Today, I’m going to share with you factors to consider when making an excellent cup of coffee.
The quality of water you use, the pressure and temperature you brew your coffee at, and the type and quality of beans you use is more crucial and so is the coffee grind.
Here’s what you need to know to avoid making common mistakes and make great tasting coffee.
Why is it important to understand grind?
Without understanding the concept of the coffee extraction (..and being able to avoid under and over-extraction., the best coffee equipment's and the best coffee beans hardly mean anything.
Extraction
Producing a cup of coffee requires water to pass through coffee beans and extracting flavours during this process. This extraction process has many variables, and the outcome is a different cup of coffee at the other end of the process.
(i) Pressure. How much pressure you use to ‘push’ water through coffee will affect how much coffee is extracted in the process. If we compare Espresso machines and French Press, for example, Espresso uses more pressure to push water through coffee in a porta filter. But a French Press uses a lot less, and as a result, you end up with two very different drinks.
(ii) The grind size will also affect how quickly or slowly water passes through your coffee. Overly coarse a grind, and water will run through without taking all the important flavours with it, and overly fine a grind, and water will pick up unwanted taste.
The foundation of every great coffee is the combination of the perfect coffee grounds and the grinding.
Let’s look at the different grind sizes, Bad coffee can be the result of poor extraction.
Under extraction can happen when your grounds are too coarse and, this is when you have not extracted enough flavour out of your ground coffee. Taste: Salty and Sour
Over extraction can happen when your grounds are too fine and, this is when you have extracted too much flavour out of your coffee – and it becomes overpowering and unpleasant. Taste: Bitter
Major grind sizes from very coarse to very fine, And suitable coffee brewing methods
Although, some coffee brewing methods are suitable for more than one grind size category, and this is because the methods allow you to control the outcome of your brew with your grind size and brewing time.
- Extra Coarse Grind size
Look like peppercorns and Suitable for Todd’s and cold brew coffee brewing.
- Coarse Grind size
Look like chunky sea salt, and its suitable for French press coffee brewing and coffee tasting process.
- Medium-Coarse Grind size
This medium-coarse grind look like rough sand. This grind size is for Chemex coffees or clever drippers (At least two minutes of extraction time for better result).
- Medium Grind size
This medium of grind sizes is suitable for drip coffee, pour over coffee, siphon brewers and Aeropress (with at least 3min of brew time). Loo like sand.
5.Medium-Fine Grind size
This medium fine coffee grind size it’s great for pour overs, Aeropress (within a 2–3-minute brew time) and siphon coffees. Looks finer than sand, but not as fine as an espresso grind. This is a great basic grind for testing your new coffee brewing experiment.
- Fine Grind size
This grind is best for espresso. It’s a little finer than table salt. Other use Aeropress (within 1-2 mins brew time) and Stovetop espresso.
- Extra Fine size
This uncommon grind requires a Turkish coffee grinder to achieve the texture and consistent. Suitable for Ibrik-Turkish Coffee. Flour or powder in texture.
-Asante sana
