Sibarist Flat Filter Experimentation

I’ve been a fan of Sibarist cone filters since discovering them thanks to James Hoffman’s video on the Hario Switch. I brew a lot of Ethiopian coffees, for which the consensus seems to be that they throw a lot of fines. Anecdotally I’ve found this to be true when using a variety of cone filters as well as Kalita 185s. Sibarist is the only paper I’ve found so far that never seems to choke out while I’m trying to dial in a bean on my DF64 with SSP Cast Lab Sweet burrs. I’ve tried various Hario Filters, Cafec Abaca and Medium filters, and Origrami filters with varying levels of success but generally speaking much less consistency.

Most of the Ethiopian beans I buy seem to express their acid-related flavors with ease, so I’ve been experimenting with Kalita more and more as a means to punch up the sweetness to get a more balanced cup. I’ve had varying success with the Kalita papers, but found I would often choke out the filter while seeking more robust flavors through finer grinding.

I was pleasantly surprised recently to find that Sibarist is now making flat bottom papers, and have had some promising initial results. I find that I can grind much closer to how I would grind for a V60 without choking out the paper at all. In fact even when grinding that fine, they seem to flow better than the Kalita papers ever did even with a courser grind.

Another tangential bonus in my house is that the grinder can generally stay in a range that will work well enough for either flat bottom or cone shaped drippers, so my wife doesn’t have to worry about the grinder being way off if she wants to make a quick batch.

Given their higher flow rate I’m excited to experiment more with grind size and water temperature (lower temps for medium roasts) that I never had success with in the past.

There are some drawbacks. They aren’t cheap for one. Second, they come flat packaged and need to be folded which was finicky the first couple times but has become less so as I continue to use them.

I hope others will start to experiment with these papers as well and share their results here. Cheers!