Hi!
I’m looking for ways to enhance my coffee experience at home and since I’m mostly drinking drip, I figured that after grinder and water, filter has the most impact on taste (if I’m mistaken feel free to offer your advice :).
So I’ve started looking for suggestions on filters and read good things about Sibarist, Hario Meteor and Cafec T90 but to be honest, I don’t know what to look for in a filter, so any help here is much appreciated !
Also, I’m using a cheap cilio ceramic filter rest (see attached picture), so maybe I should get something better for flow?
If the filter can be reused to avoid unnecessary waste it’s a nice bonus.
Cheers,
in my opinion, the filter papers impart very little if any taste themselves. my test was blind-tasting between water that had been passed through a paper filter vs not.
in my opinion, the paper filters do improve the coffee a lot vs other non-filtered methods because they capture fines and oils (which dont taste great themselves).
in my opinion, reusable cloth filters seem like a nightmare to maintain. the fine reusable metal filters do work but they don’t capture the oils.
So any paper filter will do the job, and the brand/model will not have much impact? I would’ve though it mattered but if it doesn’t I’m happy to keep on going with the cheap filters I can get around the corner haha!
yes the job-doing is roughly the same, but the details do change the performance a little. the exact shape, treatment, and materials of the filters do minorly affect the way they behave in practice. theres a very detailed discussion of this in jonathan gagné’s book “the physics of filter coffee”
Pretty sure James Hoffman came to a similar conclusion in a recent-ish video about rinsing filters, surprising himself as it went against conventional wisdom.
I don’t see a photo, but my experience of ceramic filters is that they’re very slow, and get slower as they age and get clogged. You actually want the fastest filter you can get, because that gives you more control over the brew/contact time, by grinding finer or coarser. I use the T-90’s because they’re good enough and cheap.
Thank you for your reply. Any advice on a filter rest brand or material I should look for ? I can’t edit the original post but here is a picture
Melitta has a line of premium pour over filters that should fit that filter holder. I assume that is a #4. If it is smaller than #4 then the following might be a bit too large.
https://www.melitta.co.uk/filter-papers/melitta-filter-papers-pour-over-size-1x4-40-pack-white
I’m not sure what you mean by “filter rest.” The paper filter rests on the cone shown in your photo. Do you mean a carafe? Or you want a stand to hold the filter cone above the carafe? I usually put my v60 directly on top of my mug. For a bigger batch I use an old cafetiere/press pot/plunger carafe.
The filter rest (for lack of better wording on my side) is the ceramic thingy on which I put the paper filter, and I put it directly on my much indeed. Is this called a V60?
Ok I would call this category of items brewers. So you have a cheap ceramic Cilio brewer. The Hario V60 is a similar brewer that’s very popular and cheap, characterised by a perfectly conical shape (where yours is kinda flat bottomed) and a single large hole in the bottom. I wouldn’t recommend shopping for one just yet, as you should be able to get excellent coffee from the one you already have.
In my experience the answer is also that there is not much difference. Just get the cheap ones and fill them with hot water first (also to pre-heat the ceramic)
Those type of restricted-flow ceramic filters (I have one too that I use once in a while) are essentially infusion brewers as much as percolation, so you can grind coarser.
You will have much more taste variation from not preheating the brewer beforehand because ceramic is a giant heat sink.
A quick search suggests they don’t make the T90 in the trapezoid / #4 shape for your pictured brewer, but maybe Cafec’s “Abaca” line would be a good substitute.
I like a French press. I don’t drink enough coffee to be worried about the oils. Plus, I decant into a thermos and most of the grit stays in the brewing pot.
