A french press is a beautiful way to make coffee. It also happens to be my favorite method to brew coffee, both at home and on the road. So why review such a beautiful way to make coffee? Because it does what any other french press does, but better. Any french press is a simple piece of coffee equipment. It needs to consist of two things. A place for the water and coffee grounds to get cozy, and a plunger to filter the grounds out of the drinkable coffee. A good French press review needs to come down to two factors in my opinion, taste, and price.
The standard method for brewing with a french press is easy. You put grounds in the carafe and add in almost boiling water. 205 degrees Fahrenheit if you are keeping score at home. Then you wait for 3 – 4 minutes as the coffee and steaming water are making sweet magic in the pot. Place the lid on top and slowly press down to filter out the grounds by pressing them down. The plunger descends into the black gold, pushing the grounds down, all that should be left north of the filter is pure clean coffee.
The difference is in the screen:
The SterlingPro
is no different in general construction. The magic is in those double screens, as seen in the image on the left. They push the screen more firmly against the carafe and filter the coffee a second time so there are few if any grounds that slip by the filter. You are left with a clean cup of coffee. If you look closely at the coffee as it passes through the filter you see a crisp clean cup of coffee.
How much does good coffee cost?:
I brewed this alongside my Bodum French Press, and the coffee from this one is simply cleaner and smoother. You can’t beat that. But the best feature of the design to me seems to be the price. This costs the same as any other french press I’ve seen around 20 – 30 dollars for the plastic framed variety and around 40 for the all-steel variety. I am a cost-conscious consumer and any good french press review needs to take that equally into account, especially since French presses are so simple. And here the SterlingPro shines, you get good coffee for a great price.
I also have to add that despite the cost, this piece feels sturdy and steady. Obviously, since it is a glass carafe it is still subject to breaking, but the replacements are reasonable.
Full disclosure:
I received this product for the purpose of review, at no cost. This did not affect my review in any way.