Emilee Bryant
Coffee Expert and Latte Artist
Emilee Bryant is a Coffee Expert, Youtuber, and Latte Artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She spent years building her teaching skills as a Coffee Educator for Counter Culture Coffee, a coffee roasting company that has training and education centers across the country. She is also a multi award-winning latte artist. She won the Latte Art World Championship Open twice in 2019 and the Barista League: Online, Season II, among various competitions throughout her career. Emilee’s signature design is a hollow heart using the negative space in a latte. She is also deeply invested in the technical side of what it means to be a barista, and is constantly exploring the methods in which a simple bean becomes a cup of coffee. She has cultivated an active online community of fellow coffee enthusiasts, and creates content for her over 100K subscribers on YouTube and 100K followers on Instagram on coffee trends, latte art tutorials, and the fun of the coffee industry.
wikiHow's Editorial Process wikiHow partners with over 1000+ experts from a wide range of fields to ensure our content is accurate and based on well-established research and testimony. Content Managers conduct interviews and work closely with each expert to review information, answer reader questions, and add credible advice. Learn more about our editorial process and why millions of readers trust wikiHow.
Forum Comments (2)
How to make the perfect cold brew at home
There are multiple ways to cold brew coffee. Some people flash brew, which is not a true cold brew. This is where you make a normal pour-over of coffee, but pour it over ice or a cold vessel so that it cools down. This gives you the flavor of what a normal brewed coffee tastes like.
Coffee will taste very different when you make it with heat versus when you make it with time and cold water. If you’re interested in the true cold brew flavor, I would recommend that you brew with cold water and let the coffee sit overnight. This will give you that classic chocolatey cold brew taste. Then, take it out of the fridge and filter out the coffee grinds with a paper filter.
Use a tight coffee to water ratio, like a 1 to 10 to 1 to 14. Then, you can add a little water the next day to dilute it. This will give you maximum flavor extraction but a gentler taste. Also, make sure to store it in the fridge to avoid any bacteria. Generally, letting the coffee sit in the fridge for a day is perfect. The longer you let it sit, the more bitter it could become, so I try not to go more than 24 hours.
Coffee will taste very different when you make it with heat versus when you make it with time and cold water. If you’re interested in the true cold brew flavor, I would recommend that you brew with cold water and let the coffee sit overnight. This will give you that classic chocolatey cold brew taste. Then, take it out of the fridge and filter out the coffee grinds with a paper filter.
Use a tight coffee to water ratio, like a 1 to 10 to 1 to 14. Then, you can add a little water the next day to dilute it. This will give you maximum flavor extraction but a gentler taste. Also, make sure to store it in the fridge to avoid any bacteria. Generally, letting the coffee sit in the fridge for a day is perfect. The longer you let it sit, the more bitter it could become, so I try not to go more than 24 hours.
So what's the right way to make French press coffee?
The French Press is an extremely versatile coffee-making instrument. You can make strong, concentrated coffee, large-batch coffee, or anything in between. The two most important things to consider are coffee-to-water ratio and grind size.
Lighter roast coffees call for more water, something like a 1 to 16, 1 to 17, or 1 to 18 ratio of coffee to water. Darker roasts, however, are better with something closer to a 1 to 14 ratio, especially if you plan to put milk in them. So if you're using 10 grams of coffee for a light roast, you'd use around 170 mL of water, but 140 mL of water for a dark roast. You can scale this up for the amount of coffee you want to make! Make sure to pay attention to the type of roast on your coffee (if it doesn't say, assume a darker roast), and use a kitchen scale to measure out your coffee and water.
Controlling your grind size is the number one thing that will make your coffee go from decent to amazing. If you have the means to do it, invest in a burr grinder, or a grinder that has two spinning plates instead of a blade. They're typically around $100. Fresh-ground coffee is so much more flavorful than pre-ground, as coffee loses it's flavor after 24 hours when ground.
I recommend a medium grind for French Press. If it tastes weak, you can lower your coffee-to-water ratio or stir it a bunch, as this agitation will extract more flavor. If it's too strong, add more water and use less coffee.
Lighter roast coffees call for more water, something like a 1 to 16, 1 to 17, or 1 to 18 ratio of coffee to water. Darker roasts, however, are better with something closer to a 1 to 14 ratio, especially if you plan to put milk in them. So if you're using 10 grams of coffee for a light roast, you'd use around 170 mL of water, but 140 mL of water for a dark roast. You can scale this up for the amount of coffee you want to make! Make sure to pay attention to the type of roast on your coffee (if it doesn't say, assume a darker roast), and use a kitchen scale to measure out your coffee and water.
Controlling your grind size is the number one thing that will make your coffee go from decent to amazing. If you have the means to do it, invest in a burr grinder, or a grinder that has two spinning plates instead of a blade. They're typically around $100. Fresh-ground coffee is so much more flavorful than pre-ground, as coffee loses it's flavor after 24 hours when ground.
I recommend a medium grind for French Press. If it tastes weak, you can lower your coffee-to-water ratio or stir it a bunch, as this agitation will extract more flavor. If it's too strong, add more water and use less coffee.
