Melitta coffee filter

What it is

The Melitta coffee filter is a system for brewing coffee by pouring hot water over ground coffee held in a paper filter, which lets the brewed coffee drip through and retains the grounds. Melitta Bentz, a housewife in Dresden, registered her filter as a utility model with the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin on 20 June 1908. In December 1908 she and her husband Hugo founded a company to make it.

How it works

Bentz's first filter was a brass cup with a curved base and inclined holes, lined with a piece of blotting paper. The paper held back the coffee grounds and absorbed some of the bitter oils, giving a clearer, less bitter cup than the boiled coffee common at the time. Today's Melitta filters use specially developed filter paper in a conical shape that fits a matching filter holder, available in different sizes for single cups or jugs.

Why it stands out

The paper filter solved an everyday problem in a simple way and created a whole category of coffee preparation. Filter coffee became the standard method in German households for much of the twentieth century, and the pour-over method popular in today's speciality coffee scene follows the same principle. Melitta Bentz is one of the few women founders of a major German company, and her invention is featured by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office among notable inventions by women.

Where you meet it

Melitta filter papers and holders are sold in supermarkets around the world. The principle appears in drip coffee machines in homes and offices and in the hand-brewing equipment used by baristas in speciality coffee shops.