Can I Use A French Press With Pre-Ground Coffee? Pros And Cons

The French Press is one of the best devices for bringing out the full taste, body, and aroma of your coffee. This method is best with freshly ground whole bean coffee, but can you use a French Press with pre-ground coffee?

French Press coffee can be brewed with pre-ground coffee beans. In fact, coffee beans must be ground prior to brewing, regardless of the brewing method. So, whether you buy pre-ground coffee or buy whole beans isn’t an issue. However, there are benefits and drawbacks to choosing pre-ground coffee.

These pros and cons are largely related to the convenience and flavor profile of pre-ground coffee. But there are a few tips and tricks you can implement to minimize the cons.

Keep reading to learn more about using a French Press with pre-ground coffee.

Can You Use Pre-Ground Coffee In A French Press?

A French Press can be used with pre-ground coffee.

In fact, a French Press must be used with ground coffee. But whether it was ground 5 minutes prior or 5 months prior doesn’t really matter for the purposes of brewing. However, it does matter for the quality of your coffee.

So, the question isn’t really “Can I use a French Press with pre-ground coffee?”. Instead, the question is “Should I use a French Press with pre-ground coffee?”

The answer depends on what you’re looking for in your coffee. Here are a few benefits and drawbacks to using pre-ground coffee:

Using pre-ground coffee is more convenient
Pre-ground coffee may give you more consistent coffee
French Press coffee won’t taste as good if you use pre-ground coffee

Let’s take a look at each one of these.

can I use a French with pre ground Coffee

Using Pre-Ground Coffee Is More Convenient Than Whole Bean Coffee

The main benefit of using pre-ground coffee is that it will save you time.

When using whole beans to brew French Press coffee, you’ll have to first get out your coffee grinder, grab your beans and grind them to the right size.

If you’ve ground too few beans, you’ll have to grind more. Or if you’ve ground too much, you’ll need to store the extra. And you may or may not clean out your grinder afterward. All this adds several minutes to your coffee prep time.

Then, the actual brewing process your French Press coffee takes around 4 minutes. So, in total, you could easily spend 10 minutes fixing coffee.

This may be fine if you’ve got extra time on your hands. But if you just want to brew a quick cup of coffee before work, this may be too much.

In these cases, pre-ground coffee could be a great way to shorten your coffee-prep time in the mornings.

(To read more about saving time brewing coffee check out our post “Grinding Coffee The Night Before“)

Pre-Ground Beans May Give You More Consistent Coffee

One of the great things about pre-ground coffee is that the grind size is typically more uniform than coffee beans ground at home.

The level of coffee extraction largely depends on the size and shape of the grinds, so a uniform grind will give you consistent extraction. And if you have a whole bag of uniformly ground coffee, each cup of coffee you brew will have an even extraction.

The reason pre-ground beans are more consistent is that they’re usually ground in large industrial burr grinders by the coffee roaster before they’re packaged.

These grinders are able to crush beans to any size required and are much better at creating uniform grinds than the blade grinders typically used at home.

However, there are burr grinders available for at-home use as well, like the OXO Conical Burr Grinder. While they’re more expensive than the average blade grinder, they’ll give you a much more consistent grind size.

Personally, we have both. Our blade grinder is a Mr. Coffee Electric Grinder and the burr grinder we use is built into our Breville Barista Express. (Both are available on Amazon.)

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French Press Coffee Is Less Flavorful With Pre-Ground Beans

The biggest argument against using pre-ground coffee beans is that they go stale faster than whole bean coffee.

This happens because of oxidation – which simply means that as the coffee bean’s oils, acids, and sugars are exposed to oxygen, these compounds break down and decay. And as the coffee decays, it loses aroma and flavor and eventually goes stale.

However, not all pre-ground beans are stale. Beans that are pre-ground will keep fresh for up to 2 weeks after the package is opened.

So, if you want to use pre-ground coffee, make sure the coffee beans were roasted recently and that you use them within 2 weeks after opening the bag.

What’s The Best Pre-Ground Coffee For French Press?

If you want to use pre-ground coffee in your French Press, your best option is to buy coffee that’s as close to the roasting date as possible.

The best way to get freshly roasted coffee is to buy it directly from the roaster or order it from a site like Amazon.

(Whenever I order coffee from Amazon the roasting date is usually within a month of when I receive it. So Amazon is a pretty good option if the roaster doesn’t have its own site.)

So, which ones should you try?

Here are four of my favorite coffees that taste great from a French Press. (If you buy from the sites below, make sure you select the French Press grind):

Can I Use Pre-Ground Coffee From The Grocery Store?

You can use store-bought pre-ground coffee in your French Press. However, the big issue here is that coffee from the grocery store is most likely stale.

It takes time for the beans to get from the roaster to the retailers. And since the retailers don’t want you to know how long the coffee has been sitting on the shelf, they usually don’t have the roast date printed on the package.

Instead, you’ll find a “best buy” date, but this has nothing to do with when it was roasted or expires.

If you buy pre-ground coffee from the grocery store, there’s a good chance it was roasted months ago, but there’s no real way to know for sure.

So, your best option is to buy directly from the roaster or online.

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Choosing The Right Grind Size For Your French Press Coffee

French Press works best with medium or medium/coarse coffee. If the coffee is too fine, the coffee will be over-extracted and difficult to filter. If they’re too coarse, the coffee will be under-extracted.

So, when buying pre-ground coffee for your French Press, you’ll want to make sure to get the correct grind size.

This is important to keep in mind because different coffees may or may not come in the right grind size. For example, pre-ground Cuban coffees mostly come in espresso grind.

Also, double-check the grind when buying coffees online, as the default grind size selected may not be the size you want.

Who Should Use Pre-Ground Beans For French Press Coffee?

Pre-ground coffee works best for people who want to prepare their coffee quickly without having to go through the trouble of grinding their own coffee.

It’s also a good idea if you go through coffee quickly and can use a bag of coffee within two weeks of opening it.

If either of these is true for you, pre-ground coffee may work well for you.

Key Takeaways:

Pre-ground coffee will work in a French Press. But keep the following in mind:

pre-ground coffee reduces your coffee prep time by several minutes
pre-ground coffee is ground in industrial-size burr grinders and tends to be uniform in size
pre-ground coffee loses flavor much faster than whole bean coffee

Cheers Coffee Lovers!

KEEP READING

Idalmis Holmes

Idalmis is co-owner of Coffee Break Lovers. She is a Cuban coffee enthusiast that is passionate about coffee and coffee culture.

Coffee	Description	Image
Volcanica’s Ethiopian Yirgacheffe	Medium/Light roast coffee with flavors of blueberry and lemon.
Volcanica’s Kenyan AA	Medium/Light roast that tastes of cranberry, and raspberry with floral notes.
Cooper’s Kenyan AA	Medium/dark roast that tastes like caramel and fruit. The combination of flavors makes this one taste like baked fruit pie.
Peet’s Coffee – Major Dickason Blend	This is a dark roast with unique flavors that’s also a great choice for French Press coffee.