My perfect coffee:
- fill bottle of the same volume as my press with water.
- pour ~10% of it in the electric kettle, and start it.
- put two (or three) full teaspoons of light roasted fine ground coffee in the press
- the water boiled. pour it into the press.
- put remaining cold water in kettle, start it again.
- shake the press a bit so coffee hydrates and foams. Cover the press.
- grab a coffee paper filter (circle) fold it in "pizza-like" shape 4 times and cut the outer skirt, so the new radius is about 1cm larger than the press filter.
- rest of the water is boiling now, pre-water+coffee mix has no foam. Fill press with water.
- put the paper filter on top, and insert the plunger so that along all the inner circumference, the paper filter is between the press inner wall and the plunger.
- press the coffee very slowly, don't rush it at all. It will take you a solid minute or a bit more.
Now you have crystal, non acidic, and flavorful golden coffee. I usually pour a cup immediately, and put the rest in an all-metal insulated little bottle.
I divide the water in two parts to quickly get rid of the foam under the paper filter. Foam makes the pressing way slower. If you have time, you can immediately boil the whole water volume, but leave the coffee mix covered for 5-10 mins and the foam will be gone by then.
You'd honestly get a better cup, cheaper and with less effort from a high quality instant coffee.
It's not about quality or taste really, it's just a cheapest caffeine delivery method.
Instant coffee is much more expensive, nearl 50€/kg, 3in1 is around 20€/kg, beans are around 15-30+€/kg while the one i drink is around 3€/kg. So the price makes everything up for it.
The only reason i don't use pills is that i can delay a little and slowly boot up in the morning while drinking the biggest cup i have.
Instant coffee is roughly 30€ per kg in German discounters with very ok quality. The marketing heavy brands are expensive due to marketing, not due to quality.
Oddly I'm not even that far from Germany, i could order it from there and still it would be cheaper than locally bought ones.