This is the first in a series of posts that came out of the “Brewing 101” presentation we made at the Mad River Taste Place in February. Seems like lifetimes ago now. As can happen when starting to talk coffee, our agenda outstripped the time we had allotted. The intent was to go over the primary variables that impact the extraction, and therefore the smell, taste, and mouthfeel of your hot brewed coffee. Those variables are:
The Grind
The Ratio
The Water
The Method
The Filter
With the space that a blog allows, we will dive into each of these variables in a bit more depth than we were able to do during the class to help you figure out what can be adjusted to make a better cup of coffee.
The Grind
If you just want to skip to our grinder recommendations, click here.
If someone asks us what the single most important investment someone should make when wanting to make good coffee, we would say the coffee grinder. Grinding unlocks the doors of your coffee. Grind size and grind uniformity are the keys to providing your hot water access to all of the aromas and flavors held within. As soon as a coffee passes through the grinder, several oxidation reactions are suddenly accelerated. With coffee, oxygen is detrimental. This is why pre-ground coffee always smells and tastes so much duller, flatter, and less vibrant than whole bean coffee ground immediately before brewing. This is further exaggerated when roasters grind coffee prior to packaging, and then seal that package with oxygen in it rather than vacuum sealing or nitrogen flushing. Would you believe that it is common practice for roasters to seal their coffee in ambient conditions without vacuum sealing or nitrogen flushing?
(Side note PSA on freshness: Next time you are in the supermarket purchasing coffee, take a moment to look at the roasting date on the packages. The first thing you’ll find is that many packages lack this information. The second thing you may find is that several packages may have been sitting on the shelf for months. Now just imagine that package may have been sealed with oxygen inside, and what is happening to that coffee over time. It’s not good. Whole bean coffee will stay fresher longer, and that is why we always recommend purchasing whole bean coffee, as fresh from the roast date as possible, and no older than a month from roast. OK-back to grind)
When choosing grind size, the primary thing to consider is your brewing method. Let’s consider the French Press method. For this method, the coffee grounds are immersed in the hot water. Immersion methods create the opportunity for more coffee-water exposure time, as opposed to a pour over method where water is passing through more quickly. This immersion and increased exposure time allows more coffee compounds, oils, and solids to be extracted, so a coarser grind typically makes the most sense for the French Press method. Different methods have different ranges of ideal grind sizes which of course should be adjusted to your liking. Our coffee brewing tips card provides a visual guide to the relative grind sizes:
How does grind size affect the taste of a cup of coffee? Let’s say we do 2 French Press extractions side by side, where the only difference is grind size. In one press pot, we put very fine ground particles, and the other, very coarsely ground particles. As the water travels around the particles, accessing all the flavor doors, the water would find more unlocked doors in the finer ground coffee than the coarsely ground coffee. This is because the fine grounds have more surface area exposed to the water. The coarsely ground coffee still gets extracted, but produces a beverage with less soluble material. Some people may term the beverage produced with too coarsely ground coffee as weak, and the beverage produced with fine ground coffee as very strong. Too finely ground coffee may produce a lot of bitter, over extracted flavors and a very heavy oily mouthfeel (depending on the coffee) , while a medium-coarse ground coffee would produce a more properly extracted, balanced cup.
As mentioned above, investing in a grinder can greatly enhance your at home coffee experience. No coffee can begin to meet its potential if it isn’t ground properly and fresh, whether you want to make a cup of sludgy, turgid french press coffee or a bright shot of single-origin espresso. It only makes sense that when you want to improve your coffee brewing skills, having a grinder is the first place to start. The best grinders use flat or conical burrs to create a uniform grind, which allows water to evenly extract around the particles.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Grinders come in several different styles and prices, ranging from hand-held manual grinders, to cheap kitchen appliances, to dedicated commercial workhorses with 5 hp motors. Here are our recommendationsfor you in three budget ranges:
Under $100
In this price range you have a decision to make: do you want easy coffee, or good coffee?
Blade Grinders: These devices are electric and grind beans fast with two spinning blades, like a mini food processor. The end result is a very non-uniform distribution of grounds. Very fine (finer than espresso) grounds settle and compact to the bottom and sometimes heat up due to the heat given off by the appliance, causing chemical changes in your coffee before you’ve even introduced water. Simultaneously, some of the coffee grounds will be as large as gravel. Having this spectrum of grind size can introduce a lot of variation in your extraction, and therefore your final beverage. While blade grinders do not offer the control over your grind, or the uniformity of grind that burr grinders do, it is still better than purchasing pre-ground coffee. That’s how important grinding fresh is. If you go this route, don’t bother spending over $30, and certainly don’t use it for grinding spices, peanuts, or anything other than coffee. There are a few blade grinder hacks out there to help make a more uniform grind, such as shaking the appliance while grinding, sieving the ground coffee, etc. One example of such a device is this Krups model.
Manual Burr Grinders: To grind coffee so that the particles are uniform in size, a set of conical or flat burrs made of stainless steel or ceramic are critical. If you are willing to give up electric ease for a better cup of coffee, buy a grinder with high quality burrs. These grinders require time and effort, though, and is less than ideal if a lot of ground coffee is needed, say for a full pot of auto-drip coffee. It also requires adjustment every time you switch up the brewing method. That being said, if you are looking to significantly up your coffee game without spending a lot of money, this is your best bet. Some models are more ergonomic than others, and our top pick for this category is the Hario Skerton Plus, followed by the Porlex Mini. In particular, the Porlex makes a fantastic camp coffee grinder, as it is very compact when broken down, and made of solid steel. The Skerton can hold more coffee, and is able to grind 30 - 40 grams in one batch. Some say the effort of grinding beans in the morning replaces the first cup for waking them out of the morning fog. Does this sound appealing? Or, at least tolerable? If not, you’ll need to up your budget.
$100-200
Yes, grinders can quickly get expensive. At a minimum, a good grinder should have a strong motor, a robust housing, quality burrs, and the ability to service it. Grind size adjustment is available, however, many grinders have difficulty working well across a wide range of grind sizes, so you will want to check to make sure the grinder is well suited to the coffee brewing methods you typically use. In this price range, the Baratza Encore is a solid choice.
$200 and up
As you spend more on a grinder, you get tighter and tighter control of grind adjustment, features such as scales, timers, and programmed settings, and better quality burrs. We have used the Baratza Vario for 5+ years now, our daily driver for making coffee at home as well as the beating heart of our farmer’s market setup. Thousands of cups of coffee later, it still runs flawlessly. In the 5 plus years we have owned it the only major technical problem we had with it was promptly solved by a helpful tech.
At this point in the journey, you are able to brew a wide variety of coffee types at home, confident that nearly any cup you make will be optimized thanks to a uniform grind.
There are plenty of good manufacturers of grinders out there, many coffee suppliers stock a wide variety of choices. Don’t take our examples as the only good choices. Look around and see what else is out there.