Plunger

Coffee

60 g

Water

1000 g

Ratio

1:16.7

Temperature

95 °C

Grind

Coarse, like flaky sea salt

Time

9 minutes, mostly waiting

A 1 litre press, four small cups

1. 0:00Warm the jug with hot water and tip it out. A cold glass jug drinks a surprising amount of your brewing temperature.
2. 0:0560 g of coarsely ground coffee in. For a small 350 ml press it is 21 g; the ratio is 60 g per litre and it is more coffee than the box suggests.
3. 0:15Pour all the water straight off the boil, from a height, so the stream turns the bed over. Then leave it. No stirring, no lid, no fiddling.
4. 4:00A crust has formed on the surface. Break it with two gentle stirs; most of it will sink.
5. 4:30Skim the foam and the floaters off with two spoons and bin them. This is the step everybody skips, and it is the one that takes the muddiness out.
6. 9:00Push the plunger down to just below the surface — not to the bottom. You are holding the grounds down, not forcing water through them. Pour gently and stop before the last 50 ml.

Coffee left sitting on its grounds keeps extracting and turns bitter within about ten minutes. If you are not drinking it all at once, decant it into something else.