Prestina

Weighing instead of scooping is the only way to repeat a brew — beans differ in density and roast, so a scoop of one is not a scoop of another. Fix the dose and every other variable finally means something.

Medium is the whole range here, and it is not a compromise: too fine and the metal filter chokes when you press, too coarse and a one-minute infusion cannot get there. Table sugar is the target — the same grind a drip machine wants, a step coarser than a V60.

The Prestina has no plunger: the cup it stands in is what presses. So the assembly matters more than on most brewers — the filter disc has to sit flat in its seat and the chamber has to be square in the cup, or the press goes in crooked and the seal leaks down one side instead of building pressure.

Coffee and brewer finally meet, and it is worth its own beat rather than a clause in another step: the filter is rinsed, the kettle is hot, and until the grounds are in there is nothing to brew. Give the brewer a tap to level the bed — a bed sitting at an angle sends the first pour down the low side and extracts unevenly from there on.

The chamber holds 240 ml and the valve keeps it there — nothing drips through while it steeps, which is what makes this an immersion brewer rather than a very slow filter. Off the boil is right: around 90 °C, hot enough to extract and cool enough not to scald a medium grind.

Stirring is only to sink the floating grounds so everything is wet at the same moment. Keep it gentle — an agitated bed packs down against the filter and turns the press into a fight.

One minute is the recipe, and it is short because the press is doing the last part of the extraction. The coffee is sitting in still water the whole time; the clock, not your technique, is what decides strength.

There is no plunger — you push the chamber down and the cup drives the water through the bed. Slow and even, about twenty seconds: the duck valve opens progressively under pressure, and rushing it forces the seal instead of the coffee.

Coffee keeps changing as it cools: aromatics fade, acidity sharpens and sweetness comes forward. Drink it soon after brewing, and taste it as it drops in temperature — that's how you learn what to adjust next time.