This Is How A Turn-Of-The-Century German Housewife Changed Coffee Forever

Melitta Coffee is celebrating Sept. 29 — aka National Coffee Day — by remembering their founder, Melitta Bentz. Donna Gray, director of public relations for Melitta North America, feels that National Coffee Day is the perfect day to honor the German homemaker, as she did invent a landmark coffee system that is still used today.

"National Coffee Day is the perfect time for us to reflect at how far we've come since Melitta Bentz invented an entirely new way of brewing coffee," Gray said in a press release.

In 1908 Bentz constructed the cone filtration system by punching holes in the bottom of a brass cup, fitting a piece of her son's blotting paper over the holes, and placing fresh ground coffee on the paper as she filled the cup with boiling water. Her resulting cup of java was sediment free (a real improvement for the time).

"Melitta has led the way in coffee innovation for over 100 years. As we release the latest version of her invention, the Signature Series Pour-Over, we're incredibly proud of how we've been able to continue that spirit of innovation and perfect the hand-crafted coffee experience."

Although Melitta's method is pretty cool, there are 23 other ways the world drinks coffee.