Is there any difference in the cooking effect between flannel filter cloth and filter paper? is there any advantage in cooking with filter cloth?

Is the cloth filter easy to use?

Last year, when I was doing research for an article in the journal Sierra, I detailed ways to reduce the low-carbon action of personal coffee, but found that it was futile. So I decided to take my own suggestion and use cloth filter paper instead of paper coffee filter paper.

I always use paper filter paper, just like you may always use paper filter paper.

As a barista, it is inertia to pick up a new filter paper, unfold it, and put it on the filter cup.

What kind of paper are these filter papers made of? Is it sustainable? How is it handled? I never thought about it. The only thing is to consciously replace the bleached filter paper with unbleached one.

I did some research, read some online suggestions, and finally chose a box of Chemex filter paper from CoffeeSock in Austin, Texas. At present, the price of two packs is $13.

In March this year, after I ran out of Hario V60 filter paper, I bought a box of CoffeeSock V60 cloth strainer (also $13).

I have been using the Chemex cloth filter for more than 6 months to correspond to the V60 that has been used for several months. What do they look like? Is it really better than paper?

Chemex brewer

The first thing to do is to recommend boiling the newly bought cloth filter in clean water for ten minutes to disinfect and pre-shrink. It is best not to skip this step.

Now, let's consider the filter itself. CoffeeSock's products are made from certified organic cotton, made in Austin, Texas, and are packaged in a recyclable plastic-free box with a lot of tips on how to cook and clean.

Chemex brewer is famous for its bright flavor and softness of brewed coffee. Some people may feel that it is not mellow and too thin, but in general, it is a very popular method of cooking.

The appearance is also very artistic and is even permanently collected by the Museum of Modern Art.

Chemex's unique brewing method is affected by its filter paper, commonly used is a thick square paper, folding the rear facet will produce thicker layers. This filter paper slows down the brewing speed and helps with extraction, but it also takes away many oils and other ingredients from the coffee.

With a cloth filter, this unique feeling is less obvious. I use CoffeeSock's cloth filter to make coffee made with Chemex, which is more similar to V60 than traditional Chemex filter paper.

If you like light coffee and like to drink coffee with bright flavor and low thickness, cloth filter may not be suitable for you.

Personally, although I like the classic Chemex brewing, I am impressed by the relative consistency and mellow thickness that the cloth filter can achieve.

Generally speaking, I find that the cloth filter needs to be slightly finely ground. I have tried to brew coffee from different places with cloth strainer. Lightly roasted Ethiopian coffee, bombarded suntan Brazilian coffee, etc., each kind of coffee, after some small adjustments, have good results.

V60

The cloth filter in V60 is actually very similar to the paper filter.

I've been using V60 for several months, but so far, the performance has been excellent.

When setting the degree of grinding, or as said before, a little bit finer grinding, I found that, on the contrary, the fault tolerance rate for cooking is very high.

Cleaning and maintenance

Well, here's the most annoying thing about these cloth filters: cleaning. It's not that annoying.

With filter paper, you can simply pick it up and throw it away.

However, for cloth filters, it is too expensive to do so. You have to deal with the coffee grounds first, then rinse them and then dry them.

In fact, it is only a little more troublesome than filter paper and requires an extra step.

CoffeeSock also recommends boiling the strainer with clean water every 6-8 weeks to remove some grease. This works the same way in the old Chemex filter. Boiling strainer helps to keep it clean.