Cafellissimo Paperless Pour Over Review

With the Cafellissimo, you will never need to worry about pesky paper filters again! While it's a more significant investment upfront, you won't have to purchase a separate component that constantly creates paper waste. Yes, you need extra water to clean, but it's a small price to pay for a beautiful dripper that delivers an excellent cup of coffee.

Performance Comparison

The Cafellissimo is one of our all-around favorite brew methods.

Brew Features

This metal perforated cone requires no filters. While you may expect coffee to pour out the sides, it most certainly does not. The Cafellissimo pours at roughly the same speed as some of the other pour-over brewers we tested. As with all pour-over brewing devices, the more attention you pay to the amount of coffee, grind size, amount of water, and how you pour, the better final cup you will receive.

The Cafellissimo delivers great taste with no filter.

Taste

In side-by-side tests, we had a hard time telling the difference between this brewer and some of the more highly rated pour-over brewing methods. The Cafelissimo delivers a consistently clean and luscious cup of coffee, far better than some of the other cone-shaped pour-over options in our review.

This stainless steel cone is easy to use and produces a delightful cup every time - especially if you follow a proper recipe.

Ease of Use

While the Cafellissimo requires no buying or packing of filters, it will take some extra time, care, and water to clean after each use. If you don't want to thoroughly clean this brewer after each use, you don't have to — bang the cone at the edge of a trash can and carry on. Don't make this a habit, though, as doing so will result in your cone becoming clogged with oils. Clean it regularly and properly to ensure you can continue to brew up a great cup.

Filterless options like the Cafelissimo require cleaning after each use. How much time and water is dependent on your personal cleanliness standards, though if you let too many coffee oils build up it will impede how well your dripper works.

Group Cooking

This is a decent option for group cooking scenarios. Load it to the brim with grounds, and you can make coffee for four people. This is not, however, the recommended way to brew and flavor will suffer as a result.

This isn't a great option for large groups, but if it's all you have you can make it work. Either load it up with more grounds or, more ideal, brew smaller amounts back to back. Clean up is easy and brew time should only take about 3 minutes per cup.

Portability

The Cafelissimo does not score as highly as many of the other brewers for portability. This is because it is a non-collapsible cone, and is rather bulky compared to many of the other brewers in our review. Further, while it is stainless-steel, it is somewhat delicate. If you are committed to carrying a non-plastic pour-over cone into the backcountry, then be careful with how you pack this filter into your backpack to avoid denting or crushing it.

Weight

At 3.3 ounces, the Cafelissimo is only slightly heavier than some of the ultralight options in our review. There are lighter options available, but be prepared to brew with plastic.

Light and easy to use, this filter is a joy to use.

Value

When comparing the prices of cone drippers, this one is definitely pricey. However, a couple of factors justify the price point: it's high-quality stainless steel instead of plastic, AND you will never need to buy filters. When you consider these things, then the initial sticker-shock might start to make more sense.

Conclusion

If you're looking for something light, easy to use, and with practically zero-waste, then the Cafellissimo is a stellar option. This device earned fairly high marks in our taste tests, making it a solid investment that will serve you well for the long haul.

No paper waste and easy to clean. This is a great filter.