Have you ever thought that the way you make your coffee affects its final taste and that there may be, as they say, a "buried dog" why you don't like your home-made coffee as much as the one from the café around the corner ? In this article, we will explain the degrees of grinding and also advise you on how to grind coffee exactly in accordance with the given method of coffee preparation so that you like it. Everything went as it should, and you were able to fully enjoy the aroma and especially the taste of the coffee you prepared.
Coarse grinding coffee
We should first explain why the method and roughness of grinding coffee affects its final taste. Grinding is not like grinding, every experienced barista certainly knows that. The main factor that can affect the taste of the resulting beverage is the coarseness of the ground coffee. It is always recommended to try several degrees of roughness for a new coffee, but the basic roughness is always given for a specific preparation. When preparing espresso, it is not possible to grind the coffee as for preparing a French press. The result would certainly not be good. It is necessary to move in slight deviations within the given preparation. Even a small change in grinding can greatly affect the taste of the prepared beverage. There are several roughnesses, and if you ask why, only one would be enough, there are many reasons and we will analyze them together.
Very fine grinding - Casserole
Do you know what is made from coffee that is softer than your lever coffee machine? Coffee ground in this way is used to make coffee in Arab countries. However, not "Czech Turk", but coffee prepared in jazz or ibrik. In this case, the ground coffee has a powdery consistency, appearance like sugar flour, so that it can best dissolve in water.
Fine grinding - Espresso
If you want to enjoy a properly prepared espresso on the automatic coffee machine, choose to grind. In terms of appearance, we could compare such ground coffee to semi-coarse flour. However, be careful! If you grind the coffee too finely, it is possible that the coffee may not flow and you can "look forward" to the resulting drink with a bitter taste, even with light roasted coffee. As a result of this finer roughness, the extraction will be slow and the coffee will burn through the extraction. On the other hand, coarser grinding accelerates the extraction itself and thus creates, on the contrary, a cup of a faint taste of water consistency. Grinding for espresso requires trying more options and then choosing the one that suits you best.
Medium grinding - Vacuum pot, Aeropress, Drip, Moka, Chemex
It could be said that medium grinding is the golden mean between fine and coarse grinding. It is also used for drip, when preparing in a vacuum sweat or for aeropress. Appearance ground coffee resembles semolina sugar. If you want to prepare a larger number of portions of filtered coffee, you need to choose a coarser grind. Too fine grinding means longer extraction time and strong intensity in taste. Grinding too coarse means flat taste and water consistency.
Each of these preparation methods requires adjusting the grinding roughness according to the specific coffee. It is always recommended to try more grinding roughness to find out which coffee is best for your chosen coffee.
Coarse coffee grinding - French Press
When preparing a French Press, sufficient roughness is required so that the French press sieve catches as much coffee grounds as possible. If the coffee is ground too finely, the finest dust particles will be further extracted in the beverage. This can lead to unwanted extraction. The drink will increase its body, bitterness and at the same time you will also feel more dusty in your mouth when drinking. The coffee will not be pure in taste. These effects can be prevented by pouring the drink into the serving container after the extraction from the French press is completed. For these reasons, it is advisable to choose a very coarse coffee grinder in this alternative method, the result of which resembles crystal sugar grains in appearance.
Extra coarse coffee grinding - Cold Brew
We get to the last stage of grinding and that is extra coarse grinding. The ground coffee can look like coarse sea salt. The ground pieces of grains are larger than 1 mm. Therefore, this grinding is used in the preparation of cold brew coffee, where the coffee is extracted in cold water for 12-24 hours.
|
Preparation |
Grinding roughness |
Appearance character |
|
Džezva |
Very fine grinding |
Dust consistency, sugar flour |
|
Expressed |
Fine grinding |
Flour |
|
Vacuum pot, Drip, Chemex, Moka, Aeropress |
Medium grinding |
Semolina sugar |
|
French press |
Coarse grinding |
Crystal Sugar |
|
Cold Brew |
Extra coarse grinding |
Coarse sea salt |
We hope that our article has helped you understand the issue of grinding coffee - pay as much attention to grinding as choosing coffee, because even the best coffee will not taste good if you grind it badly.