I recently read an interesting discussion on an alternative brewing method using an inverted style French Press.Normally, I add about 5-6 tablespoons of coarsely ground coffee to the press, bring my water to just under boiling (96-98C) and pour, stir, and press down the plunger after 4 minutes. This produces a heavy-bodied cup of coffee, usually a little on the silty side (despite the mesh filter). The benefits of the FP are numerous, among them the ability to completely control all aspects of brewing (temperature, dose, extraction time) as well as a cup that is unadulterated by a paper filter. A lot of people swear by drip coffee or Chemex, both of which use a paper filter (unless you’ve got a gold-cone filter on your drip machine–but most of those don’t reach a high enough temperature). I have brewed a number of coffees on the Chemex, including Hacienda La Esmeralda auction lot 2007, and each of them had a papery flavor I found unpleasant and a finish that was less sweet than I would like, both of which I attribute to the filter.

Personally, I enjoy the sediment in the French Press, though I know a number of people that don’t enjoy it. So when I read about a a brewing method in which one inverts the normal proceedure, I was curious to see how efficiently and cleanly it brewed. So I set up my press, and ground my coffee, placing it on top of the metal filter.

I used a Nicaragua that I roasted a little on the light side, just past first crack, and ground immediately before brewing.

You can see the coffee rests on top of the metal filter. I brought the water up to temperature, and poured.

Afterwards, I let the coffee steep for about 4 minutes.

The idea is to emulate a cupping setup, where the coffee extracts openly in the hot water. In the process of cupping, after the coffee has extracted, the surface tension is broken and then scooped off. In my experiment, I simply pulled up on the plunger.

The inversion is not unlike that of a vacuum pot or even the Clover, in that the extracted coffee is sucked through the grounds in a very efficient way, leaving little residual sediment. I found the cup incredibly flavorful, a bit lighter in body than a typical French Press (partly, of course, due to the light roast — though I have pressed the exact same coffee at a similar roast level in the past resulting in a very bright but surprisingly full cup), and the smallest amount of sediment at the bottom, all fines from a less than perfect grinder. Try this at home, especially if you like the flavor of a French Press, but find the body a little heavy and/or dislike the sediment at the bottom. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.