Why does coffee have to sit in a French press for like 5min to be strong enough, whereas with pour over the water is only in contact with the grounds for 10-15 seconds and produces a similar strength?

Question

My first guess is that it has something to do with gravity pulling out the flavor as it narrows through the tunnel of Godly caffeination, my second guess is absolute fucking magic…

Edit: haha makes you pick a flair but I literally cannot think of a subject that doesn’t relate to coffee so we’ll go with “physics.”

In: Physics

Answer 1

I can speak to something people are missing, but I have no idea on the strength of impact it makes.

From a chemistry point of view, the amount of solvent you use changes how much you extract from a matrix. In this case, the water is the solvent, and the coffee is the matrix.

Since it’s ELI5, I won’t bother to look up the equation, but the gist is you’ll get a better extraction if you wash the matrix with the least amount of solvent multiple times, rather than one big wash once. If I want to use my solvent economically and most effectively, 3x washes with 15ml will extract more than 1x wash of 45ml.

The same happens with pour over vs steeping. The act of pouring over acts like washing the matrix more than once, thus extracting more from the coffee.

As to the actual amount of difference it makes, I have no idea. It’s probably the grind size that makes the most difference, like spsfisch says. But that’s a factor from the chemistry perspective.