CAFEC Paper Filter differences

CAFEC Filter Paper Levels 

Overview 

We really appreciate the range of filter papers offered by CAFEC that allow us to manipulate the extraction of our coffee to another level. Usually in the shop we brew with the Abaca range papers or the Medium-Dark. We always believed that we preferred the cup from the medium dark but this was relatively anecdotal, so we decided to put our thoughts to the test and carry out some small tests to see how the coffees faired. 

We brewed the same coffee with the same recipe across the four different paper types we monitored the draw down times for each coffee as well and made some notes on the flavour profile presented by each. We also then cupped the coffees blind to see if we could determine the differences and see if they would match our expectations – and they did. 

Admittedly, there were several variables that we did not measure, we also decided to not measure TDS/EY for these tests as we saw the flaws and did not want to try to present quantitative data when we clearly have flaws in data collection. 

However, we feel like the results give us a good understanding and confirmation of our opinions on these paper filters. We kept the pouring pattern simple with three pours with a slow flow rate making small circular pouring patterns, pouring at 6-7 grams per second. 

Light Roast – T92 

Final Drawdown – 3 min 32s 

The light roast papers are designed by CAFEC with the idea of attempting to minimize acidity of light roasts. The CAFEC team tend to lean towards darker-roasted coffees typically with very fresh roasts, this is because it works well with their osmotic flow brewing style.  

As a roastery with an emphasis on relatively light roast coffee we love acidity in the right places, we do not want to mute this important expression of our coffee. The papers have very shallow creping on both sides, and the paper filters look more alike the Hario filters than the other three papers we have in the lineup.  

In our tests the light roast paper took over a minute longer to draw down. The final cup was unbalanced with a muted acidity and surprisingly it lacked body. It provided an interesting comparison to the other papers and the drip rate, noticably the dripper provided a pretty consistently slow drip rate which didn’t seem to stall too drastically towards the end (as seen in one of the other filter papers). This may be useful as a dripper if you want to have a controlled longer extraction time without the clogging of some of the other filters. 

Dark Roast – T83 

Final Drawdown – 2 min 35s  

These papers have a similar feel to the Medium-Dark filters with what looks like similar pattern of creping, however, these crepes look smaller and larger pores (not measured- just observed by eye.) The inside of the papers is noticably smoother than the medium dark, yet more porous than the light papers. 

The dark roast filter papers were a remarkably interesting comparison, initially they had the fastest flow rate (although we did not measure this – it is just an observation). Towards the end of the brew however, after the third pour the brew seemed to slow down significantly. It would be interesting to see the difference in extraction time had we added more agitation. I expect that the extraction may have ended up being much longer.  

However, in this experiment the cup despite having a not too discernibly different drawdown than the Medium-Dark and Abaca the cup profile was drastically different, it was very sweet, with a much lower clarity and acidity than the two just mentioned. It actually ended up being more similar to the light roast. I think this paper could provide really interesting differences in brews if we played around with recipes. 

Medium-Dark Roast – T90 

Final Drawdown – 2 min 22s 

Admittedly, we went into this experiment with the expectation that we would prefer the Medium Dark filters. We have always found them to be incredibly repeatable with very little clogging. The papers have wide pores that take up a large amount of the surface of the paper, this is noticeable as a comparison from the light and dark roast filters however it does look very similar to the pore pattern on the Abaca papers. The inside seemingly is the complete inverse of the exterior with the ridges extruding into where the coffee bed would be.  

The result was a bright, vibrant, balanced cup with a pleasant acidity, in the blind cuppings we were able to find this almost every time, only confusing it with the Abaca papers. From our experiences of this paper it seems like it would be an excellent use for high agitation recipes with split pouring structures or lots of spins of the bed – which is typically how we brew- this led me to an interesting conclusion which I will explain later. 

I strongly recommend these papers for anyone brewing at home who is trying to “YEET” their extractions and still yield a balanced result. 

Abaca 

Final Drawdown – 2 min 31s 

For a long time the Abaca papers were my go-to without knowing about the impact these were having on agroforestry. It was only since starting Von&Vonnie I realised how great these papers are as an alternative for typical paper filter brewing. Abaca are made from a hybrid of Manila hemp and wood pulp, the project focusses on economic and environmental solutions to traditional wood-based papers. I stopped using these papers after some tests which showed slightly more efficient and consistent extraction with the Medium-Dark paper filters.  

The papers performed very well in this experiment of our typical brewing method with low agitation, the drawdown rate was fairly similar with a similar cup profile, we noticed a slightly sweeter cup with a heavier mouthfeel and perhaps slightly muted acidity. But we believe this is something we could easily modulate with grind size. In blind tasting these coffees we consistently came to the conclusion that these and the Medium-Dark papers were our favourites.  

Conclusion 

The four different paper types provided an interesting range of results that could all be suited for different brewing styles. I think all of them have their use cases, albeit, in our opinion, irrelevant of roast level. We were consistently picking out our favourites in the blind tasting. Whilst we admit, these tests are by no means conclusive and we would have to do a lot more tests with much fewer variables and more quantitative data to arrive at any solid, data based condlusions, we are happy with our results. 

This leads us to our latest decision to stop primarily brewing with medium-dark filters, despite the slightly more efficient extraction we believe the abaca paper filters are incredible with the differences in the cup being near negligible. The focus on economical and sustainable improvements with abaca is something we value heavily and is a very important factor for us.  

Yet, we strongly recommend that you take the opportunity to try all these papers out for yourselves and perhaps compare them to some others from other brands such as Hario, Sibarist or something else to come to your own conclusions.