It has happened to all of us: you wake up, ready for a hot cup of morning coffee before you take on the day, only to find that you’re out of paper filters! We don’t mean to be dramatic, but when you run out of coffee filters, it is just about the worst thing we can imagine.
Don’t worry! We’ve got you covered. We’re going to discuss 20 things you can use as coffee filter alternatives and some brewed coffee to consider that don’t require filters. Some are more appealing than others – one of them is a sock! – but all of them will work in a pinch. Let’s get started.
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What to Use if You Have No Coffee Filters?
Below are some common household objects you can use in place of coffee filters. Some of these could replace paper coffee filters in your home permanently, but most are just meant to be used when you’re desperate for some caffeine and can’t get to a coffee shop.
1. Paper Towel, Napkins or Toilet Paper
You can use paper products you have in the kitchen or stored away in place of that disposable filter. These are a great substitute for coffee filters when there are none in the house. This filtering method is easiest if you have a pour-over cone or cooking strainer to line with a paper towel, napkins, or even toilet paper.
Paper products can give your coffee a papery taste, so be prepared to flavor with milk or sugar.
2. Cheesecloth
If you have cheesecloth in your kitchen for cooking or baking, this is another great solution for you! As long as it’s clean, cheesecloth folded over itself three or four times should be a fine enough filter to keep coffee grounds out of your mug.
3. Handkerchief
A handkerchief may not be as ideal as a cheesecloth because it isn’t meant for filtering, but it still gets the job done. We’d recommend doubling up the handkerchief for slower filtering and a longer extraction time.
4. A Sock
The fabric of a cotton sock can surprisingly be used to make a great cup of coffee, so if you can get over how strange it might seem to filter your coffee through something you wear on your feet, this will get you properly caffeinated in no time at all.
It should go without saying that we recommend a new sock that hasn’t been worn yet. Even socks that have been cleaned can have traces of laundry detergent on them that will create off-flavors. You may even opt to buy a coffee sock made specifically to brew coffee – yes, these are real!
5. Old T-Shirt
Don’t like the idea of coffee brewing with your footwear? How about using an old t-shirt instead? The fabric will work similarly, and people in your family may be less likely to judge you.
6. Reusable Tea Bags
If you’re a tea drinker, you may have reusable tea bags lying around for your tea. A tea bag can be used as a coffee filter substitutes and usually work just as well to make a great cup of coffee.
7. Metal/Wire Mesh Filter
You may have a reusable coffee filter substitute in your kitchen without even realizing it! There are numerous kitchen tools and strainers that have a metal or wire mesh on them. If they’re large enough to hold a serving of coffee grounds and fine enough to keep your grounds out of your cup, you’re in business!
8. Reusable Cloth Filter
Remember that time you wanted to be more environmentally conscious, so you bought reusable cloth filters to make coffee? And then you forgot about them because they had to be cleaned each time? We do!
Well, in a pinch, a reusable cloth coffee filter can be your best friend. You can stand cleaning them once or twice until you go to the store, right?
9. Used Paper Filter
Maybe you don’t have usable cloth lying around the house, but you may have a used paper filter, especially if you’re going for the second cup of coffee for the day. You can rinse paper filters and reuse them for another batch of coffee.
However, no matter how desperate you are for some java, never take a used filter out of the garbage for reuse. We’d also only recommend this option if you used the filter for the first time the same morning.
10. Clean Dish Towel
Dish towels can be another surprisingly effective option to use as a coffee filter, and everyone has a dishtowel lying around. Line a sieve with a clean towel, place your grounds inside, and pour hot or boiling water over the grounds.
This will stain your towel, so use one you don’t mind ruining or one that is darkly colored. We should warn you that dish towels can impart some off-flavors into your coffee, even if they’re fresh out of the laundry.
11. Reusable Coffee Filter and Fine Mesh Sieves
When we ran out of paper coffee filters, we first turned to the reusable ones made of a fine metal mesh that we had forgotten about. Metal filters or sieves will capture fewer oils in your coffee and can lead to a “mucky” cup of coffee.
You may also find some fine grounds at the bottom of your mug, and your coffee can taste stronger and a bit more acidic than normal. However, as the saying goes, sub-optimal coffee is better than no coffee.
12. Fine Cloth or Butter Muslin
Butter muslin is similar to cheesecloth but usually a bit finer. It’s a reusable cloth that can be washed and sterilized in boiling hot water, and it can make a great coffee filter. Other fine cloths used for cooking or baking can work just as effectively.
13. Cupcake Paper Cups
Lastly, you can use cupcake tray liners as coffee filters. These paper cups are significantly finer than coffee filters to stop the batter from dripping through, so you’ll find that they take a long time and produce extremely robust and usually over-extracted, bitter coffee.
This is the least desirable of the coffee filter substitutes, in our opinion, but if you do decide to use them, make sure you use ones that don’t have metallic coverings on them.
Brewing Methods as a Coffee Filter Substitute
If you’re not keen on using the coffee filter substitutes we’ve mentioned above, the below brewing methods can be used instead. These will require learning a new brewing process, but none of these methods use filters.
14. Moka Pot
A Moka pot is similar to a percolator but doesn’t recirculate water over coffee grounds continuously. Your stove heats water that converts to steam and is forced through a puck of finely ground coffee. This method is speedy and makes a bold coffee similar to espresso.
15. Cowboy Coffee
Cowboy coffee is often made by campers and requires nothing but a kettle or boiling pot. Bring water to a boil, let it drop to about 210 degrees (F), add your coffee, and stir. After a few minutes, the coffee grounds will have brewed and settled at the bottom of the kettle. Carefully pour out just the coffee water to avoid getting grounds in your mug.
16. Mud Coffee
Mud coffee is similar to Cowboy coffee, but it’s made in a cup and doesn’t involve pouring. The goal is to have the grounds settle to the bottom of your cup so that you can carefully drink the coffee above it.
17. Instant Coffee
You’re probably familiar with instant coffee, which gets mixed directly into hot water and requires no filtering at all. It’s made from robusta coffee beans, which produce less smooth and more bitter coffee, but it’s a great filter-free option for emergencies.
18. Kopi Tubruk Method
Kopi Tubruk is an Indonesian-style coffee that is made identically to mud coffee. However, sugar is added during the water boiling process to combat some of the bitterness from over-extraction.
19. French Press or Stovetop
French press carafes come with a metal mesh plunger that pushes grounds out of your coffee, so you’ll have a built-in filter ready at all times. A percolator uses a mesh basket to suspend the grounds over your water and won’t ever require disposable filters.
20. Cezve
A cezve or ibrik is a stovetop pot made specifically for brewing Turkish coffee. The fine coffee grounds are added to boiling water and left to settle. The liquid coffee is then poured off the top into a coffee cup without disturbing the bed of grounds.
How to Make a Filter (DIY Coffee Filter)
The most common homemade coffee filter we see around the house is made with a paper towel, so we’ll describe how to use paper towels to solve your coffee emergency.
Begin with a square of paper towel that is as long as the roll is wide. Fold one corner over to its opposite corner and crease the fold. Bring the other two corners together as well and crease the fold.
At this point, you can cut a semicircle at the top of the paper towel to mimic the shape of a disposable coffee filter if desired.
Separate one of the sheets from the top of your filter so that it opens up into a cone shape. Place this cone in your drip basket, add your grounds, and get to brewing!
What’s the Best Coffee Filter Alternative?
The best substitutes for coffee filters above are the options that you’re most comfortable using! A coffee connoisseur may not be keen on using a sock to brew their favorite coffee, while another coffee drinker may shy away from paper towels because of the papery taste they can give to coffee.
Find the filter that works best for you, and you’ll never have to stress too much about boosting your energy levels if you run out of coffee filters again.
