How To Filter French Press Coffee

past Kieran MacRae | Last Updated: August 15, 2021

I dearest a French press java, merely what I don't love is the sludgy siltyness you get at the bottom of the cup, which raises the question, can you lot utilize a paper filter with a french press and will this give you a cleaner cup? I thought this was the perfect continuation of the French press series of blog posts I've been writing so let's find out.

You certainly tin use a paper filter while you're using a french printing by either cut one to the round size and replacing the metallic filter, or y'all tin can pour it through your regular drip coffee filter. Both ways will clean upwardly your cup and remove the cholesterol-raising oils from the coffee.

Only what I'yard going to talk about more than is a different brewing method you can use with a french press to requite you a cleaner loving cup and why drinking French press coffee isn't likely to impact your cholesterol.

Since writing this a lot of yous accept gotten in touch wanting a ameliorate solution to a cleaner cup of French Press coffee. Finally I've found it… Coffee numberless! You lot tin can buy French Press brewing bags on Amazon that are the perfect solution to a better filtered french press java. Add coffee grounds to the pocketbook and put the bag in your French Press, piece of cake.

French Printing brewing bags

The Original French Press Brewing Bags

Makes clean up so uncomplicated
Durable then they don't outburst
Pack of 50
The claenest loving cup of French Printing coffee you tin potable
Much easier than cutting out a paper filter

Price & Reviews

Why French Press Coffee Isn't bad For You

Paper Filter For French Press Coffee

A study was done that institute that cafestol, a compound found in coffee oils can enhance cholesterol. Information technology was found that people drinking v cups of french press a day had a 6-8%increase in cholesterol subsequently four weeks.

5 cups a twenty-four hours!

I drink one-2 cups a day at accented max, and I recall nearly people go out the french press when guests come up over. So will having a cup cause you harm? I don't think so.

Unless you already have high cholesterol and your doctor has advised yous to cut back, that's a different story and you should always listen to them.

Merely the reason its french press and non all coffee is the employ of the metal filter which lets the oils through, but I'one thousand going to talk almost that more in the adjacent section.

The Difference Between Metallic Filters and Newspaper Filters

The difference is that a metal filter lets through much more of the coffee oils than a newspaper filter does, this results in a coffee that feels thicker because you feel the coffee oils on your natural language the way you do if you eat something buttery.

Now, these oils are foreign to become used to particularly if you lot're used to drip coffee machines that use a paper filter. It can make the coffee gustatory modality sludgy because you see the silt at the bottom of the cup and take information technology to mean that information technology must have been throughout.

But you take to lean into it!

If yous're using a newspaper filter with a french press then at that place isn't much signal using a french press, y'all might as well buy a drip automobile because that thickness is the whole point.

And you only don't potable the bottom mouthful of your java when you have a french press. If, however, you're getting a third of your cup is full of $.25 and so yous have a different problem, likely your grind isn't coming out consistent giving you also many fines that can escape the plunger, or you're pushing down too difficult forcing the coffee through the filter.

You need a nice even grind across your beans and y'all need to apply steady pressure while you push down. Or you could try merely pushing downwards halfway and pouring nice and gently into your cup.

Dark-brown Newspaper vs White Paper

I talked well-nigh this in more detail in another article merely the difference is white newspaper filters accept been bleached white, brown ones haven't. And some people find the brown ones have a papery taste then need rinsed earlier use.

But both work the same, both can be composted, information technology'southward more almost personal preference than one being strictly better than the other.

The Two Methods of Using Newspaper Filters With A French Press

If you still aren't convinced then there are ii different methods y'all can follow to use a french press newspaper filter, technically three but the 3rd is useless…

1. Cutting it to size

The metal filter is just a disk shaped, so every bit long equally a deejay is in that location to take hold of all the grounds then y'all don't need to worry what fabric it is, you can but draw around the metallic 1 on to your newspaper filter and cutting information technology to size.

Too big and it won't plunge, too small and it'll let the beans around the sides so yous need to be quite conscientious with it. And in all honesty it's quite hard to get just right, and to get consistent and then this is a method that volition work but not i you want to be dealing with every twenty-four hours.

2. Pour Through A Paper Filter After

This involves making your French press as normal and so instead of pouring it into the cup you add in an extra step and pour it through a filter into some sort of big plenty container and then into your cup.

You can pour direct through a filter into your cup just it tin can quickly cease up half in your cup and half all over your worktop.

3. French Press Specific newspaper filters (not recommended)

You can purchase filters that are the shape of your French press, you lot put them in first then put the grounds in, add water on top, and fold the peak of the filter down. Then make every bit normal and hey presto you lot've got an easy clean up filter you can employ with a french press…

In theory.

In reality you have a torn filter that's all the same letting out grounds, and cleaning up that's fractionally easier but you however take to clean the whole thing anyway, it just removes the need to use a spoon to scrape out the grounds at the bottom.

You can check them out hither on Amazon if you lot're interested merely they don't practice anything for me in terms of making the java making process easier or cleaner.

How To Brand A Silt Gratis Coffee In A French Press Without A Paper Filter

I think I've talked about this in every one of my French press articles so far but it's so skilful it has to be shared each time in case someone hasn't seen it.

If you lot've been following along skip on to the FAQs, if non this is the James Hoffman Perfect French Press method from his YouTube Aqueduct. Check out the video below to learn how to exercise it yourself.

F.A.Qs

How long practice French printing filters terminal?

Your standard metal filter should last as long as the French Press does, which is decades if you clean it and store it properly.

Merely if you lot've left it in the closet dirty and information technology's gone either moldy or rusty then information technology's probably time to get yourself a new i.

Does a French press demand a filter?

Yes, you lot can't use a french press without some sort of filter, you could use i without a plunger as long as you poured it through a filter after simply this is the same as just making java in a jar and if it hasn't been pressed I don't think you can telephone call it French press coffee.

How frequently should you make clean a French press?

After every single use, yup, I know it seems like it sucks only you'll get into a good process and exist cleaning up your french press in less than 30 seconds. I wrote an commodity virtually French presses being dishwasher safety hither.

Can you reuse grounds in a French press?

Absolutely not, unless you want to potable a very weak very disappointing cup of coffee you can't use java a second time in any instance. As I talked almost hither.

Final Thoughts

To me a paper filter with a french press is pointless, it completely changes the sense of taste of it and while the new gustation isn't worse, information technology's just not a french printing coffee, if I wanted french press made with a paper filter I'd only use my drip machine instead.

And I know it's different than using an immersion method of brewing coffee with a paper filter, but to me, a paper filter in French press is similar going paddling with wet suit shoes on, it's the same but yet and so different and less enjoyable.

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