How to Store Siphon Coffee Maker Filter Cloth: Should It Be Air-Dried or Soaked Wet?

Siphon Pot Structure and Extraction Principles

The structure of a siphon pot is mainly divided into: a stand, lower pot, and upper pot. As we can see from the diagram below, the siphon pot's stand connects to the lower pot, serving to fix and support it; the lower pot is mainly used to hold liquid and heat it, generally spherical in shape to ensure more even heating; while the upper pot is a cylinder extending with a slender tube, where the tube's contraction point will have a rubber ring—that's a rather important core component.

The extraction process is quite simple. Initially, we fill the lower pot with water and heat it, then place the upper pot into the lower pot without tightening it. As the temperature rises, water expands and accelerates its conversion to steam. At this point, we tighten the upper pot to create a vacuum state in the lower pot. The steam then compresses the space in the lower pot, causing the hot water to continuously climb upward through the tube due to pressure. While the hot water is in the upper pot, we can begin adding coffee grounds to mix and extract.

After extraction is complete, we can remove the heat source. Due to the temperature drop, the steam in the lower pot begins to contract, and pressure returns to normal. At this point, the coffee liquid in the upper pot will start to flow back down to the lower layer, while the coffee grounds in the liquid will be blocked in the upper pot by the filter. When all the coffee liquid has flowed down, the extraction is complete.

Filter Material Selection

In addition to the stand, upper pot, and lower pot, the siphon pot also contains a small component—that's the filter device connected to the boiling chain! The filter device can be equipped with different filters according to our preferences: such as filter paper, flannel filter cloth, or other filters (non-woven fabric). (The boiling chain has many uses, like helping us better observe water temperature changes, preventing violent boiling, etc. Therefore, from the beginning, we need to properly place the upper pot)

In the article "The Difference Between Filter Papers is Greater Than the Difference Between Humans and Chimpanzees," FrontStreet Coffee mentioned that these material differences not only can change water seepage speed but also determine the retention level of oils and particles in the coffee liquid.

Filter paper has the highest precision, so when we use it as a filter, the resulting siphon pot coffee will have relatively high clarity, with strong flavor recognition when tasted. The disadvantage is that it's too clean, lacking the soul of siphon pot coffee (according to comments from friends in the comment section)! Therefore, generally when we make coffee for ourselves and don't mind the trouble, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using flannel filter cloth as the filtering tool for siphon pot coffee.

The disadvantage of flannel is that it's expensive and relatively troublesome to clean. But the advantage is that it possesses the soul of siphon pot coffee—it can retain coffee oils and some particles in the liquid, giving the coffee richer aroma and a fuller, thicker taste.

Flannel Filter Cloth Cleaning and Storage

After coffee brewing is complete, to ensure the flannel can be reused, we need to pour out the coffee grounds, then use clean water to thoroughly clean the filter cloth, followed by boiling for disinfection for five minutes. Remember, it's best not to use detergents or other cleaning agents to wash it, as this can easily leave residue flavor on the filter cloth.

However, this cleaning method makes it difficult to completely remove the coffee absorbed into the filter cloth, so FrontStreet Coffee suggests that after disinfection is complete, we use coffee machine cleaning powder to soak the flannel filter cloth, removing coffee stains and storing it at the same time.

The specific method is to remove the filter cloth from the handle, then place it in a sealable container, pour in clean water and cleaning powder, then seal and refrigerate. When we need to use it next time, we can simply repeat the "opening ceremony"!

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