The Last Coffee Grind Size Chart You’ll Ever Need

May 9, 2024
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Coffee Grind Size Chart: Many coffee enthusiasts often find themselves frustrated when their carefully selected coffee beans and top-of-the-line grinder still result in lackluster brews. The root of this problem lies in a common oversight that many overlook. But fear not! With a simple adjustment, you can transform your coffee brewing experience from mediocre to magnificent. Keep reading to uncover this crucial tweak and unlock the secret to consistently delicious coffee.

Main Contents

Optimal Grounds for Exceptional Coffee

Exceptional coffee hinges on one crucial element: the perfect coffee grounds. Grinding your beans might seem like a simple step, but it holds the key to unlocking the full potential of your brew. Today, I’ll shed light on common pitfalls and guide you through everything you need to know about grinding coffee. By the time you finish reading, you’ll be equipped to brew the finest coffee you’ve ever tasted.

First, let’s explore the various grind sizes and their respective uses, as well as how to achieve them with your coffee grinder. Finding the right grinder is paramount, so let’s dive in and ensure you have the best tool for the job.

The Interplay of Coffee Grounds and Your Brew

Coffee Grind Size Chart Understanding coffee extraction is crucial for brewing a perfect cup. Even with top-tier equipment and beans, lacking this knowledge renders them useless. By grasping coffee extraction, you’ll steer clear of under and over-extraction, which can ruin your coffee experience. The reason we adjust grind sizes is solely to achieve optimal extraction.

The aim when selecting grind size is to extract just the right amount of flavor. Too little extraction leads to under-extraction, resulting in bland coffee. Conversely, too much extraction leads to over-extraction, yielding overpowering and unpleasant flavors. Under-extraction occurs when the grounds are too coarse, while over-extraction happens when they’re too fine.

What are the Characteristics of Poorly Extracted Coffee?

Chances are, you’ve encountered unpleasant coffee flavors before, often stemming from extraction issues:

Under Extracted

– Sour
– Acidic
– Salty

Over Extracted

– Bitter
– Hollow – Lacking distinct coffee bean flavors

Coffee Grind Size Chart: For a comprehensive exploration of how under or over-extracted coffee may taste, The Barista Hustle offers an informative guide on extraction worth exploring (2).

So, you’ve brewed a cup of coffee only to find it disappointingly poorly extracted. To prevent this from recurring and to avoid wasting more coffee, adjustments are necessary. You can refine either the brew time, water temperature, or grind size, depending on the perceived flavor:

FLAVOR	BREW TIME	WATER TEMP	GRIND
Sour	Increase	Decrease	Finer
Bitter	Decrease	Hotter	Coarser

Blade vs. Burr Grinders

Hold on before you continue: if you’ve been relying on a blade grinder to pulverize your coffee beans, you’ve been committing one of the most common coffee grinding blunders out there. Avoid grinding your coffee beans with a blade grinder at all costs. In fact, it’s even worse than resorting to pre-ground coffee.

Why is it worse?

Coffee Grind Size Chart: Well, for starters, achieving a stellar cup of coffee hinges on consistency. When your grounds vary in size, some will end up over-extracted while others will be under-extracted, resulting in, let’s be honest, subpar coffee. No matter how vigorously you shake that blade grinder, you’ll never attain 100% consistency. However, if you find yourself stuck with only a blade grinder, there’s a workaround—but be prepared to put in some effort. Besides lacking consistency, blade coffee grinders have another downfall: they rely on high-speed spinning, generating heat and friction in the process. And you guessed it—this spells trouble. Essentially, your coffee is heating up prematurely, compromising its freshness and leading to an overcooked flavor.

Now, contrast all of that with a burr grinder. Burr grinders apply uniform pressure and rotation to meticulously “crush” beans into an impeccably consistent grind. They accomplish this at lower speeds, eliminating any heat buildup and ensuring a precise and uniform grind every time.

In summary:

Opt for a conical burr grinder over a blade grinder. Whether it’s manual or electric, as long as it uses burrs for grinding, you’re on the right track.
Blade grinders fall short in achieving consistent grounds, which are essential for even coffee extraction.
If you’re stuck with a blade grinder, there are a few tricks you can employ to improve the grounds.
For espresso brewing, the uniformity and consistency of your grounds are even more crucial.

Popular Coffee Grind Sizes and Their Uses

Coffee Grind Size Chart: These seven grind sizes cover the spectrum needed for brewing excellent cups of coffee using various methods.

It’s important to note that selecting just one grind size and applying it universally won’t yield optimal results; certain grinds are better suited for specific coffee makers.

You might observe that some coffee brewing methods fit into more than one grind size category. This is because you can influence the final taste of your brew by adjusting both the grind size and brewing time for certain methods.

GRIND SIZE	BREWING METHOD
Extra coarse	Cold Brew Coffee, Cowboy Coffee
Coarse	French Press, Percolator, Coffee Cupping
Medium-coarse	Chemex coffee maker, Clever Dripper, Cafe Solo Brewer
Medium	Cone-shaped Pour-over Brewers, Flat Bottom Drip Coffee Machines, Siphon Coffee, Aeropress (with 3+ minute brew time)
Medium-fine	Cone-shaped Pour-over Brewers, Aeropress (with 2-3 minute brew time)
Fine	Espresso, Moka Pot (Stovetop Espresso Maker), Aeropress (with 1 minute brew time)
Extra Fine	Turkish coffee

Let’s examine the primary grind sizes, ranging from very coarse to very fine.