When brewing coffee, there are many things to consider. The type of bean being used, the ratio of beans to water, water temperature, and coarseness of the grind, to name a few. All of these things should be considered in order for you coffee lovers to get on with the coffee grind. It’s great idea to use top rated coffee machines with grinder.
If you’re using an old-school percolator for a congregational potluck in your church basement (can you tell I’m originally from a small farming community in the Midwest?!?), you’ll want to use a coarse grind. This way, you’ll extract a good amount of flavor and caffeine from your coffee beans while reducing the chances of getting grounds in your cup because little is grosser than finishing your drink with chunks.
Your French Press will also require coarser grounds since your coffee will bathe in the water before being plunged to the bottom with a fine metal mesh. In a sense, the coarser the beans are for your French Press, the better your cup will be, or at least the less sediment you’ll have. Some days, it’s a fine line between grounds floating in your cup and needing to scoop out the last bit with a spoon; the goal is somewhere in between.
On the flip side, when you get your beans ready to pull shots of espresso, you’ll want them ground finely. Here, we want to assure that our coffee is getting saturated enough to grab as much of the goodness as possible out of that little portafilter. You don’t want anything going through that basket faster than it needs to, without collecting the max caffeine content. On one of those mornings (and we all have them), nothing is worse than weak espresso!
Who would’ve thought there’s such an art to grinding coffee beans, right? Good news and bad news: there are varying opinions in the coffee world – about everything! But, as you keep trying things out, you will find what works best for you – and it’s up to YOU to decide what your preference is, of course. Though there’s a science to it, you can’t make your coffee incorrectly; you can only make your coffee the way you like it, and isn’t that the true goal, after all?
There’s some debate remaining about coffee and gold filters so, again, that’s up to you. Generally speaking, for brewing at home, you’ll want your grind somewhere in the middle. Strange and unexpected phenomenon aside, you’re going to live to see tomorrow either way. So, if you grind your beans more finely today and find it’s too strong, make your beans a little coarser tomorrow.
As for cone filters, why buy paper when you can just use gold? Paper absorbs oils from the coffee, so you may want to brew it as naturally as possible.
So you see: as a general rule, the longer the brewing time, the coarser you’ll want your beans ground.
At the beginning of each day, however, it’s up to you. Just get up, get going, and get on with the coffee grind.
