How to Grind Coffee with Coffee Bean Grinders

How you grind your coffee beans is almost as important as the quality of the beans themselves. Below are a few ground rules to get you started.

When in doubt, go fine. Generally, the finer the ground, the more contact there will be between the water and the coffee, the richer the taste. But don’t get carried away; over-grinding will destroy some of the essential oils of your coffee and you may end up with some of this fine powder in undesired places, such as floating in your cup, or clogging up your filter.

GRINDING TO SUIT YOUR BREWER

Auto drip – fairly fine; think sand
Vacuum pot – medium
Mocha pot – fine
Espresso – extra fine (should adhere to skin)
French press – coarse

CHOOSING A GRINDER

Burr Grinders – Beans are fed through corrugated metal plates

Pros:

Timed shut off
Fast; less air exposure
More consistent grind than with electric blade grinders
Easy to control size of grounds by adjusting space between the metal plates

Cons:

Fairly high-maintenance, cleaning wise
Does not work with flavored coffees; flavoring gums up the burrs, and the flavor sticks around

Electric Blade Grinders – Steel blades powered by an electric motor

Pros:

Goes well with paper filters which are not as sensitive to grind consistency
Less expensive, small
Works well with flavored coffees and will even go so far as to grind nuts and other cooking ingredients

Cons:

Somewhat difficult to remove coffee from beneath the blades – whether cleaning or attempting to brew your beans now that you’ve ground them
Some guesswork involved in regulating fineness; generally, the longer the blades are allowed to spin, the finer the ground
Should not be used with press pots, mocha pots, vacuum pots, or espresso machines
Grinds have too much variance

Grinding for a Good Espresso

Espresso beans should be ground with a burr grinder as coffee can lose its volatile compounds when exposed to the air for too long, and the burr grinder is fast. Espresso beans should be ground for around 23 to 28 seconds. Ground espresso beans should be the size of table salt.