Few days back, one of my close friends recommended me to use Melitta bamboo coffee filters instead of regular paper coffee filters.
Before that, I was regularly using paper filters for my pour over coffee.
When my friend suggested me to use these new types of filters, I wondered which kind of filter is healthier for me.
I am sure you might be thinking about the same question too.
So, today in this article, I will explain some of the most important differences between bamboo coffee filters vs paper coffee filters.
I hope you will realize which type of filter is best for your daily coffee after reading this article till the end.
Table of Contents
- 8 Important Differences Between Bamboo vs Paper Coffee Filters
- Paper Coffee Filter vs Bamboo Coffee Filter – Which one is the Healthier?
- Real Benefits of Using Bamboo Coffee Filters
- What are the Best Bamboo Coffee Filters to Use?
- What is The Best Paper Coffee Filter to Use?
- Conclusion
8 Important Differences Between Bamboo vs Paper Coffee Filters
| Bamboo Coffee Filter | Paper Coffee Filter |
| 1. These filters are made from 60% bamboo pulp and 40% natural unbleached paper pulp material. | 1. Most paper coffee filters are made from disposable paper material which contains 100 g/m2 filter papers. |
| 2. Bamboo coffee filter is a more sustainable, eco-friendly and bio-degradable option than paper filters. | 2. Paper coffee filters are made from disposable paper which is why it is not a sustainable and less environmentally friendly option. |
| 3. These filters fit more comfortably in the plastic cone, and they usually hold their conical shape much better than the other paper coffee filters. | 3. Paper coffee filters do take some time to fit comfortably in the plastic cone, and they usually do not hold their shape as good as bamboo filters. |
| 4. Bamboo filters are made from bio-degradable bamboo material which can be recycled and repurposed very easily. | 4. It creates more waste and takes more efforts to be appropriately disposed. |
| 5. Bamboo coffee filters do fail in providing better flavour and crisp filtration of your coffee as compared to paper filters. | 5. Paper coffee filters are much better in providing crisp coffee filtration and rich flavour in comparison to bamboo coffee filters. |
| 6. A higher porous and coarser texture of this type of filter allows coffee to drip faster. | 6. A bleached or non-bleached paper coffee filter could take little longer to drip your coffee as compared to the bamboo coffee filter. |
| 7. The disadvantage of using bamboo filters is when you filter your coffee using these types of filters, you will experience the weird papery taste in the coffee. | 7. White and natural brown paper coffee filters usually do not create any unwanted papery taste in your filtered coffee. |
| 8. Pricewise, bamboo filters are a bit expensive than the paper coffee filters. | 8. Paper coffee filters are made with low manufacturing cost, and that is why they are priced cheaper than the bamboo filters. |
Paper Coffee Filter vs Bamboo Coffee Filter – Which one is the Healthier?
If you consider the filtration capabilities of both the filters, then you will understand that both the filters have different dripping rates.
But when you compare the taste and flavour of the dripped coffee, then I definitely give more points to paper coffee filters.
Paper coffee filters help in producing coffee with rich texture and flavour in comparison to bamboo coffee filters.
If you compare the health benefits of using both the coffee filters, then I would say both of them are good for your health.
According to this article published on Harvard.Edu website, the use of paper coffee filters is highly recommended.
The main reason behind it is the ability of paper filters to filter out Cafestol from the coffee during its filtration.
Cafestol is responsible for stimulating LDL cholesterol in our body.
Therefore, by using a paper coffee filter, you can save yourself from the increment of LDL cholesterol in your body.
From this point of view, I totally agree that any paper coffee filter, whether it is made from disposable paper or bamboo; is completely safe and a healthier option for us.
Real Benefits of Using Bamboo Coffee Filters
The reason why you should prefer using a bamboo coffee filter over the regular paper filters is that it is sustainable and bio-degradable by nature.
Bamboo trees grow much faster than the traditional tress from which paper is manufactured.
Due to the increased global demand for paper, millions of trees are cut down every year across the globe.
We can prevent this global catastrophe and save our environment by starting to increase the usage of bamboo originated products.
Bamboo coffee filters are more eco friendly and easily bio-degradable by design.
Once you use this filter, you can easily use it for your garden composting purpose.
Paper coffee filters are sometimes hard to compost in the garden due to the use of certain chemicals in them.
So, is bamboo coffee filter the better option than the paper coffee filters?
I certainly feel that bamboo filters should be given more importance in our life than the paper filters.
Considering the future for our next generation, it is more important to save our trees and start using more sustainable and a long-term option.
And that option is definitely bamboo and not the disposable paper in my experience.
What are the Best Bamboo Coffee Filters to Use?
As far as my research is concerned, there are not a lot of good quality brands available in the market right now.
But if you want a high quality and reliable bamboo coffee filter, then my recommendation is to choose any sizes of Melitta Bamboo Coffee Filters.
Melitta is the most popular and widely used brand in the USA.
Millions of US customers use their paper coffee filters, natural brown coffee filters as well as bamboo coffee filters.
All these filters are best in terms of their production quality and their ability to filter coffee with the required texture, flavour and taste.
Melitta bamboo coffee filters work perfectly in reducing the bitterness and filtering the impurities of coffee beans used in the coffee.
Its double crimped filter design makes it very durable and it usually do not get damaged during the actual coffee filtration.
And one good thing about these filters is you can reuse or repurpose them for garden composting after coffee brewing is done.
You can use them for composting in your garden without any fear of chemical exposure in the soil.
I strongly recommend to use this brand only if you plan to purchase bamboo coffee filter in future.
Click Here to Get Melitta Bamboo Coffee Filter.
What is The Best Paper Coffee Filter to Use?
Just like the above bamboo filter, I recommend you to use only Melitta Paper Coffee Filters in this case.
My one more suggestion is to go with the natural brown filter option.
They are much better in terms of coffee filtration quality as compared to the regular white filters.
This type of natural brown filter comes with microfine flavour enhancing perforations.
This perforation makes it easy to obtain the maximum original coffee flavour during the filtration process.
As far as the durability is concerned, this filter also comes with double crimped filter design.
This design makes it much stronger which helps to prevent bursting of the filter during filtration.
Click Here to Get Melitta Natural Brown Paper Coffee Filter.
Conclusion
As far as health benefits are concerned, I feel there is no significant differences between bamboo filter vs paper coffee filter.
Both the filters work perfectly in filtering out the harmful cafestol element of your brewed coffee.
When you compare the flavour and taste of your filtered coffee, then definitely paper coffee filters perform much better than bamboo filters.
If you compare the price, then paper coffee filters are bit cheaper than the bamboo filters.
But bamboo coffee filters are more sustainable and viable option for all of us as compared to the paper filters.
They are easily reused or repurposed and bio-degradable in comparison to paper filters.
This is the main reason why I prefer using bamboo coffee filters over paper coffee filters.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_filter
https://www.melitta.ca/en/Why-We-Filter-546.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/Coffee/comments/53h8d0/bamboo_vs_paper_filters/
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/02/23/ask-the-expert-coffee-and-health-2/