How To Make Filter Coffee Without Filter

past Kieran MacRae | Last Updated: November 17, 2020

Starting to feel a little sluggish yous wander over to the cupboard and disaster strikes…

No java filters!

Continuing there you offset to wonder, can I make coffee without a filter?

You tin make coffee without a filter, whether information technology'due south using a tea towel as a substitute or making coffee the old fashioned way and letting the grounds settle in the cup you can have a cup of coffee without a filter.

Even if you're looking to have less waste and desire to stop using paper filters I've got you covered, you lot'll desire to get a reusable filter similar this one from Amazon.

Otherwise, read on…

coffee being made on an open fire without a filter

eight Ways To brand Coffee From Grounds Without A Filter

1. Make Stovetop Coffee

At that place are ways, magical mysterious ways to brand coffee on the stove top, without a coffee maker…

Utilise a saucepan!

This is similar to turkish coffee but without the equipment.

Eddy water in a saucepan, or any way y'all can really, a microwave could work also.
Remove from the heat and add your basis coffee. Whatever grind you happen to have will exist fine, y'all can adjust how long you exit it.
Stir it a few times and go out information technology for 4 minutes.
Go for about ii tablespoons of ground coffee per loving cup of water.
If a "crust" of coffee has formed on pinnacle, gently press down on information technology with the back of a spoon and leave for a further minute.
If non, the grounds should accept settled to the bottom of the pan and yous tin very gently pour out the coffee into a mug while leaving the grounds behind. Some grounds might arrive through but should, in turn, settle at the bottom of the loving cup

If yous take a scale y'all want a ratio of 15g of coffee to 225ml of h2o per mug of java just the rougher measurements of a cup and two tablespoons still work pretty well.

This is a combination of how you would exit a french press to mash, with a Turkish pot that leaves the fine grounds at the bottom of the cup. A simple yet surprisingly delicious manner to brand a prissy cup of coffee with no filter involved.

2. Use A Paper Towel In Your Coffee Motorcar

It'southward a common question but I'm here to say that yes you tin use a paper towel in your java motorcar as a coffee filter, it won't gustation every bit good but it does work.

It depends what paper towels you have but you desire to recreate the thickness of a newspaper filter, so you want to put in about 2 or 3 and make sure yous don't overfill with coffee grounds so that information technology tin spill over.

Every bit I said it's non going to make the nicest coffee, you won't be able to stop buying coffee filters and doing this instead but it does in fact make a cup of coffee mostly gratis of grounds that you lot tin can beverage and enjoy.

But be sensible about what paper towels you use, if they utilize the give-and-take "bleach" in them you lot can get ahead and just not accept coffee. Likewise, if they're whatever other color than white, or they accept blue lines through them, that's more often than not a nope from me.

Coffee filters are subject to much stricter food safety regulations compared to a paper towel so again information technology shouldn't be a long-term solution. Only equally a once-off if you're out of paper filters? You're probably going to exist fine, but total disclaimer please be careful.

Open up upward the coffee machine, place one paper towel over the filter basket and press downwards.
Consider dripping a footling h2o in to make the paper towel stay in place if it'southward bouncing out.
Place a second paper towel with a 90-caste rotation over the basket and press it down too.
Add basis coffee and make sure not to make full higher than the paper towel.
Brew as normal
If your hat doesn't close and then trim the corners of the paper towel that are sticking up over the handbasket.

three. Brand Java With A Sieve Or A Fine Mesh Strainer

Your filter is just a way to separate the grinds from the liquid, no more than and no less.

So if you can notice a way to do that without a filter and then you've got a style to brand java. Now every kitchen has some sort of draining device, usually for making pasta, rice, or noodles, merely they won't all work with coffee.

You've got iii levels to your standard kitchen strainers:

Colander – No use, it would let a whole coffee bean through information technology
Sieve – Perhaps OK if y'all had a actually coarse grind but you'd nevertheless get a lot of the fines coming through and into your cup of coffee
Fine mesh strainer – Might only work, fine enough to catch basically all the grinds while withal letting all the liquid through and into your cup, about the same amount of java fines in the loving cup as you'd get with a French press.

Or a tea strainer to make loose leaf tea, that has most the same size of the hole in it as a fine mesh strainer.

Now not every kitchen has a fine mesh strainer, they tend not to be used past a regular just feeding yourself habitation cooks. But if y'all practise have one information technology's perfect, yous're going to brew your coffee with boiling h2o any fashion you tin can and so pour it through the fine mesh strainer.

If y'all've got a sieve you're welcome to effort putting the brewed java through equally is, but if the holes are also big you lot're but going to place a paper towel inside the sieve first! That will catch the grounds even better and leave you lot with a much cleaner cup of java.

Boil h2o any way yous can, in a kettle, in a pot on the stove, in the microwave
Remove from heat and put grounds in the pot at a ratio of ii tablespoons per cup, or 15g per 225ml
Stir and let it brew for iv minutes
Pour your coffee through the fine mesh strainer or the paper towel covered sieve into your mug

4. Use A Sock As A Filter

I'll be honest, this is non a method I've tried myself because I think I'd rather just have hot h2o than drink coffee that's been filtered through a sock…

Simply I was researching across Reddit and this came up surprisingly oftentimes as something people had done while they were camping. My only hope is that they used a clean pair of socks!

Merely I also suspect that it may have been a ploy so that the side by side user could comment saying:

"Should give the coffee a proficient kick"

I can only apologize…

Equally for method, y'all tin employ it ane of three ways, yous can use the sock every bit a sort of teabag, grounds go in, the whole affair goes in the water and gets left for iv-8 minutes depending on how thick your sock is.

The Sock Tea Bag

Place 2 tablespoons of ground coffee in your sock
Place the sock in humid h2o and remove from heat making sure non to submerge the whole sock allowing grounds to escape
Leave for iv-eight minutes depending on how thick the sock is, gustation every bit you lot go
Remove the sock and beverage

Or you utilise the stovetop method, over a bivouac if it's come to this, to heat up your water, add coffee and mash for four minutes. Then pour it through the sock so that information technology works similar a paper filter would.

The Sock Java Filter

Oestrus upwards water anyway yous can to the eddy
Remove from estrus and add together your coffee grounds, 2 tablespoons per cup
Stir and brew for 4 minutes
Carefully our mixture through a sock into your cup

Finally, you can utilise the sock every bit a sort of pour-over device, this takes a bit of exercise trying to balance everything without burning yourself. Coffee grounds go into the sock which is held over a mug. Water is then poured slowly over the grounds inside the loving cup which slowly drips down into the mug.

This is the aforementioned method you'd use with a fabric coffee filter.

The Sock Pour Over Method

Place your two tablespoons per cup of coffee in the sock
Suspend the sock over your mug with the meridian open up
Pour the off-eddy h2o slowly over the grounds allowing them to fully saturate and baste through before adding more water
Repeat until your mug is total

As a final thought, you lot can actually buy a type of filter which is a java sock that you mostly use to brand cold brew. Fun fact.

5. Brand Common cold Brew

Possibly non quite what you were looking for simply this is a really effective way to make java without a filter. Because the coffee sits for and so long in the fridge information technology'due south plenty of time to let all the coffee grounds settle down to the lesser of the jar.

Preferably you desire a coarser grind just if you have ground java already and then but go for it.

At that place are 2 different ratios you can use, one if using somewhere between a 1:iv ratio and a i:8 ratio to make coffee that'southward going to be diluted down with h2o afterward. The low ratio common cold coffee can take boiling water poured into it to brand a hot java likewise. Use about one/iv cold brew to ¾ water when you're making the java.

The other ratio is for cold mash yous drink directly and for this, you desire to use a ane:12 ratio of java grounds to h2o. 1 gram of coffee grounds for every 12 grams of h2o.

Take a clean jug of some kind, something with a lid similar a mason jar or a bottle you tin close and easily become grounds into the top of.
Take your coarse ground java and add together it to the jar, 125-250g of coffee per liter of water for diluted coffee.
Add together tap h2o (or filtered water if you live somewhere with h2o that doesn't taste nice) to the ratio you've called.
Swill the mixture and identify it in the fridge for 12-24 hours depending on how potent you desire information technology.
Gently pour it out into another container not letting the grounds rise from the bottom or pour over the lip of the jug

You'll probably have a few attempts at this ane to really go the ratios right so you might want to brand a smaller batch at first simply to encounter how information technology goes. But it's pretty fun and is really then piece of cake and so especially in the summer or you lot live somewhere hot it tin can be immensely satisfying.

Not to mention that once you've transferred information technology into another container you can leave it for a couple of weeks and it's still fine to beverage. It tends to last a lot longer than normal hot coffee does.

vi. Employ A Reusable Filter

If you're looking to cut down your waste and the trouble with a filter is that it goes in the bin later on every use then this is the perfect solution. You can get a reusable filter for whatever blazon of drip coffee you make or even most types of pour-over coffee.

How do they taste compared to newspaper filters? Very similar, yous notwithstanding get a really clean cup without the fines in it, a few more passes through compared to with a paper filter but zippo noticeable.

But with a reusable filter y'all get the coffee oils that normally soak into the paper, these can unlock some new flavors you might accept been missing before and give information technology a bit more mouthfeel. And aye I know mouthfeel is a scrap of a strange one only if you endeavour a reusable filter y'all'll know what I mean.

No method for this y'all just… well yous just employ it like any newspaper filter. and to clean it you knock out the used grounds into the garbage can and and then rinse out the residual under the tap in the sink. A few grounds down the garbage disposal isn't going to hurt.

7. French Press/ Moka Pot

This is the next step to using a reusable filter in a baste machine or a pour-over because both French Presses and Moka pots take built-in metal filters.

This is ideal if you want to cut down on the waste of using newspaper filters simply also want to avert using plastics.

If you similar the make clean cup of java yous go from a paper filter in a drip machine and then I recommend using a Moka Pot. Y'all get succulent espresso-like coffee that you can drinkable blackness or works really well equally for cappuccinos if you combine information technology with a milk frother.

Simply one of the best things well-nigh the Moka Pot is how repeatable information technology is, you fill up the water to the same line every time, and y'all accept to utilise the same amount of coffee each time. So every time you go to brand java, like with a drip machine, you're going to get a good coffee.

Plus y'all estrus it up on the stove so there'due south no demand for a kettle.

Now with a french printing, you have a higher level of customizability. The power to conform how much coffee to water y'all use, as well every bit brew time and even water temperature to tweak and play to get a truly magnificent cup of coffee.

Many of you will have rolled your eyes at that and it'south entirely off-white, I know some people want a good cup of java that they tin just drink. But for those of y'all who raised an eyebrow and made an "Oooo!" sounds you won't be disappointed.

A perfect way to savor coffee as a hobby without using lots of coffee filters.

viii. Make Instant Coffee

Not a top pick if you're looking for a truly enjoyable coffee drinking experience, but it doesn't involve putting a coffee filter in the bin subsequently y'all've finished!

Yous will need a kettle of some kind to boil the h2o, if yous're in the UK yous will be absolutely used to this but instant coffee doesn't seem to be as big a thing in the USA, I remember because the voltage doesn't work out for kettles being easy.

One-half the volts means double the time to eddy the kettle, roughly.

But it's withal a quick and easy low try way to make java in the morn and you lot tin can get pretty big pots of instant java so your physical waste is going to be less than ownership java beans or grounds too.

Other Items You Can Employ As Coffee Filters

We looked at tea towels already just what else can you use as a coffee filter that you might accept around the house? Well, in that location are quite a few options, some work better than others simply these are all things that if you're desperate yous can utilize as a java filter.

Cheese cloth – This is going to be the most effective but not necessarily something you're going to have in. Also called a muslin cloth if you lot've fabricated jam or you take an avid baker in the house so they might accept 1 of these tucked away in a drawer somewhere.
Tea Towel – Make sure it'south CLEAN, you don't want whatever dishes you've been drying or wet mitt taste and smell going into your cup, but an effective way to strain out coffee. A bit wasteful because you lot'll have to wash it afterward but it tin can work. It won't work in a drip automobile only if you stew your coffee in a pot you can filter through this afterwards.
Pantyhose – Again quite effective but brand sure they are clean and free of holes… I hope you'd know that if it's got a hole it won't piece of work but always best to say! Again non very efficient because you probable won't want to wear these again but it works!
Cheap cake liners – A niggling striking or miss if these will piece of work, because cake liners are supposed to not leak… But if y'all've bought cheap ones that don't work very well then they may just do the pull a fast one on here!
Reusable tea bags – I put these concluding because while they are a perfect solution, I accept never met anyone with a reusable tea bag in their house… If you are decumbent to forgetting tea bags withal it might exist worth getting some. A few teaspoons of fine coffee grounds become in so you steep merely like a teabag, for roughly 2-three minutes but taste as y'all go to find your perfect brew.

Final Thoughts

Well I hope you found something in this list that's going to aid you today. But please, delight, either buy some coffee filters tomorrow or switch to a paper filter free method of making coffee.

Don't just lean into using paper towels as your coffee filters, information technology's not the long term reply!