If the coffee tastes wrong and the beans are fresh, the grind is almost always the reason. Grind size controls how fast water moves through the coffee, and therefore how much it extracts. Too fine and the water crawls, pulling out the bitter compounds. Too coarse and it rushes past, leaving a thin, sour cup.
The chart
- Turkish, extra fine. Like flour. For the cezve, where the coffee is boiled in the water and never filtered out.
- Espresso, fine. Like table salt, slightly gritty between the fingers. For pump machines, 25 to 30 seconds for a double.
- Moka pot, fine to medium-fine. A touch coarser than espresso. Too fine and the pot struggles and spits.
- AeroPress, medium-fine. Depends on your steep time: shorter steep, finer grind.
- Pour over and filter, medium. Like coarse sand. A cone drips slower than a flat bed, so cones take a slightly coarser grind.
- French press, coarse. Like raw sugar. Fine grounds slip past the mesh and turn the cup muddy.
- Cold brew, extra coarse. The coarsest of all, because it steeps for 12 to 24 hours.
Reading a bad espresso shot
Your shot time is the feedback loop. Aim for roughly 25 to 30 seconds to pull a double, from the moment the pump starts.
Under 20 seconds, pale and sour. The grind is too coarse. The water found channels and ran through. Go finer.
Over 35 seconds, dark and bitter, dripping rather than flowing. Too fine. Go coarser.
Change one thing at a time, and give the grinder a small adjustment rather than a big one. Between adjustments, purge a few grams, because the old grind is still sitting in the chute.
Why the same number is not the same grind
Grinder settings are not universal. Setting 12 on one grinder is nothing like setting 12 on another, and even the same model shifts as the burrs wear. Humidity, bean age and roast level all move the target too: a fresh, light roast needs a finer grind than a dark roast that has been open a fortnight.
Burr, not blade
A blade grinder chops, producing dust and boulders at the same time, which means the cup is over and under extracted simultaneously. A burr grinder crushes the beans between two surfaces at a set distance, so the particles come out roughly the same size. This is the single biggest upgrade most home setups can make.
If you do not own a grinder
Buy whole beans if you can, and grind on the day. If you cannot, we grind to your brew method when we pack the order rather than selling coffee that was ground weeks ago, so tell us the machine you are using. Our sizing is listed by method: espresso for commercial or home machines, AeroPress, stovetop, filter and plunger.
For what freshly ground coffee is actually losing over time, see how to store coffee beans.
