When it comes to making coffee, coffee lovers tend to search for the best especially when it comes to accessories and equipment. A coffee grinder is one of the most important tools needed when making coffee. Using the right grinder is probably one of the most important details that contributes to making that perfect shot of espresso. High-quality coffee tastes good because of a combination of complex aromatic and flavour compounds from how the coffee was grown, processed and roasted.
There is lots of yummy delicious soluble compounds and flavors, the grinder helps us by breaking down the coffee bean to enable perfect extraction. A great grinder that is also set properly will transform your coffee experience.
If you desire the best coffee taste, you must also desire for the best coffee grinder. You simply can’t make a great espresso no matter how fancy your espresso machine is unless you have a good quality grind that will enable the perfect extraction. This also goes for other coffee brewing methods (filter coffee, French Press, Chemex etc). The freshness, size and quality of grind have a significant effect on how a coffee will taste
Freshly ground coffee
Coffee beans have a dense cell structure with of tiny pockets mostly made up of glucose and cellulose molecules meshed together. The roasted bean that is stored properly, hold in those aromatic and flavourful qualities intact. As soon as we grind the coffee, the aroma and flavours will start to dull down as the coffee particles come into contact with air and become stale. This is why pre-ground coffee often tastes flat. Stale coffee lacks flavour and is usually more bitter than its supposed to be.
Coffee that is grown well and is roasted perfectly, when freshly grinded and made has the best aroma and flavours you can ever imagine. When freshly grinded, the aromatic oils and molecules are still intact and can give us that lovely, aromatic coffee and the most delicious flavours and notes we pick up inn coffee.
Grind size
Selecting the grind size is the most important part of grinding the coffee. The coffee bean has been through a wonderful journey, it’s been grown in the coffee growing areas in the world, processed properly and roasted well by an expert, and has its delicious flavours and lovely aromas when it gets to the barista. The grinding process is the last stage it goes through and if you mess up the grind size and amount, you have messed up the taste and all that hard work of all the people who played a part in this experience.
I know!!! This is a lot of responsibility on the Barista Lols…. That’s why they are the greatest and most passionate beings on the planet
During the brewing time, when coffee comes into contact with water, the flavours come out at different times depending on their water solubility. The Yummy sweet flavours, sharp notes and the acidity that lingers on the tongue. Must be extracted perfect will as little bitterness as possible (the bitter notes also add to the character).
This is why Brewing time is important. The amount of time that the coffee is in contact with the water (extraction time) is determined by the amount and size of the grounded coffee. Making under extracted coffee or over extracted coffee due to the grind size is gives not a desirable taste. Setting the grinder to the right grammage and right grind size to have a perfect brew based on the brewing time, it very important. We call this dialling in the grinder allowing us to have great coffee.
An Important note, is different brewing methods means different grind sizes and amount. For example, grind size and grammage for filter coffee is more coarse than from an espresso machine. The brewing time on chemex, is different from the brewing time in a French press. The grind size play a major role in these extraction methods.
Next week we will discuss the different type of coffee grinders and the best quality out there.