Bean said coffee: the history of coffee filters

Filter paper, an important tool indispensable for making coffee, sub-throw it, brings us a lot of convenience. But do you know, it was inspired by homework, a German housewife named Melitta found.

The Japanese hand punch is more popular now, but it was prevalent in Germany and the United States as early as the early twentieth century, and then Japan refined it even more to take it forward.

But before that, it was usually filtered through a burlap, flannel, or metal strainer, which was either not easy to clean and store, or produced residue and a less-than-satisfactory flavor presentation. In order to make clean and delicious coffee, Melitta started experimenting with various materials and found that the blotting paper her son used for his homework worked.

The paper, which was rough and soft enough to allow drops of water to pass through it, was unusable for everyday writing, and was often used to soak up excess ink on the surface of letters.

"Ink can pass through, then coffee is not also can?" The coffee filter was born.

She cut the paper into a circle and laid it on a copper pot with a small hole at the bottom, forming the first version of the "filter cup". Not only does it filter cleanly, it's easy to throw away when you're done, and more importantly, the flavors come out better, and the bitterness is less pronounced.

After a few refinements, this method was also popular in Europe.

Later, the fan-shaped filter cup was invented, which brought the full-bodied taste of coffee to a higher level. Because it is necessary to support the special fan-shaped filter paper, Melitta invented a filter paper manufacturing machine to specialize in the production, can be said to be the existence of the godmother of the filter paper industry.