How To Grind Coffee

Making a great cup of coffee requires attention to detail from start to finish, including the first step of the brewing process: grinding your coffee beans. Some coffee drinkers might be surprised by how much their grounds affect the quality of their cup, whether it be how they're stored or their granulometry (aka "grind size.") So before one dives into the nuances of espresso extraction or milk steaming, it's important to understand this important step in unlocking coffee's full flavor.

Fresh Is Always Best

Coffee, as an ingredient, is relatively volatile when exposed to certain elements for prolonged periods of time. Once coffee beans' surface tension is broken up by a grinder, the grounds' natural oils are exposed to air, diminishing the coffee's quality over time. In order to preserve the majority of your coffee's flavor and aromas, grind coffee in small batches or as you go to ensure peak freshness in every cup.

Find the freshest coffee here.

Store Your Grounds In A Safe Place

Air is not the only element that reduces coffee's quality over time. Factors like heat, moisture, and light are also not ideal to have around your grounds, which is why you should think carefully about where you store your precious coffee in your home. Similar to spices, keep your coffee in a dark, dry, and cool place, like a cabinet. Avoid keeping your coffee near warm appliances like a stove or in cold environments like your fridge. Invest in an airtight container as well to limit your coffee's exposure to air before use.

Are Coffee Grinders All The Same?

The short answer to this question is no. In today's market, there are typically two kinds of coffee grinders widely available: burr grinders and blade grinders.

Burr grinders crush coffee beans between two abrasive surfaces, using pressure and friction to create an even grind. These devices can come as electrical appliances as our Wilfa Uniform Grinder, or mechanical mills, like the wonderful Chestnut Grinder that creates consistent batches of uniform grounds with its powerful stainless steel burrs. Blade grinders, on the other hand, smash beans together at rapid speeds, often leaving baristas with a slightly more uneven grind that consists of smaller and bigger pieces. When it comes to brewing a quality cup of coffee, it's best to aim for the most even grind possible to avoid either over or under-extracting your beverage.

Many coffee machines come with a built-in grinder and bean container, making consistent dosages a matter of pressing a button. If this is the case for your at-home coffee machine, aim to keep your bean container as full as possible each time you extract a dosage. Keeping a constant level of pressure in the container will help produce a more consistent grind size for every coffee.

The Science Behind Coffee Grinding

When it comes to adjusting your grinder at home, don't shy away from trial and error. Adjust your machinery accordingly until you produce a grind size that gives you the results you're looking for.

When coffee beans are broken apart, their surface area increases to varying degrees depending on how fine or coarse they're ground. This factor directly correlates with the surface tension produced in the brewing process. Coffee brewing also involves heat, pressure, and time, and how your coffee reacts to these factors is what ultimately creates your final product.

Depending on what brewing method you choose, your coffee will be exposed to varying levels of pressure and heat. That is why it's essential that you choose the right grind size for your preferred brewing method. By doing so, you're ensuring that surface tension, heat, and pressure work in sync to produce exactly what you're looking for.

Grind Size And Different Brewing Methods

When brewing coffee, the main goal is to extract as much flavor as possible from your grounds. Here is how grind size can make all the difference, depending on what brewing method you choose.

Fine grounds

A finer grind is excellent for brewing methods that use high pressure, high heat, and short extraction times. Espresso machines create incredible amounts of pressure and heat for an extraction time of under 30 seconds. The high surface tension created by the tightly packed and finely ground coffee creates a creamy, concentrated extraction without tasting scorched. Stovetop mokas, while they don't produce quite as high levels of pressure, also create similar brewing conditions and call for finely ground beans.

Coarse grounds

French press, drip coffee, and cold brew typically call for coarsely ground beans. During these brewing processes, coarse grounds are exposed to lower amounts of pressure and heat but for longer periods of time, creating optimal conditions for better extraction of flavors.

Pre-ground coffee

If you don't have a coffee grinder at home and prefer to buy pre-ground coffee, make sure to read the packaging to make an educated decision on your preferred brewing method.