Ask anyone who’s ever had the unfortunate experience of living with me, I am not a morning person. I won’t look at my phone until I’ve had at least two cups of coffee and a joint or three. While I’m not one of those snobs who insist on mountain grown organic, I want to make the most of the cheap stuff I can afford. The easiest way to do this is to use a metal filter. But why you ask?
Flavor is in the oil
When you’re using a paper filter, it’s absorbing most of oil’s from the coffee and thus, most of the flavor from the coffee. This means that even if you’re using $30 per pound coffee, you’re wasting your money.
This is also a big part of why coffee made in a French press tastes so much more robust. It’s also why you don’t see paper filters on espresso machines and why a properly pulled shot will have a small layer of natural oils on the top.
But my coffee maker doesn’t have a metal filter.
That might be true but the good news is that you can find a metal filter that will fit, normally for the same price as you’re going to pay for a pack of paper filters. Most of the time you can find them at your local grocery store and if not just look on Amazon.
It’s way better for the environment.
While I am not a hippie, I try to do my part to not trash the place we’re all living and little things add up, including coffee filters.
Let’s say I make two pots a day though it tends to be more (don’t judge), that’s 14 filters a week, 56 per month and a grand total of 672 coffee filters. By simply spending $6 on a metal filter, I’ve kept a lot of unnecessary waste out of the landfill, not to mention all the bs it takes to produce the things.
On that note, screw those stupid ass Keurigs or any of the various pod coffee makers. They’re wasteful and way more expensive than anything other than going to a coffee shop plus they’re loud and the coffee tastes like shit.
Water matters
If you have a water filter, which nowadays you probably should, you need to be using it since it also plays a major role in how good the coffee tastes. If you can taste the difference between tap water and filtered water, you’ll be able to taste the difference in your coffee as well.
In closing
It’s not that hard to make even inexpensive coffee taste great, if you pay attention to what you’re doing and, more importantly why you’re doing it a certain way. Life kinda works the same way. We do things a certain way all our life and never question why or if there’s a better way….
And yes, grinding whole beans right before you brew also makes a difference but those things are way too loud for me to deal with in the morning.
The type of filter you use when brewing coffee does matter. Learn whether you should be using reusable or disposable filters to make your daily cup of coffee. While the answer mostly hinges on personal preference, there are some important things to note about the differences in paper and metal filters.
Metal filters are messy when it comes to cleanup. First, you must remove the filter from the brewer and dump the grounds into the waste bin. You want to get as many grounds as possible out of the filter before rinsing, as you don’t want to wash a bunch of coffee grounds down the drain. Coffee can accumulate and clog drains over time. A select few actually rinse their paper filters and reuse them several times before throwing them away. In most cases, however, paper filters are one-time use and entirely disposable. To clean up after brewing, simply lift the filter out of the brewer and toss it and the grounds into the trash in one fell swoop.
True but again, it’s better for the environment and drastically improves the flavor of the coffee