How To Make Coffee Without A Filter - 3 Brewing Ideas

You're planning on making coffee, but you have no filters ? Or you just don't like filtered coffee ?

I'll help you out in both cases, and give you ideas on how to make coffee without a filter.

And what to expect form such a coffee, since it's going to be different from what you're probably used to.

1. Make Turkish coffee

This is the first idea that came to mind.

It's the coffee I drank every day up until 2018, in college and after graduating, because at the time it was the most convenient way to make coffee.

Some could argue it's one of the tastiest and most flavorful coffee brewing methods.

I won't argue, but I will say that it takes a bit of getting used to.

Now, I don't know what your story is. If you're looking for a way to make coffee because you suddenly have no coffee maker, then this Turkish brewing will give you something very different.

If you just don't want to filter your coffee at all, I'm pretty sure you'll love this method.

Anyhow, you'll need a small coffee pot, usually an ibric is used. I'll add an image here so you know what I mean.

• To that very small coffee pot, you measure out how much water you'd like for a cup of coffee.
• Add the water to the pot, let it start boiling, and take it off the heat.
• Add your ground coffee, and let it bloom. It will settle down and you'll nice a nice foam. You can stop the coffee there, kill the heat, and stir the coffee a bit.
• Let it sit for 3-4 minutes.

But, to be authentic you need to put the pot back on the heat for a second, after the coffee blooms.

It will almost boil over, which means you need to be quick about removing it from the heat.

You need to put the small pot on the heat, and remove it about 3 times, until the foam on top of the coffee has almost disappeared.

Then, let the coffee sit 3-4 minutes.

This is important, because as the coffee sits, the coffee grounds will sink to the bottom of the pot.

Then, once the time is up, you will take the pot and very slowly and carefully tip it over to start pouring into cups.

Go very slow, especially slow once you get to the bottom of the pot.

You'll see some coffee grounds escaping into the cups. A little is okay.

Swinging the coffee pot or being too fast will agitate the grounds, and you;ll end up with too much to drink comfortably.

This is a coffee that has lots of body to it, and it's one of the strongest tasting coffees ever.

If you need to make it for many people, or you have no ibric around the house, you can use a small pot that can fit all the coffee.

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2. French press coffee has a built-in filter

If Turkish coffee isn't really your thing, then you can always get yourself a French press.

It won't filter your coffee through the paper, which means you get all the body and coffee oils you want from your brew.

In my opinion French press is even better than Turkish, since it's a lot like making tea.

Also, this only works if you have medium coffee grounds. Anything small or fine will seep through the metal filter and you'll have sludge.

So, you'll need the French press itself. And you'll do the following:

• Bring water almost at boiling point. We don't need a rolling boil.
• Take water off heat, set aside
• Open French press, add coffee grounds at the bottom
• Add a splash of hot water, let the coffee bloom a few seconds
• Add the rest of the water
• Put the plunger/filter and the top of the French press on
• Let sit for 4 minutes

When you're done, you will need to slowly but surely push the plunger down. This will separate the coffee grounds from your coffee brew, and make sure you get a great cup of coffee.

In a way, this is a lot like making Turkish coffee, only better strained.

3. Use a teabag to steep the coffee grounds

Yet another option to make coffee without a filter is to use a teabag.

This s very simple method for those who wish to make only one cup of coffee, or 2-3 very small cups.

By teabag I men those very large, flappy, empty teabags you can get from any store to place loose leaf tea in.

It will trap the coffee grounds, and the debris like coffee dust.

A good part of the coffee oil will seep though the teabag, as it's a thinner material than paper filters used for coffee.

No matter how much coffee you plan on making, you should no fill up the teabag more than halfway.

This is because you need to allow the ground coffee room to bloom.

This happens once the grounds come into contact with hot water, and they will quickly expand and create a sort of foam.

If you overfill the teabag, the contents will spill out.

So, to make this coffee in each cup or mug, you'll need to:

• Bring water to just below boiling point.
• Fill the teabags with ground coffee and place them in empty cup
• Pour the water into the cup, making sure no coffee grounds come out
• Let sit for 3-4 minutes, then take out

This is very much like making tea, I know. But that's the beauty of it.

You can adapt this to making the coffee in a small pot, adding the teabag there, and them just pouring the brewed coffee into the cups.

 Whichever way you make it, it's bound to be good coffee.

This coffee will taste great, and have a small amount of coffee oils in it. The body will be thinner than Turkish or French press, and more like filtered coffee.

What to expect from coffee made without a filter

Now, let's talk a bit about what to expect from coffee made without a filter.

It's definitely going to taste different from filter coffee, no doubt.

But if a different experience is what you were after, then great.

You'll notice a sandy/dusty feeling on your tongue from these coffees, but less from the teabag method.

For me this was kind of nice, considering how the milk interacted with the coffee. It made everything thicker, in a way.

You'll also need to be careful how much you move your cup of coffee around.

At first, the grounds will be at the bottom of the cup, since you won't need to tip it much to drink.

But as you drink and the cup empties, you;ll need to be aware of the debris at the bottom. One thing I learned was to keep my cup of coffee at an angle, so the drink does not move as much when I drink from it.

You can improvise a coffee filter

Now, if you were looking to make coffee, in any way, but you're out of filters, I can help there too.

I made an entire article on that, and you'll find there each example discussed in detail.

But in short, you can use almost anything cloth-like as a coffee filter.

For example stockings are a good example, and they will also not break once you life the wet coffee grounds from the coffee basket.

Another example is the empty teabag, like I mentioned a few paragraphs ago.

Even an old scarf, as long as it's clean and you're willing to part with it, is going to do the trick.

Ways of making coffee without a filter are plenty, you just need to be a bit creative.

Final thoughts

Coffee with no filter reminds me very much of old school coffee, made by grandmas all over the world.

Most of the time it would be Turkish style coffee, or some derivation of it.

It's one of the most common ways to brew coffee on the spot, and whenever we go camping it's the way we make our coffee.

In a large pot, of course, but it's still the same principle.

I hope you found some useful ideas in this article, and your creativity got sparked. There;s always an answer for everything.

If you want to know more about coffee or tea, feel free to check the related articles below. Who knows what else you might find ?