How You Grind Your Coffee Matters

Although there are many variables involved in making a great cup of coffee, the two most important in my opinion are 1. using fresh roasted coffee beans and 2. grinding your coffee correctly. This post aims at explaining the grinding process, which grind is best for various brews and how you can adjust your grind to make your coffee taste better.

Grind Size
The basic purpose of grinding coffee is to allow more surface area on the bean to be exposed so that the essential oils from the coffee beans can be extracted fully when exposed to water. This is why as a rule I think it’s best to grind coffee as fine as possible, as the finer the grind, the more surface area available for extraction. However, grinding coffee too fine can pose a few problems: 1. sediment can find its way into your cup or 2. your coffee filter or the french press mesh can start to become clogged and not allow liquid to flow through. Thus, although I think finer is better (to a certain degree at least), not all brewing methods can make good coffee using a fine grind, so it’s important to adjust the grind as is necessary based on how you will be brewing your coffee. Coffee grinders should come with an adjustable setting allowing you to grind your coffee 1. fine, 2. medium or 3. coarse.

Fine grind – You should grind your coffee fine if you’re making coffee via the drip brew method and your filter is cone-shaped. You can also use a fine grind if you’re making coffee in a moka pot. Grind it extra fine if you’re grinding your coffee for espresso. If the water is having a hard time flowing through, try grinding a little bigger.

Medium grind – Grind your coffee medium if you have a regular drip brew coffeemaker (regular filter, not cone-shaped). This allows the water to flow through the grounds easily. Using too fine a grind could clog up your filter but a coarse grind will not extract the coffee completely and will leave you with a bitter tasting brew.

Coarse grind – Use a coarse grind if you’re making coffee in a french press (press pot). This will keep the sediment from finding its way through the plunger and will help you extract the essential coffee oils. Since you should be allowing your coffee to steep for at least 4 minutes before plunging, a coarse grind works very well for a french press.

Additional tips
Whatever you do, make sure you grind just seconds before brewing. CO2 is the main transport for getting essential coffee oils into your cup – and 80% of CO2 is released into the air within 60 seconds of grinding your beans! That great aroma you smell when grinding should be in your cup and can be if you start brewing as soon as you’re done grinding.

Also, use a burr grinder instead of a blade (whirley bird) grinder if you can. The blade grinder is inconsistent and smashes the beans to bits (during the grind, the blades create large pieces, medium pieces and powder). This inconsistency negatively affects the ultimate taste of the brew as some of the coffee will be overextracted and some underextracted. We’ll review and compare blade and burr grinders in a future blog post, but just know that the burr grinders create a consistent, even grind which can help you create really great tasting coffee. A blade grinder not only grinds inconsistently, but the heat from the blades can make the coffee end up tasting burnt. Save the blade grinder for grinding spices, not your coffee.

Try experimenting, using the same coffee with two different grinds. Although there may be some general grinding guidelines, there aren’t strict rules when it comes to taste – if it tastes good to you, that’s what you should do! Let me know how it turns out.