To make a beverage from roasted coffee beans, they must be ground; otherwise, the coffee will notrind the beans, the surface area of the coffee in contact with the water increases manyfold, allowing the water to brew. When we g extract all the necessary substances from the beans in a relatively short time.
Why freshly ground coffee tastes better You can order ground coffee from us, but we always recommend grinding it yourself just before preparing a drink. Coffee contains many essential oils, which create a unique bouquet of taste and aroma. When these oils come into contact with oxygen, they volatilize, the coffee is exhausted, and its flavor becomes less expressive.
With ground coffee, this happens even faster: if coffee beans can “live” in an open packet for several weeks (of course, provided that you close it tightly every time), ground coffee will become much less flavorful in a few hours. In addition, ground coffee oxidizes quickly, and ten days after opening the packet, its flavor may become unpleasant.
Ideally, no more than 1 minute should elapse between grinding the coffee and preparing the drink. If you need to grind coffee in advance, store it in an airtight container and use it as soon as possible.
Why the grind has many gradations The size of the ground coffee particles (also called fractions) affects the extraction of the coffee, i.e. the speed with which the various substances are extracted from the coffee bean into the beverage. The finer the grind, the faster the extraction will take place. But this is not always a good thing: if there are too many dissolved substances in the cup, the drink may be too strong, bitter and leave a drying aftertaste. This is why fine grinds are used for brewing methods where the coffee is in contact with water for a short time, such as espresso or some aeropress recipes. Coarse grinds are more suitable for immersion methods where the coffee remains immersed in water for a while — French press, cup brewing, immersion funnels, koldbrew.
The grind size also affects the rate at which water flows through the ground coffee layer in brewing methods such as espresso, pourover, or drip coffee makers (in a geyser coffee maker, the process is reversed: hot water rises through the coffee layer under steam pressure). If the grind is too fine, the coffee will flow too slowly because the coffee layer will inhibit its movement, and the coffee will end up over-extracted. Coarse particles have more space between them, so the coffee will flow faster. However, if you increase the grind, you can go to the other extreme: the water may not be able to extract enough substances and the coffee will be under-extracted: acidic, not sweet enough and unsaturated. This is why it is so important to choose the right grind for these brewing methods.
The difficulty in selecting the grind The difficulty is that there are no uniform grind standards: different grinders are labeled differently and the same numerical designations do not necessarily correspond to the same grind size. Some grinders have no numerical scale at all. The designations "fine", "medium" and "coarse", which we usually use to describe grinds in recipes and recommendations, are very subjective, and precise measurements in microns are impractical: no one will use them when brewing at home or in a coffee shop.
It is not uncommon to find comparisons of grind particles with what can be found in the kitchen: with salt — coarse or fine, sugar, flour. Of course, all this is also quite conditional, but it can give a rough idea of how properly ground coffee should look and feel.
In fact, the only way to find the right grind is to brew, taste and evaluate the result. If the drink is under-extracted, try reducing the grind, if it is over-extracted, try increasing it. Temperature, brewing time and stirring intensity also affect the level of extraction — changing these parameters will help you get closer to the ideal flavor.
The importance of an even grind The grind should not only be suitable, but also uniform — so that all the particles are roughly the same size. If you roast potatoes, for example, you cut them into equal-sized pieces, otherwise the smaller ones will burn before the larger ones are roasted. So it is with coffee: if some particles are large and others very small, the drink will be unbalanced and simply unpalatable. That’s why it’s important to choose a grinder that provides an even grind.
A knife grinder is essentially a coffee blender with rotating knives that break up the coffee beans. The only way to get a more or less uniform grind with it is to grind the coffee to the smallest possible fractions. This grind can be used for turbo coffee, but for other methods of preparation, it is better to choose a burr coffee grinder.
A burr grinder grinds coffee between ceramic or steel millstones to produce a more even grind. It can also be adjusted to the right grind by adjusting the distance between the grindstones. For espresso, it is better to choose a special electric coffee grinder, which grinds the coffee very finely and uniformly. If you prepare large volumes of coffee in a drip coffee maker or often brew coffee using different methods, it is wise to buy an electric grinder that can be easily customized for different brewing methods. And if you only brew two or three cups of coffee a day and are in no hurry to get anywhere, look for a manual burr grinder: they don’t take up much space, don’t require a power supply, and can be taken anywhere to enjoy freshly ground coffee.
Our catalog includes many coffee grinders — compact, stylish, and reliable. Order them together with freshly roasted beans to fully enjoy real coffee’s rich aroma and bright taste.