To make Your Dream Coffee at home, you will need to be consistent with the coffee grind size. This will ensure the best flavors in your coffee beans and get you a delicious cup of coffee!
I can give you all the information you need to grind your coffee beans the way you like. I’ll explain the different coffee grind sizes, starting with the most fine grind.
After that, I will give you some brewing information. This will allow you to test all the grind sizes that were mentioned earlier in the article. But first, grab yourself a nice cup of coffee and start reading away.
Why Is It So Important to Use the Correct Grind Size?
To ensure that coffee beans retain all of their delicious flavors, they must be ground to the correct size. If you grind your coffee beans incorrectly, you may not end up with the best tasting cup of coffee.
The flavors of coffee beans are extracted when hot water runs through or steeps with the ground coffee beans. To grind your coffee beans the right way, you need to use a coffee grinder.
One way to make coffee using water running through coffee beans is by using pour over techniques like the Chemex or Hario V60.
To make coffee using a French press, add water and ground coffee beans to the coffee brewer. If you want to learn more about brewing techniques, click the links to access brewing guides.
If the coffee beans are ground into smaller pieces, the total surface area of the beans will be increased. This reduces the amount of time needed to extract all the necessary flavors from the beans.
If you have smaller coffee particles, it will take less time to extract the most flavor from the beans. A coarser grind will take longer to extract the same amount of flavor from the coffee.
The taste of coffee beans that have been finely ground versus those that have been coarsely ground will be noticeably different if you make them using a French press and steep them for four minutes.
Are you wondering what the taste difference is? I suggest you try this experiment at home to appreciate the difference in taste between the two coffees. You will find that the taste of the coffee ranges from sweet to sour to bitter.
Different brewing methods require different coffee grind sizes in order to improve the flavor of the coffee. I will explain the different coffee brewing techniques you can try using the coffee grind size chart.
Why Not Buy Pre-Ground Coffee?
You can guarantee the freshness of your coffee by grinding it just before brewing. A coffee bean is an organic product that can be affected by outside factors like climate and terrain. The flavor and quality of the product cannot be consistent over time because it comes from a plant and not a synthetic commodity.
When beans are roasted, carbon dioxide is released, which helps to release oils and create the characteristic aroma and enhance flavor. Floral and fruity notes come primarily from this process.
The addition of oxygen to coffee grounds makes them taste more lively. Without it, the coffee is muddy, dull, and soapy.
This means that if you don’t grind the beans right before you make your coffee, you could lose some important qualities.
Think of coffee flavors like those in ripe fruit. It should taste pleasant, with crisp acidity, refreshing sweetness, and spicy aromas.
If you get pre-ground coffee beans, you will only be able to use one brewing method. Doing it fresh and adjusting the coffee grind allows you to experiment with various coffee beans to find the best flavor.
How Does Grind Affect Coffee Extraction?
The size of your coffee grinds is the most important factor in determining how your coffee will taste. Brewing coffee is the process of dissolving flavors from coffee grounds in water. It’s important to use the right amount of coffee in relation to the amount of water, to use water that’s the right temperature, and to brew for the right amount of time. But it’s just as important to grind the coffee beans correctly.
If you use the wrong grind size, you’ll either end up with under-extraction or over-extraction.
Under-extraction happens when the grinds are too coarse. If your coffee tastes sour, acidic, and salty, you can try using a finer grind next time you brew to see if it balances the flavors better.
If the grounds are too fine, the opposite problem, over-extraction, will occur. Coffee that has been over-extracted tastes bad. It is bitter, has muted flavors, and is not distinct.
The goal is to have a balanced extraction so that all the flavor notes can come out, producing coffee that tastes sweet, well-rounded, and crisp. That’s your sweet spot!
So let’s get into what the main types of grinds are, how to distinguish them, and which ones are recommended for different brewing methods.
Coarse, Medium-Coarse, or Extra Coarse
The grind size of coarse grounds is similar to that of kosher sea salt and is therefore ideal to use in a French press or percolator. Extra-coarse grounds are a bit larger, and these coffee particles are mainly used in cold brew coffee beverages. A medium-coarse grind is best for brewing with a Chemex, Clever dripper, or a flat-bottom filter like the Kalita. This grind is similar in size to rough sand.
Medium
The medium grind size is most commonly used for drip coffee brewing methods. The table salt-sized grounds are used to brew the cups of coffee served at most coffee shops.
Fine, Medium-Fine, or Extra Fine
If you want your coffee to have a fine grind, it should look like powdered sugar. This grind is best for brewing espresso, using a Moka pot, or making coffee with an Aeropress.
A grind size that is medium-fine is great to use with cone-shaped filters, such as the Hario v60. An extra-fine grind is similar to flour and is mostly used when making Turkish coffee.
Brewing Methods and Their Grind Sizes
Cold Brew
As long as you use the right grind, you can make a delicious cup of coffee using the cold brew coffee making process. This process involves steeping coffee at room temperature, which allows all of the coffee’s beautiful and complex flavors to come out.
If you don’t grind your beans to the right size, your coffee will be lousy. There is nothing worse than spending 12 to 24 hours on a brewing method, only to end up with an under or over-extracted brew.
We recommend using an extra-coarse grind for this method. If you want to make cold brew coffee, you need to use a coarser grind than you would for regular coffee. This is because the coffee needs to steep for a longer time. Try different things until you find what works for you.
French Press
We recommend using coarse coffee grinds if you’re a regular French press aficionado. If you grind your coffee beans too finely, the resulting brew will be bitter, muddy, and over-extracted.
The plunger on a French press should offer some resistance when pushed down; if it doesn’t, the coffee is likely over-extracted. If it’s hard to push the plunger down on your French press, the coffee is likely over-extracted. If you find it difficult to brew your coffee with a lot of pressure, your grounds are too fine. If you are able to press the joe without much effort, this means that your batch of coffee beans is too coarse.
Pour-Over
Chemex
The Chemex coffee maker requires medium-coarse coffee grounds because its thick filter prevents the coffee from draining too quickly. This prevents over-extraction of the coffee beans.
Hario V60
The Hario v60 coffee maker uses thinner paper filters and has a large dripping cone, so you’ll need to use medium-ground coffee for a good cup. If your coffee tastes sour and under-extracted, try adjusting your grind settings and using finer Grounds.
Aeropress
The Aeropress is a coffee brewing process that does not require a specific grind size to work. To grind the coffee beans, you will need to use a conical burr grinder and adjust the settings based on how long you’ll be brewing.
If you use a medium-coarse grind and let the coffee brew for three to four minutes, you will have a cup of coffee with a strong flavor. However, if the grind is finer, one minute is enough time. If you want to experiment with different grind sizes and extraction times, a good place to start is with a medium grind.
Espresso
The best grind size for espresso is extra fine, using coffee that is as finely ground as powdered sugar. If the grind size is incorrect, the dark, super-concentrated coffee will be ruined because of the high temperatures and massive amounts of pressure used to brew it. Extra fine coffee grinds allow the hot water to make the most of your java’s aroma in just a few seconds.
If you use coarse ground coffee in your espresso machine, the coffee will not be extracted correctly and will taste sour and unbalanced. If you grind the coffee beans too finely, your drink will be too bitter and have a burnt aftertaste.
My Coffee Tastes Sour, How Do I Fix It?
if your coffee tastes sour, that means you’ve extracted too much from the beans. If your coffee grounds are too fine, this can happen. If you use too much water, it will dilute the coffee and extract the sour notes you want to avoid.
This can be fixed by adjusting the coffee grind to make it coarser. Even if you have been using the wrong grind size for a while and have a large amount of finely ground coffee beans, there is no need to worry.
If this happens, you will need to lower the amount of time you spend extracting the material. If your coffee tastes too sour, try steeping it for a shorter amount of time.
This is not the best way to handle this issue and you will not get the best results from it. If you are left with a bunch of finely ground coffee beans after using a French press at home, you can try using a coffee filter. One way to get rid of coffee beans is to use a pour over technique.
Even though the brewing technique may be different, you will still get the same great tasting cup of coffee that you have been wanting all day.
My Coffee Tastes Bitter, What Do I Do?
Your coffee grinding should be adjusted if you find that the coffee tastes bitter and you can’t taste the subtle flavors.
Don’t worry. This should be an easy fix as well. However, this will take some time to master. I’ve been grinding my own coffee beans at home for a while now, and I’ve gotten a lot better at it. These days, my coffee tastes great most of the time.
In other words, don’t worry about it and just keep working hard. To fix the coarsely ground coffee beans, you have to turn the wheel to adjust the grind size on your hand grinder. To use an electric coffee grinder, turn the grind size button.
There is little difference between using a burr hand grinder or an electric coffee grinder – they both should work in a similar fashion. I have both a hand grinder and electric grinder at home. Both options are amazing and will provide a great coffee grind whenever it is needed.
To adjust the grind size on a hand grinder, turn the knob to the finer side. You will need to adjust the grind size to the finer side if you want to use an electric coffee grinder.
You need to apply pressure to the top of the electric coffee grinder to make it work. With this method, I can press and hold the button to get any size grind that I want. I usually press for 10 seconds to get a French press grind size and 15 seconds for a pour over coffee grind.
Conclusion
This was a fun article to write. It takes a lot of effort to get the perfect grind size each time. If you want your coffee to taste good, you should grind your coffee beans well.
Will you give the grind size chart a try? Let me know by leaving a comment down below. If you have any questions about coffee, you can also contact me directly by pressing the “Contact Me” button at the top!
I’ve included a few links to articles about coffee beans below if you want to learn more.