Coffee Filter FAQ

It does, in a couple ways. First : We already talked about “paper taste”. The bleached paper of Melitta and Hario filters tend to be fairly transparent after a quick rinse, whereas we pick up on more of a ‘papery’ flavor from Bonmac’s Bamboo filters. To use those, rinse them with more water, and they work great. Some brands of unbleached brown filters are very, very papery. We don’t carry those. You can always check on paper taste: take a sip of the hot water you wash through your filter (before adding coffee of course). Taste the differences in “paper water”and see. Yum. (The level of filtration and quality of the material can have a fairly big impact on the cup as well. Second: Paper filters are going to remove some soluble compounds, oils etc. But good paper filters will also filter out insoluble compounds and material that increases the bitterness in the cup. In a sense a good filter can improve coffee taste. If you have ever drained the last coffee from a french press, then looked in the bottom of your cup, what you see are residual fines that are very bitterBitterness is one of 5 basic tastes: Sour, Sweet, Salty, Bitter and Umami (savory flavors). There are many types of bitterness, hence not one avenue to tracking down.... A good quality paper filter removes that from your coffee.

If you go through them at a steady clip (like using one a day, for example), I don’t think any special storageGreen coffee can be stored much longer than roasted coffee: Roasted coffee starts to lose its aromatics in 10 days after roasting. Green coffee can be stored months... is needed. But if you use them infrequently, and plan on having an open package for more than a month, I would store them in an airtight container like a ziplock baggie. If you live in a humid climate, the low water activity of a paper filter will absorb the moisture in the air and cause the paper to break down more rapidly. Super dry climates can also cause the paper material to deteriorate as the dry out. Both cases will result in more paper pulp washing into the cup, and can be avoided by storing your filters in an enclosed barrier bag or container.

I’m repeating the answer from the similar question above here: Cheap supermarket filters tend to be very thin visually and to the touch. We have compared commercial basket filters and found that holding them up to light shows thinness, and amount of loose paper pulp fibers, both signs of a cheap-ass filter! Most well-known brand name filters use higher quality filter paper. See our photos below for visual demonstration of a good vs cheap filter paper material.

Yes, but exactly how much this matters for your daily brew isn’t clear. For example, brew technique, water temperature and quality, grind, coffee quality and freshness, steep time … these are all big factors on the resulting cup taste. If you could eliminate all of those variables and brew a Kalita type flat bottom vs a Hario V60 pointy bottom, what difference might you expect? A very small one. But it has been tested and shown that the shape of the filter / dripper matters. We actually feel this test overstates the difference that most people would find though, and doesn’t truly account for all the other variables to isolate the filter shape sufficiently. (Another SCASCA is the newly formed global coffee association for Specialty Coffee. The former organization called SCAA was incorporated into the new group. The main commercial coffee group is... paper argues that brew temperature does not matter that much … very hard to believe).

People who compete in brewing competitions say yes, absolutely. How much that matters for the rest of us, it is tough to say. Flat bottom vs V bottom seems to matter, as we point out above. Within a certain type of pour-over brewer …let’s say the V60 pointy filter type that includes Hario, Origami, and others, the thermal properties of the materials and the texture or form of the walls impact how the coffee drains, and how stable the temperature is. This would make the barista pour differently to maintain temperature and rate of drainage. The Origami for example has less contact area with the filter, allowing drainage from more surface area of the filter sidewalls, while allowing more atmosphere around the brew. The Chemex, with smooth glass walls, is quite different in that regard, for example.

In paper, we offer V shaped, flat bottom “basket” type, and Melitta filters that are sort of a “hybrid of V “Flat V” hybrid. We have 6-8 cup flat-bottom filters that fit many standard automatic coffee makers (although some us the Melitta “Flat V” type), and flat-bottom Kalitta Wave filters. Then there are the pointed Chemex Filters, though in some cases you can use a Hario V60 in a Chemex. Their unique shapes make them fairly easy to match up to the appropriate brewer, and they work with a lot of brewers we don’t sell too. We also have round disc shaped filters for the Aeropress. Most of our reusable cloth and stainless filters are specific to the Yama vacuum brewerA vacuum brewer works by heating water, pushing it into a chamber with coffee grounds, and then sucking the water back. Vacuum brewers produce a clean, aromatic cup.:..., though we do sell a stainless mesh filter option for the Aeropress too! And of course we supply replacement filter screen for French Press brewers.