Comparing the Impact of Filter Paper on Coffee: How to Properly Use Coffee Filter Paper for Pour-Over Coffee

When brewing coffee, we typically take a filter paper, fold it in advance, and place it in the cup before adding coffee grounds. What purpose does this filter paper serve? Additionally, many friends ask FrontStreet Coffee about the difference between white and natural wood-colored filter papers - which one is better? What are the distinctions?

Actually, both types of filter papers have their own merits. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will explain in detail and provide a comprehensive understanding of what filter papers truly are.

The Origin of Filter Paper

Filter paper originated in Dresden, a small town in Germany. A woman named Melitta Bentz used her son's homework paper as a filter, placing it in a perforated copper bowl as a filter cup to extract coffee. In fact, before using paper for filtration, people typically used cloth fragments. Compared to the latter, paper materials were better at filtering out other flavors.

Thus, Melitta Bentz founded the Melitta company in 1908 and began producing improved filter cups and filter papers. The filter cup style invented by the Melitta company in 1937 became the prototype of the filter cups we know today.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Bleached vs. Unbleached Filter Papers

Although there are both bleached and unbleached filter papers, do they affect health? The manufacturing of filter paper is also a science. Below are the differences between the two types:

Bleached Filter Paper

Advantages:

1. Less pulp taste, resulting in purer coffee flavor.

Disadvantages:

1. Many manufacturers still use "chlorine" for filtration, which can cause environmental pollution if not properly handled. However, in recent years, many well-known manufacturers have switched to environmentally friendly bleaching methods such as oxygen-based or non-fluorescent agents. There are also filter papers made from bamboo fiber, which not only protects the environment but also gives consumers peace of mind.

Unbleached Filter Paper

Advantages:

1. Fewer processing steps, more environmentally friendly.

Disadvantages:

1. If not rinsed with hot water first, coffee may have a paper taste. Although there's no rule requiring unbleached filter papers to be rinsed before brewing, if you want to make a good cup of coffee and are particular about controlling the flavor of each brew, you won't be able to reach the next level without this step. Additionally, some professional baristas use alternating hot and cold water to remove the paper taste and maintain the purity of the coffee flavor.

What Are the Different Filter Paper Sizes?

Filter papers are typically divided into the following two sizes:

1-2 Serving Size

The amount of coffee grounds for one serving is about 10 grams, so this type of filter paper can hold up to 20 grams of coffee grounds.

3-5 Serving Size

This allows brewing more coffee grounds at once, and the filter paper is also larger.

Which Type of Filter Paper Should You Choose?

If considering environmental issues, unbleached filter paper is naturally the first choice, as you can still remove the paper taste by rinsing it 1-2 times with hot water.

From FrontStreet Coffee's experience, if you want to skip the step of rinsing with hot water to remove taste, you can buy oxygen-bleached filter papers that are better for the environment. To be honest, filter papers follow the principle of "you get what you pay for" - better filter papers are more expensive, but they have less pulp taste compared to cheaper ones.

The Craftsmanship of Filter Paper

Even filter papers made from the same material can have significant differences due to variations in manufacturing processes. These differences are mainly reflected in the filter paper's construction, such as the use of texture and creases, as well as thickness. The two filter papers in the image below are both made from natural wood pulp, but their production processes are different, so we can directly see their differences from the surface.

Manufacturing differences exist not only between different manufacturers but even within the same company using different processes to produce filter papers. The reason is simple: the filter paper's structure affects the coffee's flow rate, and flow rate is an important factor in coffee extraction. Therefore, many manufacturers develop different structured filter papers based on different brewing characteristics!

Take Japan's Sanyo Sangyo as an example. They have designed three versions of filter papers specifically for different roast levels of coffee beans: T-83, T-90, and T-92, corresponding to dark, medium, and light roast beans (the model numbers correspond to the recommended water temperature). For specific differences, you can see directly in the image below!

As you can see, although the filter papers are made from the same material, their water seepage speeds differ due to structural variations. It's not just Sanyo Sangyo - other filter paper manufacturers have made similar innovations. FrontStreet Coffee is just using this as an example and won't go into further details here.

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