gold coffee filter

I finally bought one and am disconcerted by the amount of sediment it leaves in my cup-- the brew is like that of a french press. I've experimented with larger grinds, but wonder if I'm missing something. Sometimes I like sludge, but sometimes....

and while I'm on it, I'd appreciate others' thoughts about the brita water bottle, which I love (especially at the gym and bedside) but suspect is not effectively filtering the water.

[The Chowhound Team]

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[Will Owen]

My late Papa-in-law gave us a Melitta gold filter early on. We were using a Melitta pour-through cone at the time, so we used this for a while, but had that same sludge problem. Well, turns out Papa's own favored coffee maker was his French press, and he considered that "sludge" to be a natural component of good coffee. His daughter and I agreed to disagree with him on this, and went back to paper.

[Sparklebright]

I have zero tolerance for sludge.
And yes, the paper filters out the oils that some people prefer.
I like my coffee strong but I like it without that acidic taste.
There is no right or wrong--we like our coffee the way we like it.

[Chowbird]

I gave up on my gold filter and now only use it for straining yogurt. Paper filters work better for me.

[kaleokahu]

Hi, Sparklebright:

Did you know about the diterpene molecule in coffee called cafestrol? Actually, it's only present in significant quantity in sludgy, i.e., French press, Gold-cone coffee (Paper coffee filters have a property that binds to lipid-like compounds which allows the filter to remove most of the cafestol found in coffee).

Studies to date indicate Cafestrol is *very* good for people. See, Trinh K, Andrews L, Krause J, Hanak T, Lee D, Gelb M, Pallanck L (April 2010). "Decaffeinated coffee and nicotine-free tobacco provide neuroprotection in Drosophila models of Parkinson's disease through an NRF2-dependent mechanism". J. Neurosci. 30 (16): 5525–32. DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4777-09.2010. PMID 20410106. Lay summary Among the effects: reducing the chance of Parkinson's disease by 40%.

FWIW,
Aloha,
Kaleo

[tcamp]

Yay, I love it when a study validates what I already do! I enjoy french press coffee, including the sludge. And I'm sure the drosophila hanging around the fruit bowl will be happy to know their risk of PD is dimished.

[kaleokahu]

I have a B-I-L with Parkinsons, so the prospect of cafestrol helping spare his neurons makes this a little more important and real to us than a matter of fruit flies...

[pdxgastro]

For all you paper filter users, do you wet the filter before putting the coffee in it? My sister does this, so I started doing it. But I'm not sure WHY we do it?

[njmarshall55]

I don't, but since I use a Cuisinart G&B, one of the problems I have is that the grounds get blown into the filter holder before the brew cycle, so if there's a fold in the paper or if I put too much in, some of the grounds wind up between filter and the filter-holder wall, thereby sending them into the pot. I can only think that wetting the filter allows it to stick to the side of the filter holder better so you don't wind up with grinds outside the filter. The creases in a dry filter can be pretty tight, thereby leaving gaps that grounds can get into.

[goodeatsgal]

The Sweet Maria's coffee site has this to say about rinsing the filter first: "Pre-rinse your paper filter to remove any loose paper fibers that can end up in your brew and make your coffee taste papery." http://www.sweetmarias.com/grind.brew.... I honestly don't know if my coffee ever tasted papery, but I do try to pre-rinse the filter, not only for this reason but because of njmarshall55's point about coffee grounds winding up outside of the filter. And as long as I've mentioned this site, I want to give a plug to their Clever Coffee Dripper. We have it and it's great for manual drip coffee because you can let the coffee/water mixture brew for a few minutes before releasing the liquid out.

[jlafler]

I generally just discard the first fluid ounce that drips through; if there's any sludge, most of it's in there.

[hambone]

I go the opposite way and chuck the last ounce in the bottom of the carafe.

A coffee monger told me that the gold filters make a better cup of joe because the paper absorbs oils which you want.

I'm just curious. I use a gold filter in my Braun automatic, and I guess you could call the residue at the bottom of the cup sludge, but that'd be a stretch. It seems that "sludge" is the offspring of powdery-fine grind, the stuff that fills the interstices of a coarser grind. What kind of grinder are the sludge-inundated using? I think with the small spice-grinder type grinders, it's such an inexact science, there's bound to be a higher powder content to even a coarse grind. Have you tried a more consistent grind? (Am I being way too analytical here? Perhaps I should just leave it alone that some folks prefer paper filters!)

When I used to use a gold filter in an automatic drip maker and grind the coffee at the store, there was always a little sludge at the bottom, but nowhere near as much as with a French press. Undoubtedly we all have a different level of sludge tolerance :=), but one of those spice mills could produce a whole lot of sludge even when someone's being careful about the grinding time. They're only good for grinding spices, regardless of what the manufacturers claim.

Spice mills or blade grinders tend to produce more coffee dust and less uniformity of grind. You may want to consider getting a burr grinder for better grind quality.

I never used a spice mill to grind my coffee, in fact I have an old fashioned hand crank on the wall.

Mm, yeah, that's what I use -- a Braun burr grinder. And for power outages, I have my trusty hand-crank Armin-Trosser. Shoot your blade grinder.

We grind a blend of a decaf espresso and a French-Italian dark roast--and have always had a sludge problem with the gold filter. The coffee tastes much better with the paper filters and that's what we use. Perhaps the darker roasts which are more oily are less suited to the gold filters? I wonder what kinds of coffee others who experience gold filter sludge are are grinding.

Maybe it's the brand you bought that's causing the problem; I have a gold filter and have used it every day for 5 years and am exceedingly happy with it. It one of those, "Why didn't I do this sooner!" purchases. Mine is a Krups Gold. It leaves no sediment and is very sturdy. I gring my coffee beans in a Braun grinder for a 10 count, for what that's worth.

I have cheap-ish Krups drip machine that came with a gold filter. It always leaves sediment in the bottom of the cup. I usually buy whole beans at the grocery store and run them through the store grinder on the setting indicated for drip coffee makers.

I always thought I was screwing it up somehow.

I second that; I count to ten, one and two and --- and get a fairly rough grind for the gold filter and it hardly leaves any sludge and does make a good cup. I use either Trader Joe's Bay blend (two thirds) plus one third French roast or Peets Foggy Blend (I think thats the name plus Fr.Roast) or last year I really liked Seattle's Best Christmas Blend. SO just likes anything I concoct at 6.30 am!

We have used the gold coffee filters for years and dealt with the "sludge" in the bottom of the cup. I recently purchased a new coffee maker and asked the woman at the kitchen store what filter would she suggest - she said she only used paper filters. I decided to try the paper filters after not using them for years - I really now prefer the paper filters as opposed to the gold.

I've used a gold filter (braun) for many years and prefer it to the paper. I use a fine ground coffee and never have a sludge problem. I have no idea why some experience a sludge problem and others do not. Its a mystery!

That's why I stick to the paper filters. The grind would have to be so coarse to use the gold filter without it throwing sediment that it would be a huge waste of coffee, not to mention that by using such a coarse grind there would probably be a difference in the taste of the finished product.