Cafetiere brewing has long been the go-to method for coffee lovers looking for their fix at home; it’s not an expensive brewing method, it requires little preparation and expertise, and it’s one of the best ways to taste the origin bean flavours and character!
Even though getting the most of your Cafetiere brew can take a bit of practice, it’ll be a labour of love and you’ll be enjoying fresh, great tasting coffee in no time. So throw away the freeze dried stuff you have in your cupboard, you won’t be needing that anymore.
Choosing A Cafetiere
Whether you’re looking for something to use every day or something a little fancier for special occasions, we have a full range of cafetieres from only £12.99
Always buy a branded cafetiere to ensure better quality filtering and eventually a cleaner cup of coffee, not only this but branded cafetieres will usually last longer because of their greater quality parts, so you’ll be less likely to have to replace them. Our selection of cafetieres includes top brands such as Alessi, Bodum and Le Creuset!
Sizing
One of the main decisions when buying a cafetiere is trying to choose the correct size. Fortunately, they're usually labelled for the number of cups of coffee they provide. This generally allows for roughly a 4½ oz or 125ml cup, which leaves space for milk in a modest 6oz cup.
If you are serving larger quantities of coffee, 3 cup cafetieres could easily be shared between two or be used for personal use. By comparison, our larger 6 cup, 8 cup, and 12 cup cafetieres are built for generous sharing.
Material
Cafetieres can be made from a range of materials, making choosing potentially difficult. Polycarbonate is an affordable option which is incredibly unlikely to break but lacks the refinement or luxurious finish of glass. Glass is arguably the most common material for cafetiere beakers as it adds a premium touch while remaining clear enough to allow users to brew their coffee to the darkness they desire.
Finally, stainless steel, aluminium and ceramic options combine the sturdiness of polycarbonate with a contemporary design and even boast unrivalled thermal insulation. The only downside is trying to keep an eye on the progress of your brew!
Design
Most cafetieres feature a main beaker which is either built into the frame, as with some plastic ones, or held and removed from a surrounding frame (as with glass ones). It can be useful to browse a full selection of coffee plungers to find the ideal one to suit the look and requirements of your business.
Choosing Your Coffee
Because of the ease of brewing using a cafetiere you can use any coffee, whichever origin, flavour or blend that you enjoy!
We have a suggested selection that we feel work incredibly well in producing the greatest flavours and most enjoyable cups. We’ve selected some of our sweet, fruity and chocolatey coffees such as our Brazil Yellow Catuai, Kenya Peaberry and firm favourite Nicaragua Matagalpa!
Spoilt for choice? Grab a Cafetiere Taster Pack to try a few different coffees!
How Much Coffee Do You Need For A Cafetiere?
The quantity of coffee you need depends on three main things:
• The strength of the coffee
• How finely ground your coffee is
• The mineral composition of your water
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As a rule, use approximately 70 to 75g of coffee per litre of water. This equates to roughly one scoop or heaped teaspoon per person (or cup). Remember, this is a general rule, and you may need to use less for richer coffee. The amount you use can also be tailored to your drinker's taste: more grounds for a stronger coffee, fewer for a weaker brew.
A Brief History of The Cafetiere
Humans have been drinking coffee since the 15th century, but cafetieres as we know them only emerged in the mid-19th century. Dozens of coffee makers were patented in France throughout the 1840's and 1850's, but most of these focused on ways of boiling water and coffee grounds together or passing the water through the grounds, rather than letting them brew.
Despite these primitive designs, the English language use of the word cafetiere originated in this period of invention and it is simply the French for 'coffee maker'. This was also the time when coffee drinking rapidly gained popularity throughout Europe and emerged in America.
We took a step closer to modern cafetieres in 1852 when Henri-Otto Mayer and Jacques-Victor Delforge patented their 'Pressure Coffee Maker with Instantaneous Filtration', which was the first coffee pot to use a piston to exclude grounds from water during the pouring process. Unfortunately, limitations in technology made making a watertight seal difficult at the time and many sources claim the resultant invention didn't really work.
This problem was solved in 1929 when Italian inventor Attilio Callimani patented a revised coffee plunger with a mesh skirt and fine grill. The modern cafetiere was born!
His design was refined further in 1957 By Faliero Bondanini who patented a system using flexible fins in conjunction with a spring in order to give the perfect seal. Throughout the 1960's and 1970's the humble coffee plunger became a must-have part of domestic life, aided by several large distributors and the popular Bodum French presses.
How To Use A Cafetiere
1. Boil your kettle and let it rest for a minute.
2. Add your coarse ground coffee to your cafetiere - Around 16g (or 3 tablespoons) per cup/mug you'd like to brew
3. With the kettle just off the boil, evenly and slowly pour the water over the grounds.
4. Let it sit for 4 minutes.
5. At 4 minutes, slowly plunge down.
6. Pour into your cup, and enjoy!
Cafetiere brewing is so versatile and so you can choose virtually any coffee to make a great cup from a cafetiere. This can make your coffee selection more difficult, as we have such a huge variety to choose from. To help you pick a coffee, we have put together our top selling cafetiere coffees here!
Love our cafetieres and coffees? Check out our range of chocolates, biscuits, biscotti, syrups and teas!
