r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 17d ago

Health Boiled coffee in a pot contains high levels of the worst of cholesterol-elevating substances. Coffee from most coffee machines in workplaces also contains high levels of cholesterol-elevating substances. However, regular paper filter coffee makers filter out most of these substances, finds study.

https://www.uu.se/en/press/press-releases/2025/2025-03-21-cholesterol-elevating-substances-in-coffee-from-machines-at-work
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u/rustyphish 17d ago edited 17d ago

Yeah I’m confused. Who’s making a pot of coffee without a filter?

Edit: folks I know what a French press is, if you’ll notice the title refers explicitly to “workplace coffee machines”. I wasn’t aware in other countries that these machines don’t use paper filters like they do in the us

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u/hyldemarv 17d ago

Sweden, "Kokkaffe", 1 person:

One puts about 10 g of coarsely ground coffee in a pot, add 1.5 dl water*, mix it up and and heat the mixture until it almost boils, take it off the fire and mix it up again, then let the pot stand for about 7 minutes. The coffee grounds should now have settled at the bottom and one can pour most of the coffee into a cup without getting any.

Used to be "the way" before the 1960's. Today, it's more a traditional way to prepare coffee when one is staying in the forest, f.ex..

There is some controversy about whether one should put the coffee into the water when the water is cold, or one should heat the water first. I prefer to add the coffee to the cold water.

*) One brings a measuring spoon that gives 10-12 gram per measure. Camping pots often have dl lines inside.

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u/erevos33 17d ago

Irrelevant question, when did f.ex. become the norm instead of e.g.? I have seen it popping up here and there.

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u/Eragaurd 17d ago

I don't know about norm, but I'm assuming the person above is Swedish, and here we shorten "till exempel" to "t.ex.", which directy translated would be "f.ex". So I'm guessing it's simply a case of direct translation from Swedish to English.

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u/erevos33 17d ago

So still not using eg for that purpose, I see. Ty

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u/Eragaurd 17d ago

Yeah, eg doesn't exist in Swedish.

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u/ActOdd8937 17d ago

On account of it's Latin? :D

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u/VaguelyArtistic 17d ago

Because now a lot of people don't know how to spell out full words, probably have no idea what "eg" means, and are just truncating words they know bc u no, sp is hrd.

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u/RunningNumbers 17d ago

I just remember the uncivilized coffee machine that everyone used at work when I lived in Denmark. Terrible acrid sludge. And they were like “this is fine.”

Barbarians should have stuck to raiding monasteries.

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u/giant3 17d ago

Actually, this method extracts the maximum amount of caffeine and other beneficial compounds. 

We have to prove that this cholesterol from this method is harmful. Otherwise, it is like that scare about cholesterol from eggs.

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u/hyldemarv 17d ago

Yeah, coffee that puts some hair on your chest *and* it wakes you up too :)

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u/RunningNumbers 17d ago

I live within walking distances of like 5 coffee roasters now and don’t have to deal with the 25% VAT or those long winters. I am spoiled now.

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u/Parafault 17d ago

Isnt that the whole point of a French press? The steel filters in those are probably too big to remove any of this stuff.

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u/rustyphish 17d ago

But they’re saying “most workplace machines”, I’d think that wouldn’t account for things like a French press

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u/zxern 17d ago

Probably talking about the giant percolator pots that make 40 cups at a time and store it in the pot.

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u/KingAdamXVII 17d ago edited 17d ago

Those ones have filters, I thought?

Ah, from the article: “Considering how much coffee is consumed in Swedish workplaces, we wanted to get a picture of the content of cholesterol-elevating substances in coffee from these types of machines.”

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u/greiton 17d ago

not the big drum ones, they just have a metal sieve between the boil chamber and the reservoir.

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u/KingAdamXVII 17d ago

Ah, from the article: “Considering how much coffee is consumed in Swedish workplaces, we wanted to get a picture of the content of cholesterol-elevating substances in coffee from these types of machines.”

And elsewhere in this thread someone mentions this is how coffee is often made in Sweden.

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u/impossiblefork 17d ago

Usually Swedes make coffee with a coffee machine with a filter.

The pot method is as far as I understand completely historical. No one uses it other than on like a hike or something.

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u/hfsh 17d ago

No one uses it other than on like a hike or something.

Or, elderly Swedish farmers if my brother-in-law's dad is someone to go by.

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u/BadAtExisting 17d ago

I took that as Kureg and I’m not entirely surprised. The more industrial Bunn ones wouldn’t be surprising either though

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u/VoilaVoilaWashington 17d ago

I own restaurants. The giant Bunn machines are just big pourover machines, but surprisingly, better.

So they still use filters and all that, but they also actually have better temp controls than your home machine, most likely. Some might be crap, but many aren't.

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u/BadAtExisting 17d ago

I guess I meant whatever this is that’s in most office break rooms https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bunn-VP17-1-12-Cup-Commercial-Coffee-Maker-1-Warmer-13300-0001-13300-0001/203079780

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u/curtcolt95 17d ago

those use filters though right?

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u/BadAtExisting 17d ago

Honestly. I don’t know. I said “not surprised”. I don’t work in an office. I brew my own at home with a Mr Coffee. Do those use paper filters? How often are they changed if so? So you tell me

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u/curtcolt95 17d ago

they use paper filters and you put a new one in for every pot, can see in the recommended section below on that page that you can buy 1000 filters for $16

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u/VoilaVoilaWashington 17d ago

Yeah, that's the one. Although normally, in a decent-sized office, you'd buy your coffee from a supplier who would give you a free machine and service it and all that.

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u/walkeritout 17d ago

Those Bunn makers use filters though.

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u/cannycandelabra 17d ago

The keurig doesn’t boil the coffee, though and that’s an important part of this

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u/SharkFart86 17d ago

Keurig pods have a paper filter in them though.

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u/BlueRibbons 17d ago

I feel like boiling the grounds might draw out more oil due to extensive heat and agitation?

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u/domesticbland 17d ago

The beans are oily after being roasted.

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u/EuphoricLettuce 17d ago

French press is fine it is strictly related to boiled coffee (ie cowboy coffee) although espresso does have elevated levels of diterpenes but had a high variance to the samples.

You can view a chart from the study in the article:

https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0939475325000870-ga1_lrg.jpg

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u/badsp0rk 17d ago

Turkish coffee. Greek coffee. I think Cypriot, too? Ethiopia? Many places just boil the ground beans and consume that - it's common in the middle east and around. It leaves a thick residue at the bottom.

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u/pax27 17d ago

The study is Swedish and it's common to boil your coffee in a pot here. Or it used to be, especially in the northern parts of Sweden. It's probably falling out of fashion now that everything needs to be fancy as hell.

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u/TheImplic4tion 17d ago

Or maybe people don't want to drink coffee ground mud?

It's not so fancy, filters are a simple improvement.

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u/MunkSWE94 17d ago

You cityslickers and your fancy not so muddy coffee.

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u/TheFondler 17d ago

Seriously, coffee isn't good if it isn't extra crunchy.

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u/WhiskerTwitch 17d ago

Coffee from my moka pot tastes a helluva lot better than when I used my old filtered coffee maker. And it's not 'muddy', no idea where you got that.

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u/Zoesan 17d ago

Mokka isn't "just boil in a pot" though.

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u/TheImplic4tion 17d ago

Moka pots are better because they recommend you use a coarser grind (not espresso fine) and they have tiny holes that keep most of it out of the brew.

They also make small disposable paper filters you can put on top of the coffee grounds before you screw the top on.

I also have a moka pot and love it. It makes my favorite coffee. I think its the perfect balance between espresso and normal brew.

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u/whilst 17d ago

It's also not boiled. The water is pushed through the grounds by its own expanding steam, when it's below boiling temperature.

Boiling coffee (for instance in a percolator) does make pretty unappealing coffee, as a lot of the flavor boils off (though it makes the room smell amazing).

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u/mdonaberger 17d ago

I'm a lifelong acolyte of the AeroPress. That thing can make Folgers taste like it came out of a barista's hand.

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u/Separate-Spot-8910 17d ago

I just recently got a moka pot and love it. I still mostly use the French press though.

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u/RAPEBERT_CUNTINGTON 17d ago

Coarse grounds steeped in near boiling water settle at the bottom, and the coffee tastes wildly different from normal filtered. Almost floral and sweet, depending on the bean.

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u/TheImplic4tion 17d ago

According to the article, you might be tasting the part that raises your cholesterol.

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u/Sideyr 17d ago

https://www.thespruceeats.com/egg-coffee-2952648

No mud nessesary.

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u/TheImplic4tion 17d ago

That sounds like a bunch of unscientific nonsense claims, and a gross mess to clean up.

I'd much rather use a simple, easy, cheap, and non-messy paper filter.

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u/Sideyr 17d ago

It's...a recipe. The only claim is that it makes what the recipe is for, which in this case is coffee (with grounds that are easy to remove because of the egg).

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u/notice27 17d ago

Like a perkikator?

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u/[deleted] 17d ago edited 17d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/theGurry 17d ago

Have you never opened a K-Cup? They absolutely have paper filters in them.

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u/Atty_for_hire 17d ago

I don’t often use them, but to my recollection they don’t have paper filters. But I could absolutely be wrong.

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u/SharkFart86 17d ago

You are, they do.

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u/granadesnhorseshoes 17d ago

they absolutely have little paper filters built into the cups. I will end up with a box of them from time to time but have no kcup machine so just cut them open and dump them in a regular drip coffee maker.

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u/Jamesaliba 17d ago

We dont boil it, we put the water cold and remove from heat the second it starts to boil. Thus it sees 1 sec of boiling. Compare that to the drip machines continuously drop scorching water on it.

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u/Long-Challenge4927 17d ago

I think that's how coffee was originally made before technical improvements. Still made like this in a lot of places, check middle eastern coffee, turkish coffee etc. Been to Balkans, they boil it in a small pot

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u/PoorlyAttired 17d ago

This applies to coffee made without a paper filter, like the metal grill in a French press. The paper (like in an aeropress or drip filter device) absorbs the cholesterol raising oils that the metal mesh lets through.

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u/PB-n-AJ 17d ago

I was drinking a 32oz French press every day for nearly 10 years. Doctor said cut your cholesterol, I did some research, stumbled on cafestol, paper filters ever since.

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u/honkymotherfucker1 17d ago

Lot of places still use filterless methods. Some folk in the US still make “cowboy coffee” too.

I was in coffee roasting for a few years and I used to the cholesterol stuff being said about coffee from a cafetiere too.

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

[deleted]

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u/rustyphish 17d ago

As their main coffee office “machine”?

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u/Revlis-TK421 17d ago

I think the take away is filtered vs unfiltered coffee, not coffee specifically made in the unfiltered pot-boil method. It's just that pot-boiling is the most common Swedish method of making coffee.

For the rest of the world that means the French presses, the espresso machines, the Turkish, Vietnamese, African etc coffees, etc.

I think it is likely that pot boiling may have the highest level of these chemicals compared to the other non-filtered methods, but more studies would be needed.

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u/greiton 17d ago

a lot of big drum coffee makers are just percolators. you dump in water and grounds, and a pipe boils the coffee into the reservoir.

https://cdn.b2b.bravilor.com/media/product/8.060.120.31002/images/313579/converted/e30c9a3e568a3594cdeb3f1b3b38c2326b37a3c5_PHO_PRO_Percolator_75_SP-HD.png

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u/idbar 17d ago

I don't know. I came here to check what's up with Keurig, since technically those plastic pods don't have a filter.

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u/rustyphish 17d ago

They do, they have a paper filter built into the pod

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u/idbar 17d ago

Good to know. Iay need to destroy one to check. Since ground coffee has spilled more than once into my mug. So I'm not sure if your statement covers only certain brands of pods.

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u/statdatascience 17d ago

Not sure where the paper is. All I see is plastic all around.

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u/Grokent 17d ago

I have a Mr. Coffee with a metal filter. I just rinse it out every day and it's useful because I don't have filters taking up space in my cabinet and I never find ADHD self without coffee filters.

For what it's worth my cholesterol levels are perfectly fine.

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u/Specicried 17d ago

Ok this took me a while to think through, but I cast my mind back to when I was in high school and working part time in an office setting doing general setup for the day before school.

I’d make coffee in a coffee urn percolator machine that was good for about 70 cups. We have one for events at my kid’s school, and it has a little tap on the front to release the brew when it’s done. The coffee goes in a metal basket in the middle and it just sort of sits there until the end of the day or it’s empty, whichever comes first. It makes gross coffee, but it’s pretty standard in small office environments outside of the North America, or was 20 years ago.

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u/aminorityofone 17d ago

Cowboy coffee, Percolator, and metal filters. Even in the US many people will use a metal filter. Some people still swear by percolator coffee, which is just burnt coffee.

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u/JoeSabo 17d ago

Stovetop coffee is the best flavor-wise. You just gently boil it for 2-3 mins and let the grounds settle to the bottom. Then pour or ladle out.

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u/saysjuan 17d ago edited 17d ago

Kuerig and Nespresso machines do not have a filter. Some of the K cups have built in filters but there are many that use no filter or the mesh filter add on to use your own coffee grounds.

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u/InterWined 17d ago

Reusable K-cups (much better environmentally and no plasticky taste) typically have metal mesh filters which don’t strain the oils in question. I read a similar study and started using small single use paper K-cup filters from Amazon inside my reusable K-cups.

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u/rustyphish 17d ago

K cups absolutely have filters in them

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u/florinandrei BS | Physics | Electronics 17d ago

Who’s making a pot of coffee without a filter?

Everyone in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

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u/carnivorousdrew 17d ago

Italian moka. And regular coffee machines. This study sounds like fearmongering bs tbh.

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u/rustyphish 17d ago

Every “regular coffee machine” I’ve ever used has had paper filters, in the US that’s the most common type even in offices