How to Use Coffee Filter Paper? How to Make Costa Rica Black Honey Coffee Even Better with Kono Filter Paper?

How to Use Coffee Filter Paper? How to Make Costa Rican Black Honey Even Better with Kono Filter Paper?

Many coffee enthusiasts who buy their own coffee beans, use grinders, and purchase equipment to brew coffee prefer to use their own convenient filtration methods. "Pour-over coffee" is a magical beverage because everyone's brew tastes different, allowing you to experience uniqueness and personal style. With filter paper, a dripper, and a pour-over kettle, you can easily brew a good cup of coffee. Using coffee filter paper in drip coffee brewing allows for more even and thorough soaking to extract coffee essence, resulting in a purer coffee taste.

Bleached Filter Paper vs. Unbleached Filter Paper:

Coffee filter paper is mostly made from wood. The pulp after wood cooking is mostly brown in color and requires several bleaching processes to become white.

The differences between bleached and unbleached coffee filter paper are as follows:

1. Bleached: Refers to coffee filter paper that has undergone bleaching treatment, making the filter paper appear whiter.

2. Unbleached: Refers to coffee filter paper that has not undergone bleaching treatment, making the filter paper appear light brown.

Simply put, filter paper is generally used for drip coffee, filtering ground coffee beans and coffee powder, extracting the coffee liquid into the cup. Filter paper can also filter coffee oils, resulting in a clean coffee solution. Good filter paper can remove impurities, making coffee taste richer and more aromatic.

Advantages: High convenience, disposable after use, and can be changed between brands; produces a cleaner taste; fewer impurities and off-flavors.

Disadvantages: Less environmentally friendly due to paper usage; unbleached paper may have a paper taste; oils are filtered out, resulting in coffee without oily sensation, producing a cleaner taste. Daily Brewing | Sharing experience, brewing a balanced coffee extraction method with oils

Although we've been comparing bleached and unbleached coffee filter paper, these are not the only differences between filter papers. The quality of filter paper is also important for maintaining clean coffee equipment and good filtration flow rates. This may sound simple, but the impact is truly significant.

In addition, be sure to choose filter paper that fits the size of your dripper, and pay attention to thickness and density - too thin or too loose filter paper will cause water to flow too quickly, while too thick or too dense filter paper will filter out more coffee oils (like Chemex).

Do You Really Need to Rinse Filter Paper? To Rinse or Not to Rinse? That is the Question...

For beginners, the standard procedure is to fold the filter paper, rinse the filter paper, warm the dripper - just follow the steps. However, some experienced Japanese brewers don't rinse their filter paper, so you might wonder "Why do I have to rinse filter paper?"

1. Consideration for Removing Pulp Taste:

In fact, as introduced above regarding bleached and unbleached filter paper, unbleached filter paper still has a strong wood pulp taste because it hasn't been rinsed, so you should rinse the filter paper. As for bleached filter paper, residual paper taste and bleaching taste vary by brand. High-quality filter paper can indeed be processed to be very clean, making little difference whether rinsed or not.

2. Consideration for Fit with Dripper:

Rinsing filter paper helps improve the fit between filter paper and dripper, aiding in conforming to the rib design and brewing principles of the dripper. However, in most cases, brewing without rinsing filter paper results in slightly poorer fit between filter paper and dripper compared to pre-warming and pre-rinsing.

3. Consideration for Filter Paper Absorbing Coffee Oils and Initial Extract:

When brewing without rinsing filter paper, the filter paper will absorb some moisture and oils during blooming, and may bring out some questionable off-flavors. Therefore, considering the completeness of extraction flavor, it's more appropriate to rinse filter paper.

We at FrontStreet Coffee quite prefer this KONO coffee filter paper drip-style pour-over filter paper. It's suitable for any conical dripper, whether it's a Hario V60 dripper or a KONO dripper. Moreover, the Japanese-imported KONO filter paper has medium thickness - not too thin or too thick, with medium-strong water permeability, and very ideal fit with the dripper when pouring water.

Brewing Method:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90 degrees

Grind Size: Fuji grinder setting 3.5

Brewing Technique: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15g coffee, first pour 25g water for 25s bloom, second pour to 120g water then stop pouring, wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before pouring again, slowly pour until reaching 225g water, extraction time around 2:00

Analysis: Using a three-stage brewing method to clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back end flavors of the coffee. Because V60 has many ribs and faster drainage rate, stopping the pour can extend the extraction time, better extracting the nutty and chocolate flavors from the back end.

Flavor: Multi-layered, overall clean, preserved plum, honey, brown sugar, orange blossom, white chocolate, good sweetness, gentle fruit acidity, round and full-bodied, persistent aftertaste.

KONO Pour-Over:

Dripper: KONO dripper

Water Temperature: 89 degrees

Grind Size: Fuji grinder setting 4

Brewing Technique: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 16g coffee, first pour 30g water for 30s bloom, second pour to 234g water, extraction time around 2:05 seconds

Analysis: The KONO dripper doesn't have many ribs at the bottom, and the filter paper fits tightly against the dripper, achieving the purpose of restricting airflow. This allows water and coffee grounds to have longer contact and soaking time in the dripper, ensuring extraction time and extraction rate for coarse grinding. This allows the coffee grounds to be fully extracted, enhancing the rich taste and making the flavor more concentrated.

Flavor: High balance, preserved plum and brown sugar flavors, gentle fruit acidity, with fruit fermentation notes, overall clean, thick and solid mouthfeel, persistent dark chocolate aftertaste.

Brewing a good cup of pour-over coffee requires grasping many variables - filter paper is one variable, as well as water quality, pour amount, drip rate time, coffee grind degree, etc. You need to grasp each variable, constantly adjust, and ultimately find the experience your taste buds need -

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473