Food - Drink
Does The 'Sock Coffee' Brewing Method Actually Involve A Sock?
BY HOPE NGO
When coffee made its way to Europe, it was brewed by pouring grounds into a coffee pot, adding water to bring the mixture close to the boiling point, then pouring the coffee out into cups. The grounds weren't filtered at all, so they often got stuck while pouring, and "sock coffee" was one of the first innovations to remedy this problem.
Sock coffee actually does use the same socks that go on your feet, and some historians posit socks were used as the first coffee filters. The original "sock coffee" trinket may have been Costa Rica's chorreador, a wooden stand that holds a sock whose mouth is kept wide open by a wire; the sock catches the coffee grounds to keep them out of your cup.
Sock filters, including the chorreador, are still used today in Central America and Asia, which interestingly shows that using old socks to make coffee inspired multiple populations at the same time. In fact, most of the coffee beans grown in Southeast Asia are of the Robusta variety, which actually tastes better with the sock method.
