If you drink lots of coffee check this out before you drink a lot of French Press:
A report of the study, published in today’s British Medical Journal, shows that men and women who drank the filtered coffee exhibited no changes over the course of the trial in any of the assayed blood constituents. Previous studies by Urgert’s group had shown that such a filter effectively removes all of the coffee-oil’s diterpenes. Those who drank coffee made by the French press method, however, displayed a host of undesirable changes.
http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arch/11_30_96/food.htm
I loved the taste of French Press plus it makes more strong coffee per amount of beans than does the melitta filter I used so I was drinking more coffee. This is only ancedotal but after about 8 months I developed caffine sensitivity that lead to racing fast erratic heart beats and high blood pressure. I did have an elevation in my liver enzyme.
I'm now drinking swiss water process french roast organic coffee that is roasted locally and that I grind as the water boils but I'm back to dripping it through unbleached filter paper. It's not quite as good as coffee that hasn't been decaffinated and it cost a bit more but my blood pressure and heart rate are normal.
Just a heads up. Maybe most people won't drink as much french press coffee as I did, but be aware of possible side effects.
lfen