Choose a good filter cup to brew good coffee! How to choose a hand-brewed coffee filter cup?

When you open the door and walk into a brewed coffee shop, besides wanting to taste a cup of good coffee, you probably also want to buy a brewing ritual. It seems that only through this ritual can we enjoy this cup of good coffee calmly.

What if we want to brew coffee by ourselves? Hand brewing coffee is explained in a simple way. Water is poured through the filter cup to filter the coffee powder and get a cup of coffee liquid. But if we go deeper into the details of hand brewing, it is very particular about coffee knowledge!

From the choice of filter cup to filter paper, water temperature control, extraction time, arm muscle control, and water cut-off technique, all of these will affect the flavor and quality of a cup of coffee.

But don’t worry! To become a master, you have to start from the basics. Now let’s learn how to choose a filter cup!

Pour-over has been developed for about a hundred years. The most common conical filter cup is Hario's V60 filter cup, and the most well-known ladder-shaped filter cups are probably Sanyo filter cups and Kalita filter cups. Another major shape recently is the Wave filter cup that uses wavy flat-bottom cake filter paper.

The various hand-poured filter cups on the market can be roughly classified by three key points:

1. Material-(Temperature Factor)

2. Rib-(flow rate factor)

3. Shape-(Extraction method)

This article will sort out the various filter cups on the market and briefly introduce how to choose the filter cup that suits you best.

Material-Temperature Factor

Most filter cups are made of plastic, transparent glass, ceramic, stainless steel, and red copper. The material of the filter cup directly affects the temperature factor during hand brewing.

First, let’s look at the thermal conductivity (W/m°K):

Copper (401) > Stainless steel (12~45) > Ceramic (1.22) > Glass (1.1) > Plastic (<1)

The higher the thermal conductivity, the more the material can carry away the heat, so it is more necessary to warm the cup before hand brewing, otherwise the water temperature will drop significantly during brewing. From this point of view, plastic is a good choice.

The following are the advantages of each material finishing:

Plastic: No need to warm the cup, high precision

Metal: more durable and resistant to high temperatures

Ceramics: good thermal insulation and high temperature resistance

Glass: Good light transmittance to observe water flow conditions

These advantages can all be taken into consideration.

Rib-velocity factor

The strip-shaped protrusions in the filter cup are called ribs (also called ribs or water guides). Ribs can leave a proper gap between the filter paper and the filter cup to provide water flow. If there are no ribs, the filter paper and the filter cup will fit tightly, which will reduce the water flow rate. Therefore, the design of ribs can indirectly affect the extraction speed and produce different flavors.

Rib column designs can be roughly divided into four types:

Short rib design:

Example: KONO filter cup

Features: Taking into account the functions of soaking and water conduction, enhancing the flavor of coffee

Spiral long ribs:

Example: Hario V60

Features: Speed ​​up the water flow, extract the coffee flavor like twisting a towel, the coffee flavor is bright

Straight rib column:

Examples: Kalita bone china filter cup, Blue bottle filter cup

Features: The difference from Kono is that the ribs extend to the upper end to enhance the exhaust effect and reduce the extraction of the flavor in the back section

Without ribs:

Example: Kalita Wave Series

Features: Need to be used with cake cup filter paper, which is actually to make ribs on the filter paper to allow water to flow smoothly downwards. The disadvantage is that the filter paper cost is relatively high.

Of course, there are many other shapes of ribs, which I will not introduce here one by one . However, there are generally three concepts that can be used to judge the water flow speed:

Rib length: the longer the rib, the faster the flow rate

Rib protrusion degree: the more convex, the faster the flow rate

Number of ribs: The more ribs, the faster the flow rate

Shape-Extraction Method

The shape of the filter cup can be roughly divided into three categories: conical, trapezoidal, and flat-bottomed, and the shape can affect the extraction method and flow rate.

Cone

The conical filter cup usually has a faster flow rate, and the water will extract the coffee by flushing. Due to the fast flow rate, if the water injection technique is not good, the coffee powder will easily concentrate in the middle, resulting in uneven extraction of the coffee powder. Therefore, water injection technology and powder wall construction play an important role.

The conical filter cup will have a faster coffee flow rate due to the three-dimensional structure of the ribs and the exposed tip of the coffee filter paper, so there is no need to make too many changes in the brewing of coffee. You only need to let the coffee tumble moderately to get good extraction.

Trapezoid

There are single-hole and three-hole designs. The flow rate is relatively slow, and it tends to be an immersion extraction. The number of holes will affect the flow rate. Overall, it is slower than the conical filter cup, and the taste is thicker, but it is also easy to over-extract and make the coffee bitter.

Some trapezoidal filter cups are supported by internal ribs to allow the liquid to flow more smoothly. The holes at the bottom allow different trapezoidal filter cups to have different soaking times, but the characteristics of soaking can be used to make the flavor more different.

Round flat bottom

The flat bottom structure allows the coffee powder to be evenly extracted and the brewing flow rate is slow, which is more like immersion extraction. Over-extraction should also be avoided.

The round flat-bottomed cake filter is the best brewing method that allows the coffee powder to stretch out inside the filter cup, because the coffee liquid does not flow down directly, but there is a certain degree of water accumulation to allow the coffee powder to be soaked more, and the tolerance rate in brewing is also greatly improved.

at last

Each filter cup has its own characteristics, but they only have relative advantages, not absolute advantages. Based on the above three points, I believe everyone has a better understanding of the filter cup. I hope everyone can choose a filter cup that suits them and brew a cup of delicious coffee at home at any time!

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