French Press vs Pour Over: Body or Clarity, and the Grind for Each

French press makes a heavier, oilier cup because the grounds steep in the water and a metal mesh lets oils and fine particles through. Pour over makes a cleaner, lighter cup because water drips through the coffee and a paper filter catches most of the oils and sediment.

So pick the French press if you want body and the least fuss, and pour over if you want clarity and don't mind standing at the kettle for three minutes. Below is how each one works, the numbers roasters and makers publish for each, and where to set your grinder for both.

The short answer, side by side

The rest of this post explains each row.

Immersion vs percolation: why the cups differ

A French press is an immersion brewer. All the coffee sits in all the water until you press. As Scott Rao puts it, the concentration of coffee in the slurry "increases rapidly" and keeps rising, so extraction slows down as the water gets stronger.

A pour over is percolation. Fresh water keeps arriving at the top while brewed coffee drains out the bottom, so the liquid around the grounds stays weak. Rao explains that the rate of extraction depends mainly on that concentration gradient, which he calls "the primary reason percolation is a more efficient extraction method than immersion."

That's why the two methods want different grinds and times. The press relies on a long steep with coarse grounds. The pour over gets its extraction in under three minutes from a finer grind and a steady supply of fresh water.

Hario's own description of the V60 shows how much the pour matters. The cone sends water toward the center so it stays in contact with the grounds longer, the dripper has one large hole rather than several small ones, and, in Hario's words, "changing the pour speed allows you to brew coffee with your preferred taste, stronger or lighter." In a French press, pour speed barely matters. In a V60, it's one of your main controls.

Body vs clarity: paper vs metal filter

The filter decides most of the difference you taste.

Paper holds back the oils. Coffee beans contain the lipids cafestol and kahweol, about 1% of the bean by weight. Urgert and Katan's review states that they "are extracted by hot water but are retained by a paper filter." In a 1991 trial, van Dusseldorp and colleagues measured 1.0 g of lipid per liter in unfiltered boiled coffee and 0.02 g per liter once the same coffee was poured through a paper filter. The review lists cafetière (French press) coffee among the brews that keep these compounds in the cup.

Most of the oil never leaves the grounds anyway. A 2017 study of paper-filtered coffee by Rendón and colleagues found that 87.45% of the cafestol stayed in the spent grounds, 12.41% ended up in the paper, and just 0.15% reached the brew. So the paper's job is to catch the oily material that does get loose, along with the fine particles.

Metal mesh lets fines through. A press's plunger only separates the grounds from the liquid. ESPRO, which makes French presses, notes that the press "doesn't need a paper filter" and warns that fine grinds "can seep through the plunger, creating a gritty texture and an overly bitter taste." Those fines and oils are part of the heavier body people like in a press. They're also why the last sip is muddy.

If you love the texture of a press but want less sludge, grind coarser and leave the last inch in the pot. If you want even more clarity from a V60, Baratza notes that thinner filter papers can improve flow and clarity.

Grind: coarse vs medium

French press wants a coarse grind. Stumptown says "coarse like breadcrumbs," Counter Culture says medium-coarse "like kosher salt," and ESPRO compares it to sea salt. Too fine and the fines slip through the mesh and the cup turns bitter and muddy.

Pour over sits in the middle. Baratza's V60 guide calls for "medium to medium-coarse," and for a lighter roast describes grounds "a bit coarser than granulated sugar." Too fine and the bed clogs, the drawdown drags past three minutes, and the cup turns bitter.

For the detail on each, read French press grind size and brew time and the V60 grind size guide.

Ratio, temperature and time

French press. ESPRO's starting point is 1:15, 1 gram of coffee per 15 grams of water, and Stumptown's recipe (56 g to 850 g) lands right there. Counter Culture goes lighter at 1:18 with 45 g to 800 g, and steeps longer to make up for it: 6 minutes instead of Stumptown's 4. Both use water at about 205 °F. Grams for every press size are in the French press coffee ratio guide.

Pour over. Baratza's V60 recipe uses 20 g of coffee and 320 g of water at 210 °F (98 °C), which works out to about 1:16. It starts with a 40 g bloom, a stir or swirl and a 30-second rest, then pours of about 100 g in concentric circles with short pauses, aiming to finish in under 3 minutes. More on ratios is in the pour over coffee ratio guide.

The brew calculator scales either recipe to the amount you want.

Effort and cleanup

French press is the lower-effort brew. Stumptown's method is: pour half the water, stir at 1:00, top up to 850 g, press at 4:00. You can walk away during the steep. One press also makes several cups at once. Stumptown recommends pouring off anything you won't drink right away into a carafe, because coffee left on the grounds keeps extracting and turns bitter.

Pour over asks for your attention for about three minutes. You rinse the paper, bloom, then pour in stages and watch the drawdown. Baratza mentions a good pouring kettle as a help, especially with finer grinds. In exchange you get more control: pour speed, pour pattern and grind all change the cup.

Cleanup is the reverse. With a V60, the grounds come out in the paper and go straight into the trash or compost. With a press, wet grounds are packed at the bottom of a glass carafe and in the mesh, and you have to scoop and rinse them out.

Starting settings on popular grinders

These six grinders cover both methods well. Each one's BrewMark page lists a setting for V60 and for French press, all but one from the maker's own chart, so you can switch methods without guessing.

Starting points from BrewMark's settings pages, which take them from each maker's own chart where one exists (rows marked * are estimated on the same dial). Every grinder drifts; adjust by taste.

The gap between the two columns tells you how far apart the methods sit on each dial. On the Encore it's 13 numbers; on the Comandante it's only 4 clicks, so a small turn changes a lot.

If your grinder isn't listed, the grind size chart shows every grinder BrewMark covers side by side. If you're shopping for a grinder that does both, the grinder finder filters for French press and pour over together.

Who should pick which

Pick the French press if:

• You like a heavy, textured cup and don't mind a little sediment.
• You brew several cups at once.
• You want to pour, set a timer and walk away.
• You'd rather not buy paper filters or a pouring kettle.

Pick pour over if:

• You want a cleaner cup where you can pick out individual flavors.
• You usually brew one or two cups.
• You enjoy the ritual and want control over the brew.
• You'd rather drop a paper filter in the bin than rinse out a carafe.
• The cholesterol research above matters to you: paper holds back the cafestol and kahweol that a mesh lets through.

Plenty of people own both and use the press on slow weekends and the V60 for a single cup. If AeroPress is also on your list, read AeroPress vs French press. If you've settled on pour over and are deciding between drippers, see Chemex vs V60.

Next steps

• Find your grinder's settings for both methods on the grinder settings charts, or compare every grinder on the master grind size chart.
• Brew a full recipe: James Hoffmann's French press or James Hoffmann's Ultimate V60.
• Switching methods on a new grinder? Dial in a new grinder first. If your V60 drains slowly, see how to fix a slow pour-over drawdown.
• Shopping for a grinder that does both: the grinder finder.