we advise you to respect a ratio of 60g per liter of water.

The best coffees for piston coffee maker

If you're wondering what the best coffee is for your plunger coffee maker, there's no single, immediate answer. It's all a matter of taste and choice.

In this process of exploration, you will find at the top of this pagea selection of coffees that will fit perfectly with a French Press, a Bodum, a Bialetti and all other Piston coffee makers.