- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
A small reflection before the actual note…
Every now and then, I end up buying some tiny, almost throwaway coffee accessory—something so inexpensive that I expect absolutely nothing from it. But strangely, it’s these cheap little things that sometimes teach me more about my setup than the costlier tools ever manage to.
Today’s experiment turned out to be exactly that: a ₹400 filter that revealed more about my grinder, brewing habits, and assumptions than any “serious” equipment has in a long time.
The Experiment With a ₹400 Coffee Filter
I ordered this $5 (₹400) coffee filter mostly out of curiosity. I even paid a little extra for a version that came with its own “cup.” I assumed it would be a flimsy glass cup—good enough to use as a backup at least. And honestly, since the whole kit costs about as much as one coffee at a decent café, I wasn’t expecting regrets.
The cup, as it turned out, wasn’t glass at all. It was a tiny, transparent plastic thing—surprisingly well-finished for the price, but hilariously small. Just 100 ml.
If I had to guess, the original idea was probably for this cup to act as a protective cover for the stainless-steel filter. But the marketing team decided to advertise it as a “brewing cup,” which is quite funny once you actually see the size.
That said, the filter itself looked promising. It has two small foldable flaps that let it hang on any normal mug, and the stainless-steel double mesh feels decently built.
The Unexpected Discovery
One of my main reasons for buying this filter was to compare metal-mesh extraction versus the paper filters I usually use in my V60 and Aeropress.
And wow—within the first brew, something surprising happened.
Even though I use a fairly expensive manual grinder (around $100), the mesh filter revealed that my grinder was producing far more tiny particles than I ever knew. These micro-grinds were slipping through the mesh and landing in the cup. Paper filters normally hide these flaws, so this was my first time truly seeing what my grinder was doing.
Those tiny particles are often the culprits behind bitterness and muddy flavours. So, in a strange way, this cheap filter exposed the blind spots of my costly grinder.
Testing Different Brews
Because the included cup was so tiny, I decided to start with a strong brew:
10 grams of coffee to 100 ml water (1:10 ratio).
I poured almost-boiling water, gave it a 30-second bloom, and finished in around two minutes.
The aroma was great… but the taste? Not so much.
Strong bitterness, and a little sediment—expected from a metal filter, but still unpleasant. Filtering it again through a V60 paper filter made it only slightly better.
So I tried a second brew, this time with a coarse grind and water around 80°C.
This one swung to the opposite extreme—weak and lifeless.
That’s when I thought:
“What the heck—one more cup.”
So I switched to a fine grind, poured a little faster, water temperature at 90 degrees Celsius, and kept the extraction around two minutes again. Strangely enough, this version tasted the best of the three—even though it had visible grounds and a bit of bitterness. This particular bean was marketed as naturally bitter anyway, so the taste made sense.
What I Learned
By the end of this little experiment, I realized two things very clearly:
Paper filters give dramatically cleaner cups than metal filters.
Even a cheap metal filter can make decent coffee—just don’t expect magic.
Comments