Filter Coffee on the Rise Against Plunger

For many, filter coffee – named for its use of coffee filter paper - still calls to mind cheap, burnt American diner coffee. For those inside the coffee industry, filter coffee has been on a steady incline for the past several years, and there are more than a handful of milestone developments that prove it. Cafes across Australasia have since come to adopt a range of soft brew methods, delving further into the subtler flavours offered by single origin coffees.

As soft brewed coffee (that is, coffee made without the pressure of an espresso machine) has grown in popularity, more mainstream locations have offered it across New Zealand. The need to make filter coffee easy and consistent for commercial settings led to the popularisation of a specific kind of filter coffee – the batch brew.

While batch brew might seem like a fairly recent development, it has been driven largely by the equipment of Moccamaster, a Dutch brand. Moccamaster is a common name in the industry now, but a majority of coffee drinkers are likely unaware that the brand has been producing batch brew equipment for decades.

Since becoming a fixture in many commercial locations, batch brew has found its way into many offices too, and from there, has slowly transitioned into the home life of many coffee aficionados.

Filter coffee has a lot of the same advantages as the standard New Zealand method of home brewing – French press, or plunger coffee. Both are able to make large amounts of coffee in a relatively short time, and with next to no labour, ideal for entertaining guests.

The difference lies in the beans; soft brewed filter coffee is able to showcase single origins much more reliably, and can be calibrated to access more of the delicate flavours of lightly roasted coffees than other methods.

All this goes to show that filter coffee shows no signs of disappearing – we expect it to continue to gain traction, as more and more coffee drinkers discover its benefits.

To learn more, talk to the experts at Merito Coffee Roasters, or take a look at their single origin coffees here: https://merito.co.nz/collections/frontpage