The Great Paper Coffee Filters Debate: Bleached vs Unbleached

Coffee filters: they’re small, humble, and critical for great-tasting coffee. But if you – like the majority of coffee brewers – use paper filters, should you purchase bleached or unbleached ones? What can you do to avoid a papery taste in your coffee? And is there anything else you should be looking out for? Read on to find out.

Spanish Version: El Gran Debate de los Filtros de Café: Decolorados Vs Sin Decolorar

Coffee brewed on a Kalita Wave using a bleached filter. Credit: The Cappuccino Traveler

The Origin of Paper Filters

While the cloth filter (the “sock”) has been around for a long time, the paper filter didn’t appear until the turn of the twentieth century. Melitta Bentz, a housewife and avid coffee drinker in Dresden, East Germany, was tired of finding grounds in her coffee. She knew there had to be a better and easier way to filter her brew.

After experimenting with different materials and methods, she eventually decided to try her son’s blotting paper. She cut out a piece, put it in a metal cup, added the grounds and proceeded to pour water over it. Realizing there weren’t as many grounds in her coffee, she then applied for a patent.

And so on July 8, 1908, the paper coffee filter was patented as a “Filter Top Device lined with Filter Paper.” That same December, Mrs. Bentz founded the Melitta Bentz Company, and the rest is history.

Today, coffee lovers drink a wide range of pour over methods, all of which require a filter. And while some people use use a coffee sock or a gold filter, most of us opt for bleached or unbleached paper ones.

But which is better?

Coffee brewed on a Chemex with an unbleached filter. Credit: Josh Burke

Bleached Coffee Filters: The Basics

The main difference between bleached and unbleached coffee filters is that bleached ones have been whitened. This can be done through a tiny amount of chlorine or something called oxygen-bleaching.

Although there was concern in the ‘80s that chlorine-bleached filters might be dangerous, it’s now widely accepted that they’re safe to use for brewing coffee. What’s more, the bleaching process won’t add any flavors to your drink.

However, there are still concerns over their environmental impact. In fact, a 2012 study published in Environmental Engineering and Management Journal found that discharge from chlorine-bleaching was “the most significant environmental issues” in pulp and paper mills. In contrast, oxygen-bleaching requires less manufacturing and is better for the environment. All major filter brands make clear which bleaching method they use on their packaging.

Bleached paper coffee filters ready for use.

Unbleached Coffee Filters: The Basics

Unbleached filters don’t have that bright white color like their bleached equivalents do, but they are slightly better for the environment. This is because they don’t require as much processing.

Most of the everyday paper you see and use is bleached. Paper is naturally brown (it does, after all, come from trees). Yet unfortunately, if you use an unbleached filter in your pour over or coffee machine without rinsing, there’s a chance that you might taste papery notes.

That being said, you may also get papery notes from bleached coffee filters, depending on the quality. No matter the brand or manufacturing methods, it’s always a good idea to rinse paper filters before use.

Coffee brewed with an unbleached paper filter.

SEE ALSO: Brew Guide: What Are The 3 Phases of Filter Coffee Brewing?

How to Remove That Papery Taste

Rinsing paper filters will help avoid that unpleasant papery taste in your coffee, and at the same time preheat your brewing device. Here’s how to do it:

1. Place your filter in the brewing device
2. Pre-wet the filter by pouring hot water over it (make sure not to leave gaps!)
3. Discard the water
4. If necessary, rinse a second time
5. Continue to brew your coffee

Most filter papers should be good to use after one rinse, but some may require a second one (especially if you have a sensitive palate). And if you’re still getting a papery taste after a second rinse? Change your filter brand.

Filter being rinsed with hot water, ready for brewing. Credit: Michael Flores

Filter Quality & Thickness

Although we’ve been comparing bleached and unbleached paper filters, you should remember that this isn’t the only difference. The quality of your filter is also important for ensuring clean coffee profiles and good brew flow. Even the slightest difference here can have a big impact on your drink.

On top of that, make sure to choose the right size filter for your brewing method, and pay attention to thickness. Filters that are too thin will allow water to flow through too quickly, and thicker filters may keep more oils out of your brew. If you’re looking to buy a thicker filter, prepare to pay a little more. Luckily, the difference in price is minuscule.  

Chemex coffee brewed with a bleached paper filter. Credit: Karl Fredrickson

So… Which Is Better?

In the great bleached vs unbleached paper coffee filter debate, it really comes down to your preferences: taste or environmental impact.

If you want to be more eco-friendly, buy high-quality unbleached filters and rinse well before use. On the other hand, if you’re concerned that your coffee might end up with a papery taste, even with double rinsing, opt for bleached – ideally oxygen-bleached – filters.

Oh, and remember that quality matters! A cheap bleached filter may add just as much of a papery taste to your coffee, if not more, as a high-quality unbleached filter.

Written by Brendan Nemeth.

Perfect Daily Grind

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Brew Guide: How Does Pulse Pouring Affect Extraction?

If you want the best possible coffee, you can’t overlook the importance of your drink’s biggest ingredient: water. Temperature, quality, chemical composition, distribution method… it all affects the flavours, aromas, and extraction rates of your brew.

So today, we’re taking a look at one of specialty coffee’s most celebrated water distribution techniques: pulse pouring. We’ve spoken with Patrik Stridsberg, Co-Founder of 3TEMP and co-designer of the Hipster brewer, to find out more.

Lee este artículo en español Guía de Preparación: Vertido por Pulsos y Cómo Afecta a Tu Café

Weighing the grounds in a 3TEMP Hipster brewer. Credit: CleverCoffee

Water Distribution: The Different Methods

There are many different ways to distribute your water. The simplest is just to pour it all at once and wait. For immersion brewing, this is the recommended method: it ensures that the grounds and water molecules all have the same (or as close to the same as possible) amount of contact time.

With drip/filter brewing, because the water is trickling through the coffee, you can use continuous pouring or pulse pouring. Continuous pouring requires exceptional control over your pour speed (good arm muscles can help as well, if you’re doing this all day long!) Pulse pouring means using multiple pours of specific amounts of water. You can experiment with the volume of water and number of pours.

These methods help prevent grounds from rising up the side of the filter, i.e. they avoid agitating the coffee bed too much. However, they also create some positive agitation: they gently disrupt the grinds, causing them to move about and therefore ensuring a more even contact between them and the water molecules. More on the relationship between agitation, pouring, and extraction to come!

SEE ALSO:Brew Guide: What Are The 3 Phases of Drip Coffee Brewing?

When brewing manually, you can also choose to pour in concentric circles. This will help to create more consistent agitation and ensure an even wetting of the grounds.

Pouring water over ground coffee. Credit: Tyler Nix

Extraction Basics

Before we look at pulse pouring, extraction, and agitation in general, let’s quickly recap extraction.

Extraction is a delicate balance of grind size, roast level, water temperature, coffee weight, water volume, brew time, and more – but what it really comes down to is the amount and efficacy of contact between the coffee grinds and the water molecules.

The more contact, or the more effective the contact (whether due to smaller grinds, more brew time, or higher brew temperatures), the more flavour and aroma compounds are extracted. The less contact, or the less effective the contact, the less is extracted.

Remember: controlling extraction is the key to delicious coffee. Over-extracted brews will be bitter and astringent. Under-extracted brews will be sour. And unevenly extracted brews will be a mixture of the two (and also impossible to replicate). This is where agitation becomes important.

SEE ALSO: Understanding Coffee Extraction & Other Key Brewing Concepts

Pulse Pouring, Agitation, & Extraction

Patrik explains that pulse pouring can affect agitation and determine brew time, using the Hipster as an example. “We can choose the size of the pulses. Fewer pulses equals more water in each pulse. More pulses equals less water in each pulse. If we have few pulses, the water hits the bed harder [because there’s more of it] and we have a shorter extraction time, and more pulses gives us a longer extraction time.”

In other words, it’s not just about how much water and how often: it’s also about how hard.

If the water hits the coffee bed too hard, and with too much volume, it can agitate the grinds too much as well. This is particularly true if you’re using a fine grind: the lighter weight will allow the ground coffee to be more easily displaced.

So what is “too much agitation”? For most professionals, it’s when the coffee bed isn’t even after the water has finished dripping through the grounds. Water will automatically trickle down to the area of the bed that is the least densely packed and make its way through there – meaning over-extracted coffee in some areas and under-extracted coffee in others. You want your bed to be as even as possible both before and after the brew.

SEE ALSO: What Is Agitation & How Does It Make My Filter Coffee Better?

“In all brewers,” Patrik tells me, “if you want an even coffee bed, water distribution needs to be over a longer time.” This will mean more pulses of smaller volumes of water which will hit the coffee bed more softly and, in turn, cause gentler agitation.

Brewing coffee on a 3Temp Hipster brewer. Credit: CleverCoffee

Pulse Pouring, Extraction Time, & Grind Size

But as we said before, extraction is a balance of many variables. The good news is that, by manipulating your pulse pours, you can change one of the other variables without negatively affecting the extraction.

Say you wanted to keep to a particular brew time but change the grind size. Normally, the grind size will affect the brew time: the coarser the grounds, the slower the extraction and the faster the water drips through. However, with smaller pulses, you can use a smaller stream of water and therefore a longer brew time, regardless of the grind size.

Patrik tells us, “Usually you have to adjust the grind size to be able to get the water to run faster or slower.” However, by making pulsing a parameter – as the team at 3TEMP did with the Hipster – you can break, or weaken, the relationship between grind size and brew time.

Slowly pouring water for a Kalita brew. Credit: Aryan Joshani

Consistency vs Flavour

So is pulse pouring in concentric circles the best method? Well, it’s worth mentioning that your pour choices will to a certain extent be dictated by your brewer, who you’re making coffee for, and more. One thing to remember is that pulse pouring and concentric circles can result in more even extraction but they’re also harder to do consistently.

Patrik tells me, “When you hand brew, it’s almost impossible to get it exactly the same every time. There are very few people who command that much control.”

On the other hand, he points out, “One thing that you can do with hand brew, you can work the water into the coffee any way you like. With the batch brew, we can only open the shower and it can hit the water either hard or light… So we don’t have this control over the water distribution and I think that’s not possible with batch brewing. I think you will always have better control when you do it by hand, but it will not be consistent.”

What’s more important: control or consistency? That will depend on the situation. Are you making coffee for yourself? Are you training a team of baristas for a busy coffee shop? Are you competing? You need to determine your priorities.

SEE ALSO: How to Serve Consistently Good Coffee in a Café

Black coffee, ready for drinking. Credit: Dan Gold

Water distribution is just one of many fascinating variables that can affect your coffee extraction. Experiment with the methods we’ve looked at above, discover what works for you, and don’t be afraid to change it with every new coffee.

Please note: This article has been sponsored by 3TEMP.  

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Coffee Tasting Basics: Taste vs Flavour

When you get better at tasting coffee, at understanding the different flavours and what causes them, you enjoy coffee more. You can savour the acidity and mouthfeel, decipher complex combinations of notes, and detect the impact of origin, processing, and more.

But before you can do that, you need to master the basics – such as the different tastes andflavours.

What’s the difference? Taste refers to basic categories or profiles: sweet, savoury, spicy, bitter, umami. Flavour is a combination of several different senses: taste, smell, touch…. In other words, you can expect your coffee to taste different in different contexts!

Find out more in this quick video recap from Big Think.

SEE ALSO: How to Cup Coffee & Improve Your Palate

SEE ALSO: Coffee Science: What Affects The Flavour of Coffee?

Please note: Perfect Daily Grind does not own the rights to these videos and cannot be held accountable for their content.

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Brew Guide: What Are The 3 Phases of Drip Coffee Brewing?

The ability to control coffee extraction is both one of the best, and one of the trickiest, things about drip brewing. There are so many elements to consider: grind size, coffee to water ratio, water temperature… But get it right, and you can craft a delicious cup of coffee.

One thing that can help you understand extraction, and how to use it to brew better coffee, is the theory of the three phases of drip/filter brewing. I spoke to Patrik Stridsberg, Co-Founder of 3TEMP, and London-based coffee professional Will Corby to find out more about it. Read on to discover what I learned.

Spanish Version: Guía de Preparación: Las 3 Fases de la Preparación por Goteo

Water being poured over coffee grounds. Credit: Zachary Kelley

1. The Pre-Brew (The Bloom)

The pre-brew, or the “bloom,” is the first stage in manual or drip brewing. You pour a small amount of water, just enough to wet the grounds, and wait for around 30 seconds. And there’s one simple reason we do this: carbon dioxide.

During roasting, this gas becomes trapped inside the coffee bean. (Generally speaking, the lighter the roast, the more is trapped; with dark roasts, second crack releases more of them.)

Degassing occurs slowly after roasting, and also during the brew process, as the remaining gas is released when grounds are hit by hot water. This is what creates the bloom. And as you might imagine, the more gas escaping, the bigger the bloom will be.

The bloom makes your coffee better in two ways. First, carbon dioxide has a sour taste that you don’t want in your cup. (Remember, there’s a difference between sparkling acidity and sourness.)

Secondly, as your coffee grounds expel gas, the force of that gas will also push water away from the coffee, disrupting extraction. You want this to happen during the pre-brew phase rather than the main extraction, so that you’re not getting inconsistent flavors in the cup.

SEE ALSO: Why Should Your Coffee Bloom? A VIDEO Experiment

Coffee bloom. Credit: Michael Flores

2. Extraction

During this next phase, you can start to control the flavor of your brew. This is because different chemicals are extracted at different stages: first, you’ll get fruity acids, then sweetness, and finally bitterness. (It’s worth noting that not all acids are those fruity, desirable ones: for example, caffeoylquinic acids create astringency/dryness and bitterness. When we talk about acidity in this article, we’re only referring to those chemicals that createan acidic taste.)

Since different chemicals are extracted at different points, you can manipulate the brew to create your desired cup profile. And the best way to do this is through controlling the water temperature and brew time.

Generally speaking, the ideal brew temperature is between 91°C and 96°C (196 °F  and 205 °F). Roast level, flavor profile, solubility, freshness, grind profile… all these can play a role in determining the best temperature.

Patrik tells me that another important point to consider at this stage is “pulsing”. This is when brewers use multiple small pours. For manual brewing, to achieve consistency across different brews, some people recommend decreasing the number of pours – it removes the number of variables that baristas have to control.

Yet Patrik argues that pulsing is important. In fact, he built it into his company’s brewer, the Hipster, as a programmable stage because he believes it improves the consistency and efficiency of extraction. He explains to me that fewer, bigger pulses will shorten the extraction time, while more frequent, smaller pulses will lengthen it and leave the coffee bed even. The best number of pulses will depend on the coffee itself and the grind size.

Coffee being brewed on a V60. Credit: Adam Friedlander

SEE ALSO: Understanding Coffee Extraction & Other Key Brewing Concepts

3. The End Phase  

The “end phase” refers to the final 40% of the brew, Patrik tells me, and you need to control it carefully. Remember that the last chemicals to extract are the ones responsible for bitterness and other unpleasant tastes. Over extraction here could mean disaster for your brew.

Patrik advises being careful with brew time and also temperature. A lower water temperature at this stage will lead to less extraction. In turn, this will create an overall more balanced, sweet, and acidic cup of coffee.

If you’re brewing a pour over, you don’t really have to think about this: the water temperature will naturally cool as time passes.

However, if you’re using a mechanical brewer/batch brewer, you’ll want to consider the brew temperature when programming it. Patrik explains that the default settings on his company’s Hipster are 97°C (206.5°F) for the pre-brew, 94°C (201°F) for the extraction, and 89°C (192°F) for the end phase – a whole 5°C less than the extraction phase.

Although he recommends adjusting the settings for different coffees, he tells me that this pattern of decreasing temperatures is best for ensuring sweet, fruity, and balanced brews.

Coffee brewed on a Kalita Wave. 

Whether you’re preparing a single cup at home or a large batch in a café, understanding every aspect of the brew process is important. Temperature variations are one of several critical elements that need controlling.

Fortunately, knowing the three stages of drip brewing can help us to manipulate our temperature and create that delicious cup of coffee we’re craving.

Written by Nicole Carrasco.  

https://www.perfectdailygrind.com/2017/08/brew-guide-3-phases-drip-coffee-brewing/

Coffee Guide: What Is Body? & How Do I Brew & Roast for It?

Body: what actually is it? It’s something we coffee-lovers like to talk about a lot, and it’s even included on cupping forms. But do we know what body really is? Why some coffees have more body than others? And how we can roast or brew to accentuate this quality?

If you answered no to any of those questions, don’t worry – I’m about to answer them for you.

Spanish Version: Guía de Café: ¿Qué es el Cuerpo? Cómo Tostar & Preparar para Obtenerlo

An espresso, a drink known for its body. Credit: Edan Cohen

What Is Body?

Let’s start with the basics: body is a coffee’s texture. In The Professional Barista’s Handbook, Scott Rao defines it as “a beverage’s weight or fullness perceived in the mouth.”

While body is an element of mouthfeel, it’s worth noting that there can be differences. In The Coffee Dictionary, Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood writes, “It is interesting to consider that you could experience a light body with a sticky mouth feel or a big body with a juicy mouth feel.”

Body is not something we taste: rather, it is a sensation we feel. However, it can influence a coffee’s overall flavor. This is because flavor is a combination of many factors – taste, aroma, texture, sound, and maybe even sight.

SEE ALSO: Coffee Tasting Basics: Taste vs Flavour

And in my experience as a barista, body is one of the three things coffee-drinkers are always looking for (along with bright acidity and defined flavors).

Pouring brewed coffee. Credit: Estate Coffee Company

The Insoluble Science of Body

If we want to accentuate body, we need to know how it’s created. And that means talking about extraction. This is the process by which flavor and aroma compounds are extracted from dry coffee into water, becoming the brewed coffee we love to drink.

SEE ALSO: The 3 Extraction Phases of Drip Coffee

During extraction, substances can be divided into solubles and insolubles. The solubles are the substances that can be diluted in the water. The insolubles, on the other hand, are solids and oils that remain suspended in the liquid instead of dissolving. They’re things like protein molecules and certain coffee fibers. And these insolubles – especially the oils – increase body.

Brewing with a paper filter and a V60, a method known for reducing oils. Credit: Rojo Cerezo

Why Are Some Coffees Fuller-Bodied Than Others?

There are many factors that determine why one specific coffee has more body than another.  Some coffee varieties are just more prone to body. So are specific coffee processing methods, brew methods, and filters. And roast profiles can be manipulated to produce more body.

Let’s take a look at some of these factors now, starting with the green beans and making our way through to the final beverage.

Some espressos are fuller-bodied than others. Credit: Rojo Cerezo

Green Beans With Great Body

Certain coffee varieties are more inclined to body than others. When I first started working as a barista, I was brewing a Maracaturra from El Socorro, Guatemala. It had a peach flavor with hints of whiskey as it cooled, caramel texture, and a round body that filled the mouth. And I fell madly in love with coffee because of beans like this.

On the other hand, you have the Pacamara: another early love of mine. For me, the Pacamara variety is outstanding. It’s distinguished by fruity flavors, mostly stone fruits, and outstanding chocolate notes. However, it often has a medium body.

And then you have Geisha, the industry’s most celebrated variety. This coffee is known for its delicate, tea-like body, making it a very different coffee experience from Maracaturra.

SEE ALSO: Geisha vs Bourbon: A Crash Course in Coffee Varieties

A Pacas variety from Honduras, ready for roasting. Credit: Metric Coffee Co.

If you have a low-bodied coffee lot, you have three options: accept that it has low levels of body; try to highlight body through the processing, roasting, brewing; or blend it with a coffee with greater levels of body.

Washed processed coffees are associated with a more delicate body: they’re more prized for their clarity and cleanness than their mouthfeel. As for naturals, you can expect a bigger, rounder body.

Honeys and pulped naturals are also associated with body. And generally speaking, the more mucilage left on the cherry, the more body you’ll get in the cup. A black honey coffee will stand out for its syrupy sweetness.

SEE ALSO: Washed, Natural, Honey: Coffee Processing 101

Freshly roasted coffee.. Credit: Gerónimo López

How to Roast for Body

Green coffee can be roasted to emphasise body or downplay it, depending on your vision for the particular beans.

First of all, let’s make one thing clear: darker roasts are often associated with more body. However, as Matt Perger of Barista Hustle points out, bean colour and roast development are not always connected. Roasting is a complex combination of multiple factors, and good roasters will control the heat all the way through the roast to accentuate their desired profiles.

In particular, the green coffee suppliers Sweet Maria’s highlights the ability to manipulate body by controlling the duration of first crack. If done right, stretching first crack can increase body. “A more syrupy mouthfeel is related to the perception of particular carbohydrates that are released in greater levels with the stretching out of first crack,” they say in a blog post.

What’s more, in Modulating the Flavor Profile of Coffee, Rob Hoos explains that if roasters also stretch out the Maillard reaction, this can lead to more melanoidins. In turn, this means more body.

However, remember that if you stretch out your roast too much, the rate of rise may stall and the roast will then bake. This will create a flat, doughy beverage. You need to balance all the different reactions going on inside your beans to create the best possible roast profile for each coffee.

SEE ALSO: Coffee Roasting Essentials: A Guide to Rate of Rise (RoR)

Beans cool after roasting. Credit: Bo Smith

How to Brew for Body

Since oils create body, how much oil your brewing method and filter allow through into the final cup has a huge impact on body. And there are a lot of differences between these brewing methods.

Manual brewing methods are often depicted as sitting on a scale, with high body and low clarity at one end and high clarity but low body on the other. The French press, for example, is known for its body. On the other hand, pour overs are generally associated with clarity. The AeroPress is famous for its flexibility: you can brew it to enhance body or clarity, depending on your mood.

One of the reasons the French press is known for its body is its metal filter. Paper traps many of the oils in the coffee, while metal allows them to pass through. The Chemex, in contrast to the French press, is known for the cleanness of its brew, made possible by its thick paper filters. If you have both a metal and a paper filter to choose from, you have more flexibility over what your final brew will taste like.

SEE ALSO: Brewing Methods Compared: How Should You Make Coffee at Home?

Beatriz Macías brews pour over coffee, not traditionally associated with great body. Credit:Credit: Alejandro Escobar, Pare de Dormir Brew Bar

Then, of course, there’s the espresso. This drink has greater body because it has a much higher brew ratio (i.e. more coffee to water) than other methods, and also because it relies on pressure rather than gravity to make the water run through the grounds and extract compounds. This pressure creates crema, a golden-brown bitter layer filled with oils and melanoidins – those same things that produce body.

You can also manipulate the brew ratio/strength of manual methods to create more or less body. But be wary of under or over-extracting your coffee. An over-extracted coffee can taste, as Matt Perger of Barista Hustle says, “hollow and empty.”

And don’t forget that many drinks are made with milk as a base. The type of milk you use – full fat vs skimmed, soy vs dairy – can affect the body. The best milks will add creaminess as well as sweetness.

A barista pours milk into a latte. Credit: Mecca Coffee

Body: it’s a celebrated quality that sounds simple, but is actually far more complex. But one of the amazing things about third wave coffee is the ability it gives us to understand and control coffee flavors.

So go ahead: experiment with everything I’ve just told you. Play around with body. And create the perfect cup of coffee for you.

Written by Pablo Vazquez.

Perfect Daily Grind

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