Grind size

Grind size plays a crucial role in coffee making, affecting the taste and aroma of your brew. Discover the different grind sizes and how to achieve the perfect grind for your preferred coffee preparation method.

 Shortly after purchasing an expensive camera, I learned a little bit about photography.  I got a book that explained the main variables in creating the exposure; shutter speed, f-stop, and iso.  Making craft coffee is much like that, in that there are a few main variables, and how they interact with each other can change the results drastically.  

    The first variable that I am going to discuss is grind size.  This is important because the way that coffee is made is by adding water, the solvent, to a bed of coffee grinds and extracting soluble material.  How finely ground the coffee is, will determine how easily it is extracted.  A finer grind will expose more surface area.  If coffee is ground too coarse it will under-extract and taste sour, while too fine will over-extract and taste bitter. If you notice one of these effects the obvious solution is to step it a little in the opposite direction.  When using a brewing method that drips through, like a pour-over or espresso, you will slow the flow of water the more finely the coffee is ground.  Time is, of course, another variable in coffee making to be discussed later.  A general rule for determining how to grind for any given preparation method is, that the longer the water will remain with the coffee, the coarser it should be ground.  For espresso, since it goes through rather quickly you should make it fine.  A french press should be coarse.  In my photography book, they gave a small homework assignment to play around with each of the variables independently to see the effects they have.  For that, I am going to suggest making a cup of coffee in which you change nothing but the grind size.  Try making one cup with a fine grind, another with a coarse, and a third with a medium grind.  This exercise should all be done together so that you can compare them side by side and notice the change this makes. 

If you have tried this, please feel free to leave a comment describing the results you observed.