Cleaning My French Press Was Always a Hassle Until I Discovered This One with an Ingenious Feature (Bonus: It’s On Sale!)
If you took one look at my kitchen, you’d find a variety of small appliances that can whip up everything from ice cream to matcha. I have at least four coffee makers alone, and I use all of them. However, the least-used coffee maker in my kitchen by far has been my French press. The reason being that my biggest pain point while making coffee with it is the post-brew cleanup. Clearing out the used coffee grounds was messy and inconvenient, often requiring me to dirty up more dishes, and no matter how much I enjoyed my hot, fresh beverage in the morning, it wasn’t worth it. I’d resigned to just leaving it stored at the bottom of my bar cart for the time being. However, when I was introduced to Simpli Press, it made me want to try out a French press again. Why? Well, it promised a significantly easier cleanup.
For the most part, the Simpli Press looks like your typical French press, but with one small addition that makes a HUGE difference: There’s a removable basket that holds the coffee grounds rather than the vessel itself, so you can dump them out without straining or making a bigger mess than you started with. It also has helpful measurement lines directly on the glass that take the guesswork out of how much hot water to pour over the grounds to brew your coffee. I know it’s all a part of following a recipe, but I loathe having to convert measurements, especially in the morning — I just want to make my coffee and get on with the rest of my day, no math involved, please!
To brew your coffee with the Simpli Press, the process is the same as any other French press: The grounds go in first, then the hot water, then you give it a stir, and then you just press the filter down to the bottom for a rich, flavorful brew. The filter plugs snugly into the basket at the base to keep the grounds contained while the freshly-made coffee rises to the top. Once I’ve had my coffee and the press cools down, all that’s left to do is take it apart and clean it.
The Simpli Press delivers on its promise to provide an easier cleanup, but there is a catch: Removing the filter from the basket takes some patience and effort due to the ring around the filter base that prevents grounds from getting into your coffee. It does its job extremely well, but it’s so effective that it can be a challenge to remove the filter from the basket. (The trick is to wiggle it while pulling!) It’s not a dealbreaker for me, because the ability to simply remove the basket afterwards and dump the grounds out far surpasses the struggle with filter removal, but it’s good to be aware of it ahead of time.
Overall, I’m beyond happy with the Simpli Press, and look forward to using it more often. In fact, I’ve found that the more I use it, the easier it gets to unlock the filter from the basket, so I think it’s just growing pains. Regardless, I often rotate my morning beverages and how I make them, so it’s been a joy to add the Simpli Press into my routine without further cluttering up my kitchen. I love the convenience of simply dumping the coffee grounds into a compost bin without having to reach for a strainer, which is honestly worth the price alone. I’ve already used the Simpli Press multiple times since getting it a few weeks ago, and it hasn’t been banished to the bottom of my bar cart yet!
Buy: Simpli Press 34-Ounce Coffee Maker, $59.99 (normally $74.99)
This post originally appeared on Kitchn. See it here: Cleaning My French Press Was Always a Hassle Until I Found This One with an Ingenious Feature (Bonus: It’s On Sale!)