The cafetiere is known by many different names. In the UK, it’s usually called a cafetiere, which is shortened from the French ‘cafetiere a piston’. In the US it’s commonly referred to as a french press. Other names include coffee press, press pot and coffee plunger.

Being called both a cafetiere and a french press you would assume that this coffee maker’s origins are in France. However, both the French and the Italians lay claim to its invention.

The Legend

A popular story of how the cafetiere was invented involves an old man from Provence. The story goes that the old man used to go for a walk up a hill everyday to get some peace and quiet from his nagging wife. No matter how bad the weather was, blistering heat or driving rain, the old man would make the journey.

As he sought to prolong the escape his wife for as long as possible he would take with him a small amount of food, some firewood and his favourite old coffee pot. Everyday he would reach the hilltop, take a nice rest, build a fire, eat his lunch and then brew some coffee.

Now coffee back then was typically strong, bitter and tasted dreadful. It would be made by adding water and coffee grounds to a pot and then placing the pot on an open fire or stove until the water boiled. Little did they know back then that boiling water destroys the flavours in coffee.

One day the old man was making his coffee as he always did. But this time he forgot to add his coffee grounds to his coffee pot. It wasn’t until the water started boiling away that the old man realised his mistake. He quickly removed the pot from the flames and added his grounds. Of course the old man didn’t know that making coffee this way would result in the grounds floating to the top. Made the usual way, the grounds would’ve sunk to the bottom of the pot by the time the water had boiled. The old man took one look at his coffee and thought, “I can’t drink this. I’ll end up with a mouthful of ground coffee.”

As if by chance, as the old man contemplated going without his coffee (he had only brought enough water and coffee grounds for one pot), an Italian travelling merchant appeared on the horizon. Among the many goods the merchant was carrying was a metal screen.

The old man saw this screen and quickly hit upon an idea. He swiftly brought a section of it from the merchant and carefully fitted it over his coffee pot. Using a stick which lay nearby, he plunged the screen down to the bottom of the pot, thus trapping the coffee grounds. He then took a sip from his pot and immediately a big smile broke out across his face. The merchant, keen to find out why the old man was smiling, asked if he could try some of his coffee. After taking a big gulp from the pot, the merchant gave the old man a knowing look. This was the best coffee either of them had ever tasted!

The story goes on to say that after trying this fantastic coffee, the two men decided to open a small factory manufacturing their new invention: a coffee pot with a fitted plunger. Their cafetiere made them both a small fortune.

Cafetiere / French Press Patents

Stories aside, what is believe to be first patent for a cafetiere was filed by two Frenchmen, Mayer and Delforge, in 1852. Their design was very simple, a metal coffee pot fitted with a moveable metal filter attached to a rod. However, the problem with these first cafetieres was that they couldn’t be manufactured with enough precision for the filter to fit snugly into the pot. There was a gap between the filter and the side of the pot and the so some coffee grounds could escape around the sides of the filter.