French Press Cold Brew

French press cold brew makes a smooth, satisfying coffee concentrate while you sleep that's ready to press and pour in the morning.

Why we love this recipe

Cold brewing has so much to recommend it. This method produces a coffee that's as easy to drink as it is to make, and to customize.

French press cold brew is:

• Smooth — compared to hot water, cool water doesn't extract as many of the bitter elements from the coffee beans
• Strong — this method brews a concentrate, which you can dilute to suit your preference
• Versatile — pour it over ice, or mix it into any iced (or even hot) coffee beverage of your choice
• Make-ahead friendly — keep it in the fridge for a week or more

I think this formula is perfect as-is, but it' also totally customizable, if you're into that sort of thing. It's easy and manageable to experiment with all the elements over time to find your perfect roast, grind, ratios, brew time, mix-ins, and more.

I first published this recipe here back in 2015. I've since updated the post for clarity, but the recipe remains the same. If you're a fan of old-school blog narrative, you can scroll down below the recipe card to read some of the original text.

What you'll need

Here's a glance at the ingredients you'll need to make this recipe.

• This method will work with any coffee beans that you like — you may even be surprised how much more you like them cold-brewed. I'll just go ahead and admit that I typically buy my coffee pre-ground for my automatic drip machine and Chemex, and it works well for French press cold brew, too. A standard grind is fine, but look for one — or grind it yourself — a little on the coarse side of standard.
• I like to include a little bit of brown sugar and ground cinnamon to take the flavor profile to the next level. I do this even though I don't sweeten or otherwise flavor my regular brewed coffee at all. It makes this cold brew extra-special. That said, these ingredients are optional.
• The only other thing you need for brewing is cool water. I use filtered water from our tap.

How to make it

Here's an overview of what you'll do to make a smooth batch of French press cold brew. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.

1. Place the coffee, brown sugar, and cinnamon into your French press.
2. Pour in half the water and stir. Pour in the rest of the water and continue stirring until ingredients are well-distributed.
3. Position the lid and let coffee brew overnight. In the morning, press it.
4. Pour coffee into an ice-filled glass and stir in milk of your choice or some cold water. That's it!

Expert tips and FAQs

More favorite recipes with coffee

• The Grand Prix (brunch cocktail)
• The Frozen Monkey (coffee peanut butter banana smoothie)
• P.S. My favorite home espresso machine

Continue to Content

Yield: Makes about 3 ½ cups

French Press Cold Brew

Print

French press cold brew makes a smooth, satisfying coffee concentrate while you sleep that's ready to press and pour in the morning. Use a 34-ounce French press (which the manufacturer calls 8-cup but really holds four cups of liquid).

Prep Time 5 minutes

Additional Time 12 hours

Total Time 12 hours 5 minutes

Ingredients

To brew

• 80 grams (1 cup) ground coffee
• 1 tablespoon (13 grams) brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 ½ cups (830 ml) cold filtered water

To serve

• Ice cubes
• Milk of choice or additional cold filtered water, to taste

Instructions

1. Into an 8-cup French press, pour the ground coffee, brown sugar and cinnamon.
2. Pour in half the water and stir well.
3. Add remaining water and stir again.
4. Let sit at room temperature for at least 12 hours, up to 24.
5. Press the coffee.
6. Transfer concentrate to a clean glass or ceramic container with an airtight lid to store in the fridge. (I use a quart-sized mason jar.)
7. To serve, fill glass with ice and pour in coffee concentrate and cold water or milk of choice to taste.

Notes

1. This method will work with any coffee beans that you like — you may even be surprised how much more you like them cold-brewed. I'll just go ahead and admit that I typically buy my coffee pre-ground for my automatic drip machine and Chemex, and it works well for French press cold brew, too. A standard grind is fine, but look for one — or grind it yourself — a little on the coarse side of standard.
2. I like to include a little bit of brown sugar and ground cinnamon to take the flavor profile to the next level. I do this even though I don't sweeten or otherwise flavor my regular brewed coffee at all. It makes this cold brew extra-special. That said, these ingredients are optional.
3. The only other thing you need for brewing is cool water. I use filtered water from our tap.
4. How to serve: This method makes a fairly strong concentrate, but people's coffee preferences vary so widely that it's hard to know exactly how you'll want to use it. I tend to prefer smaller amounts of stronger things, so I pour some over ice and stir in a roughly equal proportion of my milk of choice. (Plain unsweetened Silk soy milk, in case anyone's asking.) You can dilute it with cold water instead if you like your coffee black, use it in any favorite iced coffee beverage of your choice — or even warm it up.
5. If you don’t have a French press: You don't need one! All you need is a glass or ceramic container that holds about four cups of liquid. Let the coffee brew in there, then strain it through a coffee filter or several layers of cheesecloth. Store the brewed concentrate in a clean container of similar description.
6. Storage: You'll need to leave at least 12 hours (up to 24) for brewing. After you press it, concentrate will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for at least a week, up to two. I use a quart-sized mason jar.

Nutrition Information:

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 10

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Here's the original text.

Eight years old, nine, ten. Sunday morning eggs and bacon. The bewitching sputter-gurgle-pop of Mom and Dad’s coffee brewing on the counter. On a bold day, you might ask for a little bit of coffee milk. You’d tip the cup to your mouth with a pinkie aloft, because who was to say you wouldn’t turn out to be that kind of woman. You could be any kind of woman.

Seventeen, eighteen. Perched on a metal stool at the off-campus coffee house pretending to study. Wishing you’d worn a different skirt, but aware that being in the right place at the right age is most of the battle. Pretending it’s haphazard that your head is cocked just so. Eyeing The Boy.

Next term. Same stool. Different boy.

Clad in Starbucks

Minutes later. Those first few years working in New York City. Stopping at Starbucks every morning for a Venti instead of breakfast. As the elevator doors open onto your floor, wearing that plastic cup of coffee with the tall green straw like a pair of Jimmy Choos. Feeling unstoppable with it, incomplete without it.

Another job, another industry, another Starbucks.

Without a safety net

The morning after the first night that the baby woke up to feed every hour. And the morning after that, when it happened again. Wondering whether you’d made the biggest, most irreparable mistake of your life. Furious that nobody warned you. Realizing the safety net between you and your own choices had vanished, never to return.

Having amnesia. Doing it all again.

Coffee flowing like a river

And here you are. Kids in school. Trying to write at the local coffee place. Wishing the collective buzz would seep into your pages. Knowing you may pack up and walk away with only the strong smell of burr-ground beans that lingers in your sweater, in your hair, inside your purse.

A whole life could flash by like this. Jobs, crushes, ambitions — they come and go. For better or worse, the coffee remains, flowing like a river through it all.