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Manual drip coffee filter cone that works wonders

The manual drip coffee filter cone which has been made famous primarily through Melitta, is in all truth the most basic and most simple way in which to make filter coffee.

In an age of espresso coffee makers that use single serve cartridges to make one cup of coffee in less than one minute, the manual drip coffee filter cone harks back to the days when coffee brewing was a process that took time and patience.

Even the more modern French press method of making coffee is faster than using a manual drip coffee filter cone.

The porcelain version of the Melitta drip coffee filter cone was originally sold with a tall and elegant white porcelain coffee pot.

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The top rim of the coffee pot and lower seat of the drip coffee filter cone were designed to fit neatly into each other making a unit.

Normally you would place a paper filter of the appropriate size into the porcelain cone and fill the cone with coffee grounds.

The idea is then to manually pour the hot water over the grounds until sufficient water has percolated through the coffee grounds to fill the coffee pot below. Of course, nowadays one does not necessary require a matching coffee pot; it is an advantage but not a necessity. Far more important is the need for time.

The process of percolation cannot be rushed. Here one would normally switch any one of the many electric coffee makers on the market and leave the appliance to make the coffee unaided, so to speak; now the coffee lover becomes an integral part of the process of making the coffee through the use of the manual drip coffee filter cone.

If the water is added to quickly, the cone will overflow and the result is a mess. The pace of adding water need not be as slow as when one uses a French drip coffee pot which is traditional to the southern parts of the state of Louisiana.

There the water is preferably added by the tablespoon in order to obtain the typical French coffee pot brew. The hot water can be added from a kettle at a suitable pace to ensure the steady infusion of the coffee grounds by the water.

Once one is done, it is important to be sure to clean the manual drip coffee filter cone with the same degree of diligence with which on would normally display cleaning coffee makers.

The same rules apply; any residues from previous brews could well end up tainting subsequent brews. However, the porcelain nature of the cone means that the cleaning process is a relatively easy one.