"chemex" news and stories

An unbleached filter in a Chemex brewer. Photo: Erin Meister.

Erin Meister trains baristas for North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee and sporadically maintains the blog Meet the Press Pot from her home in New York City. This is part of a series of tips for the caffeine-addicted.

Aside from beans and water, the coffee-brewing puzzle almost always requires at least one other element: a filter. Just about every method or machine utilizes them -- French press plungers have fine-mesh screens, espresso machines use perforated metal baskets, electric drip-coffee makers require the ubiquitous accordion-fold filters and even preground coffee pods come in their own little brew packs to keep the grounds at bay (that is, out of your teeth).

Understanding your filter situation can actually be a bit confusing, since there are myriad varieties available in a host of sizes, shapes and materials. Trying to make sense of the coffee-filter section at the market is not unlike trying to find the right replacement mop head (there's about an 80 percent chance of failure).

Read on for more about coffee filters.

Erin Meister trains baristas for North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee and sporadically maintains the blog Meet the Press Pot from her home in New York City. This is the fourth in a series of tips for the caffeine-addicted.

Oh, Chemex, you're gorgeous! Those curves, those exquisite lines, the alluring reflection from your gleaming, glassy surface. All that and you make fantastic coffee? Seriously.

Brewing in one of these babies is the kind of treat that's made for late Saturday mornings and idly flipping through the New Yorker ... for the cartoons. It's the Nat King Cole of coffee-brewing equipment: mellow and sophisticated, but with a sly wink. (Plus, the inventor was the kind of guy you almost wouldn't mind losing to at poker. Almost.)

In order to achieve a batch of the super clean and flavorful brew this pot can create, I like to use about 30 grams (or 5 tablespoons) of fresh ground coffee (medium-fine) for 16 ounces of just-off-the-boil water (as always, adjust to your taste). (These instructions can also be followed for other pour-over brewers, but I've got a crush on ol' Chem.)