Secura 304 French Press
Brewing Beyond Barriers
My Awakening with the Secura French Press Coffee Maker
By: James Butler Revised by: Mark Cambell Last updated: Mar1, 2025
I had treated my wood and glass French presses like well-worn acquaintances for years, imperfectly familiar. Until the Secura came along, their flaws hadn't registered.
This demure stainless cylinder broke my misconceptions about French presses.
From the first steep, I tasted flavors never revealed by my standard presses. The double-wall vacuum insulation kept flavors intact for hours, so my full-bodied roast stayed fresh long after my old presses had lost flavor.
The Secura's simplicity hid its profound capacity to elevate coffee to new levels. Its stainless steel build ensured it would last.Its steel filter glided with mechanical elegance, keeping grounds in their place. And its electro-polished finish was a frictionless canvas on which to create my perfect cup.
The Secura opened my eyes to a world of possibility I hadn't considered possible. I'd placed artificial constraints on what a french press "should" be - constraints the Secura obliterates with intelligent design and material minimalism.
My bias overcome, a whole new world of brewing opened up to me. Temperature control is a limitation the Secura shatters, allowing coffee to be what it can be.
Thus, I bid farewell to old friends in new light. The Secura has transformed the way I perceive French pressing itself, shattering assumptions for space to grow exponentially.
Its stark presentation hides the maximalist possibility of drawing every bean out towards depth. Such as waking out of a dream to an understanding of what is always there, yet I wasn't able to see.
Pros:
•Double-vacuum insulation keeps the coffee hot for hours
• Constructed of heavy-duty 304 stainless steel will last for years
• Simple, sliding steel filter keeps grounds in but lets all the flavor come out
• Electro-polish finish slides through the cleaning process with ease
• Affordable low price point
Cons:
• The functional stainless steel design may not appeal to some who prefer the aesthetic of wood or glass
• No transparent carafe: you can't see the steeping process going on
• Some will miss the traditional look of a wooden handle
A Bonus Recipe
Cold Brew Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup coarsely ground coffee
4 cups filtered or distilled water
Instructions
Grind 1 cup of coarse ground coffee beans.
Put the ground coffee in a large jar. Pour 4 cups of water over the beans very slowly while stirring until the coffee is well saturated.
Cover the jar with plastic wrap or a lid. Put it in the refrigerator and let it steep for a minimum of 12 hours. You may brew up to 24 hours, depending on your preference.
Strain the coffee beans. Pour slowly and stop as needed to avoid overfilling the filter.
N.B
Whatever filter mechanism you have, just use it: Any paper coffee filter put inside a funnel will do the trick and is cheap. Cold-brew machine comes with a built-in filter. Push down on the plunger when using a French press and pour your coffee normally. Fine-mesh strainer or a sieve too will do to prevent the larger bits. Should you still find small grounds left, run it through a metal or paper coffee filter.
Store filtered cold-brew in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will remain fresh for a week—a feat hot-brewed coffee cannot achieve!
