I just became interested in pour-over coffee, after a lifetime of only drinking mokas. While shopping for my first coffee machine, i noticed that there are two kinds of coffee filters: bleached and unbleached, apparently the only difference between them is just the color, but i’m sure there’s something i’m missing.
What should i grab, and why?
Unbleached paper filters can add a papery taste to your coffee, most people don’t like it but you may not notice it.
Edit: Someone created a coffee community in lemmy, join us if you are interested! !coffee@lemmy.world
Filters did not come to mind when I saw this title and was very concerned as I clicked through.
As a coffee novice, I also wondered whether bleach had something to do with flavor lol
Unbleached, but mainly due to growing up with it. There is definitely a difference in taste. It’s also, at least here in Germany, available at practically any store, whereas bleached filters are only available at bigger stores.
I tend to get whatever is available, but always rinse the filter before using it anyway, and haven’t noticed any difference between the two.
I always recommend bleached. Just getting started, you might not notice but the unbleached ones tend to add a bit more of a papery taste.
Both are fine, for most any good coffee, you’ll have an equally good time if you give the unbleached filter a pre-rinse with hot water. But if you’re venturing into Very Expensive Fancy Coffee (like $30 > per 100g), unbleached is probably the way to go to not have to worry about the flavour mixing.
I prefer unbleached, but I also don’t end up doing a pre rinse of the filter. To me what’s made the most difference is the grind of the bean and the temp of the water. You’ll just have to find what’s right for the flavor you like. That’s the beauty of pour over!
The best thing you can do is test this for yourself.
Steep a plain coffee filter in water, taste it, and determine your findings from there. Repeat with each filter candidate
I would imagine the filter itself doesn’t have much of a taste, the differences would be in how they absorb the oil, right? Seems like experimenting with coffee would be pretty essential
You might be surprised. I use aeropress now, which uses a small enough paper that it doesn’t matter, but when I did pour over frequently I absolutely did this experiment with a variety of papers. There are, in fact, significant differences in the flavor different papers release in the water