How do I use a coffee plunger?

How do plunger coffee and espresso coffee affect the stomach differently?

• Coffee made with a plunger seems much more likely to cause gastritis than espresso coffee - why is this?

• Answer:

  The adverse affect on the stomach from drinking coffee is caused by the astringency of Tannin, which is a naturally occurring substance found in coffee beans: According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannin: "In sensitive individuals, a large intake of tannins may cause ... irritation of the stomach and gastrointestinal pain" My research and experience has identified that Tannin is found in greater concentrations in the harder outer layers of the roasted coffee bean. These harder ground granules will eventually break down and leach the Tannin concentrates into your coffee beverage, according to the length of time taken in the brewing process. The plunger method recommends a coffee brew time of between 4 to 6 minutes, while the ideal espresso coffee will be extracted in 20-25 seconds. In summary, the espresso method extracts the coffee oils with one short pass of hot water while the plunger method leaches the coffee flavors from ground coffee by soaking them for an extended period of time in hot water. So the longer brew time of the plunger method makes the Tannin leach unavoidable, which is why you may experience gastritis more from the plunger method than you do from the espresso method. From my experience, the shorter extraction time of espresso at the right temperature, at the right water pressure and at the right granulation, will not produce any Tannins in your beverage. So instead of experiencing that Tannin induced constringing action on the tongue and inside of mouth, you experience rather, only the sweet caramel delights of the 800 aromatic compounds found in the perfectly extracted espresso coffee oils. The fact is, you can actually see the Tannins breaking down over the brew time as the extracted coffee oil color turns from a rich, dark caramel into a lighter wheat/tan in the latter stages of the espresso brew cycle. However, good barristas will have stopped the extraction process before the Tannins begin to leach from the ground coffee beans and into the cup. Note: The image below actually identifies (with the small wheat/tan color in the center of the cup) the start of the Tannin breaking down and leaching into the espresso. In this case the amount of Tannin would be negligible in terms of its impact on the taste.