How do you all serve a french press during busy retail operations

[Bwynn]

I am opening a coffee house in August and I want to get customers to order a French press serving of whatever fresh roast is available. Do you use a small grinder set aside just for the French press? Do you use timers on the press and allow the customer to push down when the time is up?

[Mary]

We no longer serve french presses since there wasn't sufficient customer demand at our shop - that, and the servers kept breaking the glass carafes. We would pre-grind a small amount of three or four of our blends using an inexpensive burr grinder (Solis Maestro Plus) set to french press grind, add water and a timer, and instruct the customer to press down when the timer went off.

[Benza Lance]

We use the same big ol' clunker that we use to grind our drip coffee beans. We allow the customer to press it down upon the timer completion, although we give them a little tutorial on how to do it (if they haven't before).

[The Barista Formerly Known As JavaJ]

While we do not sell a lot of these, I refuse to give them up.

We have a dedicated Baratza Virtuoso (a Maestro will do just as well) that we use for French Press and Cupping, which we also do a few times a week. Bag grinders (especially large ones, and the "screw" type) are not really ideal for French Press, as they leave too many grinds in between batches. At the very least, throw 2-3 grams of the coffee you are pressing in first to clean through the grinds.

Broken glass is another issue, so you may consider stainless steel or aluminum, but keep in mind it will affect the taste. The metal keeps the heat in longer, which affects the infusion, but also will keep the customers coffee warmer.

We usually set the timer and press the pot behind the counter before giving it to the customer, unless they are a regular and know what's up.

[Denise Smith]

Does anyone use the plastic french press? We just bought one for home use.. it is our first time so we have nothing to compare to. It was a decent cup the problem was we only have one grinder at home and it too it too fine.

[Michael B.]

We serve french press coffee in an airpot alongside our drip coffee. We prepare the coffee using 2 glass presses to fill an airpot, one 12 cup and one 8 cup. This only works during the busy hours since the french press coffee has a shorter lifespan than the drip.
Although making it fresh each time is a better option, this solution works fine and we have a loyal group of fans who love it.

[Bwynn]

Thanks all for the info. I hope to do tastings more so than cuppings but I hope that will spark a frech press revolution. I will try a metal FP and see what happens to taste as well.

Thanks for the info.

[Benza Lance]

In response to Denise:
Personally, I love glass presses. To me, being able to see the coffee itself is an absolute delight, and the glass seems (to me) to not affect the taste as much as steel, aluminum, or plastic. J does bring up a good point, in that a steel/aluminum press will hold heat longer, but with that being said, even if the customer is staying in store, I usually give em an empty, clean press (we use steelies at Temple), so they can dump the coffee into that upon pressing, thereby stopping any over-extraction.

[Anne MF Boatner]

Yeah at big bear all our coffee is pressed. We have one house coffee we press all the time but there are also lots of single origin options for customers who want their own press. On busy days, three bodum chambord 12 cup polycarbonate presses fill up an airpot, which we keep for about 15 minutes. When things are slow we mostly just press one pot at a time.
For personal presses, i think it depends on the coffee. Each coffee we offer seems to like to be brewed a different way and that determines how we serve it to customers. We have three minute timers so for the standard fill it up, stir the bloom, brew coffees i like to give them a timer. For more complicated brew methods i like to brew it myself and hand it to them already pressed.

[Carrie]

I just wanted to revive this thread as we will be using a french press at the my new place of employment. Does anyone have any new thoughts on the matter?