Drip Filter And Plunger Coffee Makers

Drip Filter and Plunger Coffee Makers

The Coffee Filter

The coffee filter was first invented by Melitta Bentz, a housewife from Dresden, Germany. She had been looking for a way to brew the perfect cup of coffee with none of the bitterness caused by overbrewing.

She experimented with ways of making filtered coffee, pouring water over ground coffee and filtering the liquid, thus removing any grinds.

Melitta Bentz used various materials, but found that her son's school blotting paper worked best.

The coffee filter and paper were patented on June 20th, 1908. Later that year, on December 15th, Melitta and husband Hugo Bentz founded the Melitta Bentz Company.

The filter bag (1937) and vacuumpacking (1962) were also patented by the Mellitta Bentz Company.

Today there are a number of drip filter machines on the market. When purchasing a drip filter coffee maker, it is best to consider the number of cups that will be made each time.

A six to ten cup coffee maker definitely makes sense for a large family, or for when guests come around, but if only one or two cups are required, this can lead to waste. Also, using the machine to make just one or two cups doesn't allow the water to heat sufficiently.

The Coffee Plunger

The coffee plunger is said to have been invented in 1933, and many believe that it extracts the most flavour from the ground beans.

Coarsely ground coffee is placed in the bottom of a warmed pot, hot water is added and stirred. The coffee is allowed to steep for three to five minutes, before the plunger is pushed down to separate the grounds from the coffee infusion.

This method is slightly less convenient than the filter method, but has the advantage of being more suited to smaller amounts of coffee.

Some cheaper coffee plungers use nylon rather than stainless steel mesh, but these don't generally last as long as the steel variety.