One small adjustment can make a big difference in your morning cup.
You’ve got good coffee (Blue Star, of course!). You’ve got your favorite brewing setup. You’ve even remembered to put water in the kettle. But if your coffee still isn’t tasting quite right, there’s one variable worth checking first: your grind size.
Grind size has a surprisingly big effect on how your coffee tastes because it changes how quickly water moves through the grounds— which determines how much it extracts along the way.
A QUICK LESSON IN EXTRACTION
When hot water meets ground coffee, it begins pulling out the good stuff: aromatics, oils and soluble compounds that create the flavor in your cup.
How finely or coarsely your coffee is ground affects how quickly that happens.
If your grind is too coarse, water can move through the coffee too quickly without enough contact time to extract everything you want. The result is under-extracted coffee, which can taste thin, weak, sour or lacking in sweetness and depth.
If your grind is too fine, the opposite can happen. The water has more surface area to interact with and extracts more soluble compounds than you want. This is over-extraction, and it can leave your coffee tasting flat or muddled, with less clarity and sometimes woody or even burnt flavors.
Somewhere between the two is the sweet spot: enough extraction to bring out the flavors that make your coffee delicious, without pulling too much from the grounds.
SO, HOW FINE SHOULD YOU GRIND?
It depends on how you’re making your coffee.
As a general starting point—
Cold Brew: Coarse
French press or Percolator: Medium-coarse
Pour-over, Drip Machines or Chemex: Medium
AeroPress or Moka Pot: Medium-fine
Espresso: Fine
All that being said— these are starting points, not commandments. At the end of the day (or the beginning since it’s likely morning when you’re brewing your coffee) let your taste buds be your guides.
If your coffee tastes thin, sour, weak or unfinished, try grinding a little finer.
If it tastes flat, muddled, woody or overdone, try grinding a little coarser..
AND IF YOU DON’T HAVE A GRINDER?
We’ve got you.
Blue Star coffee can be ordered as whole beans, or we’re happy to grind it (free of charge!) specifically for the way you brew at home. Tell us your brewing method and we’ll take care of the grind so you can get straight to the good part.
Because coffee should be always good— even when you’re brewing at home.