Stanley French Press Review: Camp Coffee for the Whole Group
The Stanley French Press is how I make coffee for everyone at camp. You boil the water right in the pot, add the grounds, press, and pour three or four cups. I’ve had mine about a year, it was a gift, and it rides in my storage bins with the rest of the cook kit on every car camping trip.
Reasons to buy
- Brews 3 to 4 cups
- Boil and brew in one
- Pours clean
- Easy to clean
- No dents in a year
Reasons to avoid
- Handles get hot
- Easy to overfill
- Hard to find now
What it is
A 32 oz stainless steel pot with a drop-in press insert, folding handles that lock down flat, and a lid. Here are the numbers:
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 32 oz (3 to 4 cups) |
| Weight | About 15.5 oz with the press, 8 oz pot alone |
| Material | Stainless steel pot, plastic press with mesh filter |
| Handles | Folding, lock against the pot |
| Comes with | Pot, press insert, lid |
| Price | Around $25 to $30 when it was still sold |
The one real downside
The handles get hot. But only on my Coleman 2-burner or over a fire, where the flame is wide and licks up the sides. On my BRS-3000T, the flame is tight and controlled, and the handles stay cool enough to grab bare-handed. Which stove you run decides whether this is even a thing.
The other trap is overfilling. It’s the water and the grounds together that reach the fill line. Fill water to the line, add grounds, and it climbs over when you press. Leave room.
Cleanup and keeping it hot
Cleanup is quick. The grounds go into the camp trash I pack out with everything else, and a little water rinses the rest. The coffee holds heat in the steel for a good while, and when I want it to last I pour it into my Yeti and it stays hot for hours.
A year of getting tossed in and out of the bins and there’s not a dent on it or a thing worn out.
Would I buy it again?
Yeah, it comes on every trip. The catch is Stanley discontinued this exact model, so it’s hard to find now. For the same boil-in-the-pot setup, get a stovetop press like the GSI Stovetop JavaPress, a stainless press you can heat right on the stove. Skip the double-wall insulated ones, you can’t boil in those. I keep an Aeropress for solo mornings, but when I’m making coffee for people at camp, this is what I grab.
How I brew in it
I boil the water right in the pot on my stove. One thing I do that most people don’t: I drop the grounds in a minute or two before I pull it off the heat, so it’s already brewing when it comes off the flame. Two heaping scoops is my normal, but that comes down to how strong you like it, so adjust to taste. Fill the water to just below the fill line, no higher.
Let it steep a few minutes, then press it down slow. A slow press filters better and makes better coffee than shoving the plunger straight down. Mine pours clean just about every time, even with a fine pre-ground like Cafe Bustelo that you can grab in any store.
The best cup
The best morning I’ve had with it was outside the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. I woke up on the Fourth of July, brewed a pot for the group, and we sat by the river and watched the sun come up.