By using the proper grind size (and freshly grinding, of course), you can get the most out of your drip coffee maker. For machines with cone-shaped filters, this usually means starting with a medium-fine grind. For flat-bottomed filters, you might want to start with medium.
Grind | Particle size in millimeters | Best for |
---|---|---|
Extra-coarse | 1.5 | Cold brew |
Coarse | 1 | French press, percolators |
Medium | 0.75 | Pour-over, Chemex, drip coffee maker |
Medium fine | 0.5 | Moka pot (stovetop espresso), Aeropress, siphon brewer, pour-over cone |
The perfect cup of coffee is heavily reliant on what grind size you use for your drip coffee. The three main grind sizes for any coffee include fine grind, medium grind, and coarse grind. All three of these sizes can make a delicious cup of coffee. But to make the best cup of drip coffee, use fine to medium coffee grounds.
Espresso pushes water through beans quickly, so you’ll want fine grounds in order to produce a strong shot. What’s the perfect drip coffee grind size? Drip coffee makers typically work best with a medium grind size, similar to smooth sand.
When you grind them a little, they are chunky and known as coarse ground coffee. Grind them even more and you get fine powdery ground coffee. Fine ground coffee has heavy extraction, allowing for the strong flavor to come out in your brew.
The coffee grind chart below will help you brew coffee depending on the method you choose. Aeropress is a great way of quickly making a quality cup of coffee. It’s also pretty forgiving when it comes to grind size, provided that you pay attention to brew time. With an Aeropress, you should start out with a medium grind.
For pour over coffee, the best grind to use is a medium-coarse grind. A medium-coarse grind will be similar in size to a French press grind but less chunky and will feel slightly smoother. If you are using a cone-shaped pour over, then use a medium-fine coffee grind instead.
Medium grind is the most common grind size for pre-ground beans, with a texture like smoother sand. This grind is great for drip coffee makers and siphon brewers. It will also work in an AeroPress if you let it brew for over three minutes.
Coarse: A coarse grind is slightly finer than extra coarse and has a consistency resembling kosher salt. The grounds still appear quite chunky and are used for French press, percolators and coffee cupping brewing methods.
The best ground beans size for espresso is 0.88 mm or 1.32 of an inch; this is a fine grind. While the precise size can fluctuate slightly with different coffee beans and even different espresso machines, it's essential to keep practicing until you get the grind size right.
Why Does Coffee Grind Size Matter? No matter your brew method, coffee-making involves extracting flavor (and caffeine) from coffee grounds. The finer you grind your coffee beans, the more you increase the exposed surface area of the grounds, resulting in faster extraction.
In general, if you brew coffee that is ground too coarse, the coffee can be under-extracted (weak), and less flavorful. If your coffee is ground too fine, however, the coffee can be over-extracted and bitter. Small changes in grind size can drastically affect the taste of your final brew.
fineEspresso is ground slightly coarser, but still very finely. Again, we need those fine particles because of the super-short brew time. They're also very important for providing resistance to the water.
Make sure you have a hold on the top of the unit and give it a shake during bursts so that the grounds get well mixed while grinding. This will make the grind much smoother and consistent. For a coarse grind, 8-10 seconds, a few seconds at a time should do nicely.
Simply put, the size of the grind determines how long the coffee will take to extract. A finer grind creates more surface area for the water to run through. It can create a stronger flavor, but this is mainly determined by the extraction time and, not the grind itself.
Getting your grind correct is key to making the best crema. Ideally, you'll want to have your grind fine enough that when tamped (remember 30 lbs. pressure), you'll deliver roughly a 25-second shot.
The most common reason that your espresso drink has no crema is that you're using the wrong coffee grind size to pack your espresso filter. The perfect coffee grind size for espresso is much finer than drip coffee or the pre-ground coffee you'd buy for a standard coffee maker.
If you use a grind that is too coarse, the water will quickly pass through the grounds, leading to watery, sour coffee. With too fine of a grind, the water will sit in the grounds for too long, leading to over extracted coffee.
No matter the grind size that you’re aiming for, you’ll get better results if you use a burr grinder. Unlike blade grinders, which create particles of various sizes, burr grinders ensure that you get a consistent size. For more information read my post comparing a burr grinder vs a blade grinder
Turkish coffee is all about extracting as much aroma and flavor as possible. To do this, you’ll need an extra fine grind, with the consistency of flour. Just make sure you are using Arabica beans. If you use Robusta beans, the coffee may be over extracted and far too caffeinated.
With an espresso, you’re trying to build up as much pressure as possible. This helps extract flavor in caffeine in a short period. To do this, you’ll need a fine grind.
A fine grind should feel something like table salt. If you look closely, you can see the individual grains, but you may have to strain your eyes a bit. Although it’s common, you shouldn’t use a fine grind with every method. It works best with espresso and moka pots, and you can also throw it into your Aeropress.
If it’s a flat bottom, stick to a medium grind to avoid over extraction. With cone shaped drip pots, you can still use a medium grind, although you might want to move to a medium fine grind. For a comparison between Drip Coffee and French Press Coffee check out my post.
Moka Pot – Fine Grind. Although moka pots are not a true substitute for an espresso machine, they do use a similar grind size. In most cases, you should stick to a fine grind when using a moka pot, as this will help increase pressure and extract more flavor and caffeine.
Coffee beans are graded according to a visual, aromatic or taste characteristics. The visual tests determine: screen size, defects. Grading is performed after the processing of the cherry. Once the processing is complete to the producers standard the coffee is then removed from parchment – for wet coffees or the husks are removed – for other coffees. The lose during that process, and the number of defects determines the next part of the grade.
Grading in Ethiopia is does not stick to the above, they grade the wet processed coffees as grade 1 and 2, and the naturals as grade 3 and 4. Grade 1 coffees from Ethiopia are rare and normally are the only grade that is traceable.
The size a bean is determined by its size. The largest size of a crop is is named differently each each country if Kenya the largest coffee is an “AAA”, other countries it is a “AA”. When the beans are extracted from the pulp they are graded according to their size. This is normally done at the mill, but can be done at the pre-assessment stage too.
Once ground, more of the beans’ surface area is exposed to oxygen, causing the grounds to lose flavor. Ground coffee keeps only a few days, so it’s best to buy it in very small amounts.
Once ground, more of the beans’ surface area is exposed to oxygen, causing the grounds to lose flavor.
That’s why coffee for espresso machines is ground fine, since the water from an espresso maker passes very quickly at high pressure through the grounds. Cold brew, on the other hand, ...
To start, match your brewing type to the typical grind on this chart. If your coffee tastes watery and acidic, you may be grinding your beans too coarsely. Try a finer grind, and see if that fixes the issue.
Medium-Fine Grind – If you prefer the pour-over coffee then this grind size is perfect for it. These are best suited for cone-shaped brewers and the Aeropress.
When the grinds turn out to be too coarser, it leads to salty, acidic and sour tasting coffee. Whereas when the grinds are too finer they lead to bitter, dark and dull cups of coffee.
You need to find the right grind size for different coffee makers. Some of the most popular grind sizes are: Extra Coarse Grind – The extra coarse grind is best suited for cold brewing and cowboy coffee. Coarse Grind – Whenever using French press, percolators or plungers, the coarser grind should be used.
The grind can be divided into coarser and finer grinds. These affect how much water can come in contact with the surface area of the beans as well as affect the brewing time and how good you will be able to extract the flavors.
A coarser grind has more loose particles which means water will move through the beans quickly. This leads to less water coming in contact with the surface area of beans. Although this results in less brew time but the efficiency of extraction is reduced due to it.
The taste of a coffee can go bad due to incorrect grind sizes or not having the same grind consistency.
A finer grind has particles more tightly packed which leads to water moving slowly through them. Due to this more surface area comes in contact with the water. This allows for a better extraction from the coffee beans.
When you grind them a little, they are chunky and known as coarse ground coffee. Grind them even more and you get fine powdery ground coffee. Fine ground coffee has heavy extraction, allowing for the strong flavor to come out in your brew.
Fine ground coffee has heavy extraction, allowing for the strong flavor to come out in your brew. Coarse ground coffee has less extraction and has less intense flavor by comparison (the exception is when the immersion method is used).
When coffee tastes sour or bitter, poor extraction is to blame. Under extraction creates a sour, acidic taste. On the other end, over-extraction can leave the flavor overpowering or even bitter.
If your coarse ground coffee is too sour, try to increase your overall brewing time and reduce the water temperature. This can help let the coffee work out all the bigger clumps of flavor and settle in better. If your fine ground coffee is too bitter, go in the opposite direction.
This keeps it from getting too flat. The usual range of water temperature for brewing is from 195 to 205° (91 to 96°C), so there is a bit of wiggle room to adjust the temperature.
The blade grinder is inconsistent and can leave you with a mix of coarse and fine grounds. The blade grinder can also increase the temperature of the ground coffee beans through friction. Both of these issues make it difficult for you to achieve a consistent flavor.
Coffee is a delicate balance of many variables. There is always talk about the type of beans and the type of brews, but today we are going to see if coffee grind size matters and explore fine ground coffee versus course ground coffee. The size of your grounds can make or break your coffee.
There are seven major sizes of coffee grinds. Keep reading to find out what they are, what they look like, and what types of brewers they are best suited to.
Finely ground beans have a very smooth texture, approaching powder. This type of grind is also easy to find in pre-ground bags and is often labeled as espresso grind.
Coarse beans have a texture similar to Kosher or sea salt, with large, even chunks. This grind is best for coffee cupping, French press, and percolators. SEE ALSO: The Best Coffee You Can Buy Coarsely Ground. 3. Medium-Coarse Grind.
Another reason to grind coffee beans at home is that different types of coffee brewers require varying coffee grind sizes. We’ll get into the specifics a little later, but keep in mind that some brewing methods require very specific grinds that may be more difficult to buy at the store or may not come in your favorite variety of coffee beans. If you grind your beans at home, you can easily adapt the grind size of any beans from espresso to French press and back again.
1. Extra Coarse Grind. Extra coarse beans are only slightly ground, often using the largest setting on a burr grinder. They have a very rough texture, and you can still see the shape of the original beans. This grind is best suited to cold brew and cowboy-style coffee (coffee boiled in a pan with grounds). 2.
This means making sure they’ve been roasted and ground as recently as possible. As they come into contact with oxygen, coffee beans begin to lose flavor and become stale.
When you brew with a metal filter, like a French press , percolator, or espresso machine, grinding too finely can cause grounds to move through the filter’s perforations and make your brewed coffee salty, cloudy, and overly textured.
Because of this, an extra coarse grind requires an extra long brewing time, so that the water can absorb all of the flavors. Cold brew is best for this grind size. It’s able to absorb all of the flavors of your favorite roast, since its brew time is around 12 hours. Since the grind is coarse, the filter is able to catch the grounds and keep your cup coffee-mud free.
If your grind is too coarse, you face under-extraction and a faster brew time, as the water quickly slips through the coarse grounds. This can lead to sour, acidic and salty coffee. As you can see, the coffee grind size is very important to get right. To avoid both under and over-extraction, keep reading to find out the perfect grind sizes ...
Medium ground coffee beans are in-between finely ground and coarsely ground coffee. This coffee is used when the water and coffee interact over a medium amount of time. You can use a medium ground coffee with a standard coffee maker or even in pour-over coffee.
But yet one of the easiest and most overlooked ways to elevate your average cup of joe is to pick the right grind size.
Under-extraction happens when the coffee beans are too coarse. This means there is less of a surface area for the water to pass through. In that case, there will be a weak, watery flavor since the water can’t extract as much flavor as it should.
Over-extraction happens when the coffee beans are too finely ground. This is because the finely ground coffee beans have a large surface area for the water to pass through. In that case, the water will pick up too much flavor.
This coffee is best used in a high-pressure coffee maker or an espresso machine. If the coffee beans are ground too finely for your coffee maker or filter, the coffee will be salty and cloudy.
That is why finer ground coffee can be more robust than coarse grinds. Just keep in mind that each brewing method has a different recommended grind size. To find out more about the best grind size for drip coffee, read on!
Therefore, this coffee should be brewed for longer in a French Press or as a cold brew.