5 Ways To Make Coffee Without a Filter (or Even a Brewer!)

If you’ve ever found yourself without a coffee filter, or even a coffee brewer, you might be asking yourself, ‘how do you make coffee without a filter?’ Well, we’ve got five ways you can!

 5 Ways to Make Coffee Without a Filter (or Even a Brewer!)

Cold Brew Coffee

Cold brew is a great choice if you don’t have a coffee machine or if you’re out of filters but you still want a damn good cup of coffee. And it’s really easy to do with just a jar and a jug and a towel.

  1. Measure and add ground coffee to a jar.

  2. Add water in a 1:6 ratio, which will give you a strong cold brew concentrate.

  3. Stir mixture with a spoon then seal the jar.

  4. Put it in the refrigerator and leave it for around eight hours.

  5. Find a jug for your cold brew and place a double layer of cheesecloth or towelling in the top of the jug.

  6. Pour your coffee into the jug. The cloth will serve as a filter to separate the grounds from the cold brew.

  7. To serve: Pop a few ice cubes into a glass, pour over your cold brew and top up with milk or water. Try a 1:1 to ratio of concentrate to milk/water. And if that’s too strong, you can always pare it back to a 1:2.

Coffee Suggestion: Brazilian Oberon

Turkish Coffee

Turkish coffee is made on the stovetop without a filter. And to make it, all you need is a stovetop (or heating element), a pot, finely ground coffee and water.

  1. Measure out 8 grams of finely ground coffee into the pot for each cup.

  2. If you want to add sugar, you can add 1 tsp per cup now.

  3. Add 60 millilitres of water per cup of coffee you want to brew.

  4. Stir the mixture with a spoon and place on your stovetop over low heat.

  5. When foam begins to form on the surface, skim it and discard.

  6. Once the coffee begins to boil, take it off the heat and let it sit for two minutes for the coffee particles to settle.

  7. Carefully and slowly pour the coffee into your cup.

  8. Wait another two minutes for the coffee particles that have been stirred up to sink to the bottom.

  9. Don’t stir the coffee. Just enjoy as is.

Coffee Suggestion: Resuscitator Blend

Full Immersion Method

The full immersion method is an awesome way to make great coffee when you’ve got no coffee maker at all. And for this one all you need is some hot water and a cheese cloth or kitchen cloth.

  1. Heat some water to boiling in a pot on the stove or in your electric kettle.

  2. Once it boils take it off the heat, and let it sit for two minutes.

  3. Add 8 grams of medium to coarsely ground coffee to a jug or jar.

  4. Add 200ml of heated water to the grounds.

  5. Stir and let it sit for four minutes.

  6. Put a kitchen towel or a double layer of cheesecloth over the top of your coffee cup and slowly pour the mixture of coffee and water in. The cloth will filter the grounds leaving you with a beautiful cup of coffee.

  7. Enjoy

Coffee Suggestion: BANTAT Blend

Faux-French Press

If you really love French Press coffee but don’t have the brewer, it’s easy to copy the style with just a mug, bowl and spoon. 

  1. Place 16 grams of medium-ground coffee per cup into a deep bowl.

  2. Boil water in a pot or in an electric kettle. Once the water is boiled, let it sit for two minutes.

  3. Pour a little boiling water over the grounds to saturate them. Then add the grounds to the bowl.

  4. Stir the grounds and then let them sit for two minutes to begin to settle.

  5. Using a spoon, slowly press the coffee grounds to the bottom of the bowl.

  6. Hold the grounds in place with the spoon and slowly pour the extracted coffee into your cup or mug.

  7. Enjoy!

Coffee Suggestion: Columbian Popayan Reserve

Kitchen Paper in Your Electric Machine

If you have an electric drip coffee machine, but you’ve run out of filters, you might wonder how do you make coffee without a filter? Well, luckily it’s quite a simple process to just replace the filter with regular old kitchen paper. Our clients often ask us if this will ruin the machine, but we’ve used this method many times in many different machines with no negative results.

  1. Fold the kitchen paper in half to form a triangle and then roughly manoeuvre it into a shape that fits your filter. You want to use three layers to ensure the grounds don’t fall through the paper.

  2. Gently pre-wet the paper triangle with hot water to remove any waxy starch that might be present.

  3. Place the improvised filter into your machine.

  4. Brew coffee as per usual.

  5. Enjoy.

Coffee Suggestion: Check Up Authentic Blend

You don’t need fancy equipment to make fantastic coffee. Grab some beautiful beans from our shop and get started!

Luke Bantatua