Coffee filters: natural or bleached?

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Greg Who Cooks

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I'm totally mystified. I've always purchased the natural (buff colored, unbleached) filters because they are of course ... natural! Why add extra processing? And where is all that bleach going out to pollute our rivers and groundwater?

But really? I've inherited a batch of bleached filters and I can't tell the difference between coffee made in one or the other. And does bleaching change anything? I'm not even sure if white isn't the natural color and the "natural" coffee filters may be artificially colored.

I guess I'll keep buying the buff colored filters if there's no good reason to prefer one over the other...

So anybody/everybody, please tell me whether you prefer bleached or unbleached coffee filters, and why?
 
We use a coffee maker with a fine metal mesh filter. No bleach/artificial coloring, no paper in the landfill. Just rinse it out and you're set.
 
Actually that's a different question. I've used reusable filters (metal or other mesh) at times (not recently) and I recall both positive and negative results, but too many years ago for me to remember why.

But I still wonder, bleached or unbleached? (I'll consider mesh when I've run out of my current stock, probably sometime early summer. (I usually buy big packages.)
 
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I have one of those fine mesh filters. It's great to have it as backup, in case I run out of unbleached, paper filters. I get tired of fine coffee crumbs at the bottom of the pot. If it weren't for that, I would use it all the time.

I always buy the unbleached filters, since they became available. That colour is the colour of unbleached paper. Bleaching costs money. Cheap paper products are that colour, e.g., brown paper bags and paper hand towels in public washrooms.
 
You said you inherited a bunch of bleached cfs, right, Greg? They can be used for a lot of other things too. I line a colandar and drain yogurt for cheese, for example. There're web pages listing a lot of other uses somewhere that I read recently. They can replace paper towels for draining meat, hold servings of popcorn or other snacks, etc.
 
I'm a real coffee snob. I only buy whole beans. Only certain brands and at certain places. They can only be freshly ground moments before brewing, not the night before. If I could, I would roast them at home before grinding.

But I have tried both bleached & unbleached filters and I must reluctantly admit that I can't taste a difference.

On principle, I prefer things unbleached and minimally processed, but I buy whatever is available at the moment.
 
I buy unbleached and buy whatever coffee is sale for the most part. I like folgers colombian,Medallia doro,Maxwell house,Dunkin donuts etc. I like mixing it up a bit, and I am not a coffee snob at all. I think it makes me appreciate a really good cup of coffee that much more when i have one.

I do like the one cup drip set-up for a cup of joe for flavor, but I have been drinking too much to that.

Anyone see Aeroshot? it is an inhaler that equals 1 cup of joe's caffeine per puff.
When you need that extra punch!
 
I buy unbleached and buy whatever coffee is sale for the most part. I like folgers colombian,Medallia doro,Maxwell house,Dunkin donuts etc. I like mixing it up a bit, and I am not a coffee snob at all. I think it makes me appreciate a really good cup of coffee that much more when i have one.

I do like the one cup drip set-up for a cup of joe for flavor, but I have been drinking too much to that.

Anyone see Aeroshot? it is an inhaler that equals 1 cup of joe's caffeine per puff.
When you need that extra punch!

I use the cheapest filters I can find.

I agree on the coffee!

I enjoy good coffee but, if I drink it all the time then the WOW factor is lost. I only buy good coffee for holidays and special occasions. I usually mix the end of one can with the beginning of the next can to help with the transition from one brand to another. This is known as the house blend! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:
 
...Anyone see Aeroshot? it is an inhaler that equals 1 cup of joe's caffeine per puff.
When you need that extra punch!

A steaming hot cup of coffee does more for me than provide a jolt of caffeine. I don't leave the house until after the second cup has had a chance to work its magic.

...if you know what I mean.
 
I use bleached for two reasons, neither of them very compelling. One is that white bleached filters are more readily accessible. The other is that there is general agreement that unbleached paper can impart undesired flavors.

Now I said neither was compelling. Most coffee filter paper today is no longer chlorine bleached. It is oxygen "cleansed." Melita has been doing that since 1992. So does Bunn, so it's not hard to find chlorine free papers.

All this gets a little murky, because Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) methods use chlorine dioxide gas. Elemental chlorine bleaching is the really bad environmental process. ECF is less bad but still produces some dioxins, but there's little or not environmental difference between ECF and Totally Chlorine Free (TCF). Again, Melita has used TCF bleached paper since 1992. And it's worth noting that just being brown doesn't make a filter necessarily made with TCF pulp. Pulp can go through a lot of processing. This is also an issue in teabags. (And tampons, etc.)

Now I had not been aware before of Melita's claim that paper filters remove the cholesterol raising factors in coffee, while permanent metal filters allow it through. But that's another story.
 
When I use filters I used the bleached ones mostly because I have some, and the disc filters are hard to find to start with, much less in unbleached.
 
I have one of those reusable "gold" coffee filters. I use it to filter the used canola oil from my deep fryer if I am going to use the oil again. I have a Senseo coffeemaker and a Krups Home Cafe to make coffee, they both use pods, and AFAIK, they only come in white. I would never use the gold filter for coffee because sooner or later you'll be having coffee with the rotorooter man, and I don't swing that way.

That said, if I had to make a choice between the brown or white filters, I would choose whichever is biodegradable, and if both are, then I'd choose the cheapest available.
 
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I use the cheapest filters I can find.

I agree on the coffee!

I enjoy good coffee but, if I drink it all the time then the WOW factor is lost. I only buy good coffee for holidays and special occasions. I usually mix the end of one can with the beginning of the next can to help with the transition from one brand to another. This is known as the house blend! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:

If your coffee comes in a can, it is NOT good coffee. Really good coffee is made with pure Aribaca beans and comes in a resealable foil bag with a breather valve on the front. But I do agree with buying the cheapest filters you can find. The only purpose of the filter is to keep the grounds out of the pot. It providses nothing, positive or negative, to the finished product!
 
A steaming hot cup of coffee does more for me than provide a jolt of caffeine. I don't leave the house until after the second cup has had a chance to work its magic.

...if you know what I mean.

Go to the Vitamin or supplement store and get yourself a bottle of psylium capsules (Metamucil). Take 4 with your juice. You'll never have to rely on the coffee again! :LOL: An added benefit is it also absorbs and removes cholerterol.
 
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This is also an issue in teabags. (And tampons, etc.)

I would never use a tea bag, or any kind of paper tea filter. Tea's flavour is very delicate and YOU CAN TASTE THE PAPER! A stainless steel tea ball or a stainless steel infuser built into the pot is best.
 
I have one of those fine mesh filters. It's great to have it as backup, in case I run out of unbleached, paper filters. I get tired of fine coffee crumbs at the bottom of the pot. If it weren't for that, I would use it all the time.
Yeah, I guess that's why I quit using the mesh, because I grind my coffee finely and didn't like the sediment at the bottom.

You said you inherited a bunch of bleached cfs, right, Greg? They can be used for a lot of other things too. I line a colandar and drain yogurt for cheese, for example. There're web pages listing a lot of other uses somewhere that I read recently. They can replace paper towels for draining meat, hold servings of popcorn or other snacks, etc.
My mother moved to assisted care and gave me her bleached filters. They're otherwise same as the ones I use all the time. There's no point in using them for anything else since I can't taste any difference.

The funny thing is that my generic filters (Krogers) cost the same price regardless of bleached or natural. I'll just use up the bleached filters and then go back to my natural ones.

On principle, I prefer things unbleached and minimally processed, but I buy whatever is available at the moment.
I'll continue buying unbleached, perhaps on that principle, or perhaps I just prefer the color. As I said there's no cost difference in my local stores.

I use bleached for two reasons, neither of them very compelling. One is that white bleached filters are more readily accessible. The other is that there is general agreement that unbleached paper can impart undesired flavors.
You're the first that's brought up any "general agreement that unbleached paper can impart undesired flavors." I haven't tasted any difference, nor as far as I can see has anybody else posting in this topic.

Accessibility? Not sure what you mean. I always see both colors on the shelves here in L.A. supermarkets.
 
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