Skip to content
Home » News » How To Grind Coffee (Helpful Guide)

How To Grind Coffee (Helpful Guide)

This is probably the most important part of the coffee making process learning how to grind coffee!

Perfecting your coffee grind will solve most of your coffee brewing problems when trying to get that amazing taste.

Skipping over this vital step in coffee preperation will gaurantee a bad cup of coffee most of the time. So here we will show you what to do and how to grind coffee the right way!

Can You Grind Coffee Beans Without a Grinder?

The answer is yes, you can use a blender, thermomix, mortal and pestal or hammer.

None of these methods are recommended but if you are desperate you could try these.

You have to remember that grinding your coffee has to result in a even texture all over. This is why Burr grinders are amazing, instead of chopping up beans randomly, the burrs funnel whole beans down a
grinding path that gets smaller and smaller.

The beans are ground progressively smaller as they go down into the
burrs. The result is uniform coffee grounds.

Is it Cheaper to Grind Your Own Coffee?

Buying pods maybe easier and faster but it is almost twice as expensive than grinding your own coffee beans at home.

While whole bean is general is a little more expensive than pre-ground coffee because of the quality. Whole beans tend to come from better crops while pre-ground could have been sitting around for some time producing less flavours.

It is fully recommended by anyone to buy whole beans if you want the best quality coffee and grind right before use for the delisious whole flavour.

What Kind of Coffee Grinder Should I Buy?

This depends on your budget and whether or not you prefer the best tasting coffee on the planet.

Stay away from blade blenders that randomly chop the coffee into little pieces, this will gaurantee a bad cup of coffee everytime.

Hand Held Burr Grinders

These grinders are awesome for coffee lovers who only serve 2 cups of coffee a day at home or are constantly on the go, travelling, camping or at work.

Hand held manual coffee grinders are small tools made with only a few parts. They are super portable, easy to maintain, and extremly
affordable.

They consist of simple construction but require some manual work by hand. If you only brew a couple cups a day this is perfect.

Electric Coffee Grinders

These are built to grind lots of coffee with ease, relieving you from manually hand grinding, but this luxury will cost you more.

Most electric grinders aren’t suited to travel with and are
more fragile due to the complex construction, gears, and wires.

They make daily grinding a breeze, but they remove you
from the grinding experience.

Electric Grinders are more suitable for home use, office use and cafes. Grinders of this kind range in prices from $300 – $3000 dollars but are totally worth it if you are going to drink coffee everyday for the rest of your life.

Coffee Grinders Allow You To Use Different Coffee Makers

Without a grinder in your arsenal you will not be able to switch from different brew methods because you can’t just change your grinder settings.

You need to be able to change your settings on your grind with different machines. Being stuck in one type of grind limits your customisation and you could be stuck drinking sub quality coffee.

The Grind Size Guide To Amazing Coffee

Try out these grind match ups with certain brew methods for the best results.

Small adjustments will need to be made to perfect but this will ensure you a great cup of joe without huge trial and error mistakes wasting expensive coffee.

Here are the major grind sizes from very course to very fine.

How to grind coffee Extra coarse
Extra coarse

1# Very Course Grind (Cold Brew Coffee)

Reason

Due to cold brew techniques involving 12 plus hours in cold water it has the time to extract slowly, finer settings would result in over extracted coffee.

Texture

Should be simular to ground peppercorns.

Suits brew methods such as:

  • Cold Brew Method
How to grind coffee coarse
Coarse grind

2# Course Grind (French Press Coffee)

Reason

French Press is an immersion method of brewing. This means that the beans have an opportunity to extract for longer.

A coarser grind keeps the extraction slow and avoids over-extraction of coffee bean.

Texture

Should look simular to sea salt texture.

Suits brew methods such as:

  • French Press
  • Percolators
  • Coffee Tasting & Cupping
How to grind coffee medium coarse
Medium coarse

3# Medium Course Coffee Grind (Chemex Style Coffee)

Reason

The Chemex needs a medium course grind to allow for the best extraction and flow rate while brewing the coffee.

A coarser grind keeps the extraction slow and avoids over-extraction of coffee bean.

Texture

Simular look and feel to a rough sand texture.

Suits brew methods such as:

  • Chemex
  • Clever Drippers
How to grind coffee medium grind
Medium grind

4# Medium Grind Coffee (Drip / Cone / Aeropress / Siphon Coffee)

Reason

Contact time needs to be fairly low, meaning it calls for a medium grind.

If the grinds are to too fine they’ll clog the filter. If too big your flavor will be lacking as it will brew to quickly.

Texture

Simular texture to regular sand. Awesome starting grind to test.

Suits brew methods such as:

  • Siphon Brewers
  • Flat bottomed drip coffee makers
  • Pour-over cone shaped coffee makers
  • Aeropress (3 minute brew time)
How to grind coffee medium fine grind
Medium fine grind

5# Medium Fine Grind Coffee (Pour-over Coffee)

Reason

The shape of the filter and filter basket affect how long the water takes to pass through the coffee.

The unique cone-shape means less time, thus the finer grind.

So the grind needs to be a little bit finer to slow the water down for the best flavours.

Texture

Make this finer than sand but coarser than the espresso grind type.

Suits brew methods such as:

  • Cone shaped pour-over brewers
  • Aeropress (2-3 minute brew time)
How to grind coffee fine grind
Fine grind

6# Fine Grind Coffee (Espresso Machine Grind)

Reason

Coffee grinds need to be fine enough to slow down the water flow and increase the pressure so the water can be pushed throuh the filter. This will cause a perfect extraction if done right with excellent crema.

But not too fine, or the coffee will block the filter not letting water out and resulting in an over extracted cup.

Texture

Make this grind a little finer than table salt. This is probably the most common grind in bought pre-ground coffee.

Suits brew methods such as:

  • The Aeropress (1-2 minute brew time)
  • Espresso machine (machine or no machine)
How to grind coffee super fine grind
Super fine grind

7# Super Fine Grind Coffee (Turkish Coffee)

Reason

Turkish coffee is intense and robust because of the grind and the way it is brewed. Most machines can’t grind this fine because it isn’t a widely used method of extracting coffee.

But if you are adventureous, then try it out!

To brew Turkish coffee, a hand grinder (a Turkish coffee mill) is used.

Texture

This texture is like a powder or flour form.

Suits brew methods such as:

  • Ibrik or Cezve (Turkish coffee)

The Difference Between Over Extraction & Under Extraction of Coffee

When brewing coffee you need to avoid over extraction and under extraction of the ground coffee in your machine.

The whole reason you bother adjusting your coffee grind size for different machines is because of this exact process.

This is what bad coffee tastes like below:

Over Extracted Coffee

Here is what you are looking out for:

  • Bitter in taste
  • Empty & hollow – a lack of coffee bean flavours

Under Extracted Coffee

Here is what you are looking out for:

  • Sour
  • Acidic
  • Salty

Basically if your coffee tastes sour (Under-extracted) you will need to increase brew time, decrease water temperature and choose a finer grind.

If your coffee tastes bitter (Over-extracted) you will need to decrease brew time, increase water temperature and choose a coarser grind.

Getting this right will ensure you extract the perfect amount of flavour out of you speciality bean.

Good luck! If you have any questions feel free to contact us via the chat bot on you right or email us at support@thecoffeebeast.com.

Need help brewing at home? Read these other helpful articles:

1 thought on “How To Grind Coffee (Helpful Guide)”

  1. Buenas tardes, encantado de saludarte. Soy Jose
    Quería escribirte porque me ha parecido interesante comentar contigo la posibilidad de que tu negocio aparezca cada mes en periódicos digitales como noticia para posicionar en los primeros lugares de internet, es decir, con artículos reales dentro del periódico que no se marcan como publicidad y que no se borran.
    La noticia es publicada por más de cuarenta periódicos de gran autoridad para mejorar el posicionamiento de tu web y la reputación.

    ¿Podrías facilitarme un teléfono para ofrecerte un mes gratuito?
    Gracias

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

NEW! Get FREE shipping on all subscription orders + save 20%