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Ceramic VS. Plastic. A dripper debate

Ok guys, heres the deal.

I did some googling, and a bit of searching here (I really don't get the search function on this site...)

and I feel like this is an issue that has recieved little attention!

Right now I have a plastic #2 melitta dripper that I conveniently found in my house exactly when I started getting in to coffee. Since then I've gotten a pourover kettle, a few cheap burr grinders (one hand crank and two electric) a vintage chemex and a few other miscellaneous coffee items in my thrifting/fleamarketing.

The only thing I haven't "upgraded" is the melitta dripper. I'll probably end up getting a variety of drippers in the future anyway, but while pricing drippers, and thinking which one I'd like to "upgrade" to first, I had a serious thought.

Besides the obvious pro's and con's of plastic vs ceramic, is there any real difference in your cup when using a plastic dripper vs. a ceramic one?

Obvious pros and cons (IMO)

Ceramic:
Better heat retention
More aesthetically pleasing
More fragile
-But provided you don't drop it, it shouldn't crack or warp from long time exposure to the heat of brewing
more costly

Plastic:
Way cheaper
less aesthetically pleasing/feels light and cheap in your hands
little to no heat retention
could crack or warp from extended use

Considering I don't have a ceramic dripper to compare to, these are what I consider the glaring differences between the two

But, as you can see, outside of cost and looks, the only factor that I can see that has any effect on your cup, is the heat retention, which, if your water is hot enough, shouldn't be that big of a deal in the brew, no? (might effect the temp of your cup though.)

So, if this is the case, whats to stop anyone, outside of aesthetics, from buying plastic drippers when they can to save money.

I was hoping someone could chime in, to make sense of why ceramic is really any better then plastic.

Thanks fellow coffee enthusiasts!
 
About the only real difference is that the ceramic ones can be heated when you rinse your filter. This helps them stay warm so that your brew temp does not fluctuate greatly. You want to always warm a ceramic dripper otherwise they will suck the heat out of your first pour which will change the flavor of the coffee you are making.

I use both plastic and ceramic drippers with good results. So if you understand what you are doing the material the filter holder is made out of does not really come into play as far as the end taste of your brew.

I do taste a difference in the coffee made with the different shapes of drippers (conical, flat/modified conical, and flat bottom drippers/filters) but not between plastic and ceramic drippers that use the same filter like the plastic version of the Melitta and a ceramic Bee House.
 
I think your evaluation is about right. That your selection of coffee beans, how they are ground, brewing temperature, and brewing time are the primary factors in determining whether you have a good cup of coffee or not. With all these being equal, then using a ceramic versus plastic dripper will not be measurable IMO.

Regarding heat retention, the counter point is that plastic is not such a good thermal conductor, so more heat will stay in the coffee slurry while steeping. I usually pour 1/2 - 3/4 cup of hot water through my pour-over to rinse the filter and pre-heat the dripper and cup, but I do not think that is enough to bring a ceramic dripper up to proper temperature. I think this is a point of individual variability and will depend on how well things are preheated and the overall mass of the ceramic.

I have a plastic, glass, and ceramic dripper that I enjoy using. The one I use at any given point is dependent on my mood and how much coffee is being made. I do agree that aesthetics sums up in one word most people's preference for ceramic (or glass) over plastic. Overall I think the preference is based on a combination of:

  • Using traditional materials - plastic being mass produced for less than a century.
  • Cleanliness - not that plastic is dirty, but that ceramic/glass is smoother and easier to clean.
  • Appearance - much the same point as the one about cleanliness, but a thick ceramic/glass dripper can still look brand new after hundreds of usages. Where the plastic one is scratched up due to the softer material.
  • Health scare - the more paranoid always avoid plastic, the more tolerant still may want to minimize contact especially with ingestion. Personally I have tried to educate myself on the impact of plastic and have not seen reasons to worry much, but I still steer towards moderation at some level just because there are so many different polymers and manufacturers with unknown sources. (Going off topic but to highlight a scare of what I am referring to, check out this article on cash register receipts - Skin Absorbs Toxic Cash-Register-Receipt Chemical, Study Finds)
 
Anybody try one of these?

Cafe de Tiamo V02 Stainless Steel Coffee Dripper

Stainless sounds like a good idea, but look at the size of the exit hole:

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I dunno....

-jim
 
Anybody try one of these?

Cafe de Tiamo V02 Stainless Steel Coffee Dripper

Stainless sounds like a good idea, but look at the size of the exit hole:


I dunno....

-jim

I have a stainless Kalita wave dripper. No issues using stainless that I have found.

The size of the hole in the Cafe de Tiamo is consistent with that of the cone brewers I have, Bodum, Hario, and Chemex all of which have rather large holes for the cone to pass through.
 
That Cafe de Tiamo V02 Stainless Steel Coffee Dripper looks like a desirable piece of gear. And similar to a Hario glass dripper. The larger exit hole on the Hario works pretty well but does requires a little more care when selecting grind size and performing the pour to get the flow rate correct. I notice that the tip of the Hario filter gets clogged up with coffee fines, to the extent that I believe that in later stages of the pour the very tip is mostly blocked, making the exit flow more doughnut shaped. I am speculating a little, but I believe that is the reason for the larger hole.
 
Thanks for the replies guys!

Even though I've just proven that plastic is cheaper and works exactly the same, for whatever reason I'm eying up glass drippers (Wave/v60) they just look so much cooler.

Aesthetics :blushing:
 
^ That it does Mick, that it does...

but its good to know being cheap works in the wild world of coffee drippers too!
 
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