As always when I am brewing my own coffee at home I fresh grind my beans right before I brew. Conventional wisdom says grinding at home is the best option. Is this true for all coffee and especially decaf?
Why should you grind your own coffee? Grinding coffee at home allows for adjusting grind size to brewing method, allows for grinding on demand preserving freshness and finer control of the brewing process versus pre-ground. Not all coffee grinders are created equal and there are important differences.
If you don’t already grind your own coffee at home I think your missing out on a key piece of the brewing process that can have some of the biggest impacts on your coffee! Read on to discover these important factors you probably didn’t know.
Grinding Basics
To start out with the basics I use a burr grinder with adjustable settings to grind all my whole bean coffee. Each coffee brewer has its own optimal size requirement like a coarse grind for french press pots or fine grinds for espresso machines. The reason to grind for each process is to give the best extraction rate for that process. French presses use a very coarse grind to keep the coffee trapped by the screen and since its in constant contact with the coffee until you pour it. Whereas an autodrip is a finer grind because there’s a fiber based filter and extraction rate needs to be faster to allow the brewing process to yield the most flavorful coffee and not be under extracted.
Blade vs Burr Grinder
There are two main types of coffee grinders; blade and burr grinders. Blade grinders are really blenders someone threw coffee into one time and then marketed as a new gizmo. Blade grinders are poor substitutes for a burr grinder and have no hope of controlling a precise grind size.
The real coffee lovers swear by burr grinders; I use a conical burr grinder as well. Burr grinders are precision equipment that grind the coffee at exacting tolerances. Though to be honest my home grade grinder does a great job but is definitely not as exacting as professional coffee shop grinders. I notice a decent variation of particle size but this is to be expected on a sub $100 piece of equipment. Most commercial grinders meant for cafe use are well about the $500 price point! Not a single one is a blade grinder either.
Tip: Add one to two drops of water to the beans in the hopper prior to grinding to eliminate static electricity in the grounds.
If you know someone who grinds their coffee with a blade grinder please share this post and tell them (affiliate links ahead) to get an electric burr grinder or a manual burr grinder! The manual grinder will get you a great arm workout as you have to crank it between 2-5 minutes! It also counts as HIIT exercise! OK, I made that last part up… but for real it will get you awesome coffee for sure.
The manual grinder is also a great tool to have for camping, hiking , when the kids are in bed and you don’t want a noisy grinder going or even those multi day power outages in the dead of winter!
These grinders have a crazy amount of reviews and are really highly rated. I don’t own these models but they are very similar to what I have. My electric grinder is over 10 years old and gets routine use so it was a great investment!
Electric Grinder (click the image to check it out on Amazon, affiliate link)
Manual Grinder (click the image to check it out on Amazon, affiliate link)
Tip: I don’t recommend grinding spices or pepper in your coffee grinder. If you do be sure to fully disassemble and clean properly. No one whats pepper coffee!
Grind your coffee for the process!
To me the biggest reason to fresh grind your coffee is to be able to tailor it to what process you are using. Some days I want to use a french press if I am having a slow lazy morning, rare with little kids anymore! Other times I need to make the coffee in three seconds flat before my toddler jumps off the couch onto his big brother. In that case I grind for filter and dump it in my autodrip. My grinder also allows me to experiment with the best grinds for each coffee. Some coffees I have noticed just seem to taste better if I grind a little finer. Makes sense the finer the grind the smaller the particles and the more surface area to extract coffee out of.
Can you ruin coffee by grinding too fine? Unless you are grinding for a process like french press, in my opinion not really if you are using the coffee right away. If you grind it a week ahead , you will ruin it by causing oxidation to happen much faster. If you only use filter processes like autodrip, Chemex, or a pour over, a finer grind is less likely to hurt the flavor. That said if the extraction then proceeds too fast based on that grind and method, you will notice a significant loss in flavor.
What’s the right grind for each process? Percolators are the coarsest grind and espresso machines are the finest. Filters are in the middle. What about decaf? Is it ground the same as regular?
Do you grind decaf differently than regular?
THis is the million dollar question. There is no answer directly. I would say the logic that a finer grind is probably required for more flavor is true. THe decaf process does change the beans and the structure. Being soaked in hot water and then dried, is not an easy process. Several roasters have noted how you have to roast decaf much more carefully to get good coffee. WHat does this mean? BAsically the flavor oils have been messed around with and are more easily damaged. Regular coffee never goes through this process so its oils are intact and never exposed to the environment like decaf. That said I think going finer is going to allow more area exposed which will allow for more flavor oils to be extracted.
Some users on reddit felt that a slightly finer ground worked better in espresso machines for decaf varieties specifically. Why is that? Simply that decaf has been processed prior to being roasted and it changes the beans structure resulting in enlargement of the beans and more porosity of the bean vs regular. Grinding finer would allow more surface area to be exposed and result in an equivalent cup to a regular coffee. Several uses noted similar findings so I’m inclined to believe them. I don’t own an espresso maker yet but it’s on my list of coffee gear to buy and tinker with for decaf.
Does this logic hold true to filter coffee as well? I would guess the science would state a similar case. Smaller grind more surface area and more exposure for flavor oils to be extracted. One of my favorite pre ground decafs is also one of the finest I have seen. It’s very similar to the espresso grind I get out of my grinder. WHich is that you ask? Seattle’s BEst Portside Blend of course, maybe the most awesome pre ground grocery store coffee around! Does that make a difference? Read about my grind experiment below to find out my taste test results!!!
Ok what about the king of all coffee brewing flavor the french press? I would guess you can go too fine here and cause problems with the mechanical part of the process and not the chemistry part. Really i would guess too fine and you will clog your screen or worse wind up with grounds in you coffee! I doubt the chemistry part would be affected much as again the logic of more surface area equals more flavor likely holds true. That said I could see a french press over extracting the bitterness of the coffee with too fine of a grind.
Where do pre-ground decafs fit in? Every pre-ground I have found has been ground for filters. Not one has really be coarse enough for a true french press or percolator grind. Its for the simple reason you would expect. 99% of those coffee drinkers use auto drip or filter machines and don’t really strive for the very best coffee. Especially decaf drinkers who have been large, and erroneously, cast aside as sissies and not real coffee drinkers.
Ok, but is it cheaper to grind to your own coffee?
Nope! This is simple I have not noticed any price difference in pre ground coffee at consumer levels. If you are buying 500 pounds maybe but not at the pound scale.
If you are grinding your own coffee for refillable coffee pods then YES. Coffee pods are crazy expensive per pound often in the $25/lbs range. If you grind your own coffee for the refillable k cups for example you will save a lot of money. Even with high end coffee in the $20/lbs range you will save money.
The great coffee grinding Experiment!
I conducted a quick experiment in two phases to see how grind would affect flavor. The first phase was an accidental aging test based on grind size. I had ground all the samples and let them sit for almost a month! Kids, dishes, and the holidays sidetracked me! Despite how much coffee I drink I didn’t get a chance to do my planned taste test. Regardless after a month I returned to my aged ground coffee and found all samples had taken on a terrible paper test from the muffin tins I had them in. I will say the finer ground coffee had more of the terrible taste then the coarse ground though! Sadly this was one of the few times I threw coffee out.
Phase two of the test was to focus on the coarse ground compared to the espresso grind. This will be a more simple test to let me judge how much more flavor could be imparted at the extreme end of the grinding spectrum. I used the same coffee obviously, Kicking Horse, to test this out with. I ground a coarse and espresso grind in my conical burr grinder. THe coares was almost like coarse sea salt whereas the espresso grind was like cocoa powder. A pretty big difference in particle size was bound to yield much different cups of coffee. I was really shocked at what a difference grind size made! To add to the fun I even brewed a pot of Kicking Horse auto drip grind to compare to my prepared samples.
I tasted the coffees in my typical way of loosely based on the SCA cupping procedure and against my routine auto drip pot. What did I find from this experiment? First, for me, I couldn’t really tell a flavor or aroma difference between the coffees. I have mentioned before, I’m not an expert taster nor do I possess extraordinary sense of taste. I probably generally have a pretty bad sense of smell and taste compared to a lot of coffee/wine lovers. Probably why I like big bold dark roasts, strong porter beers and super hot spicy peppers! Overall for the Kicking Horse both samples taste like pipe tobacco and cherries. The official tasting notes from the company are dark chocolate and hazelnuts. I guess I need to work on my tasting skills more!
Where it gets interesting is mouthfeel and bitterness. For bitterness there was a huge difference! The coarse grind was super bitter compared to the espresso grind. Why? I’m not sure exactly I would have expected the finer grind to be more bitter if anything. My guess is that I poured the coarse ground coffee first and the water may have been slightly too hot. My other guess could be I mistook sourness for bitterness which an under extracted coffee could become. The expected result should have been the finer grind should have been more bitter and over extracted.
The other notable observation was the fact that the finer ground had much more body than the coarse ground. The coarse ground was a lot more watery. It was a stark difference between the two samples. This makes sense as the coarse grind will be under extracted much like coffee brewed too weak. I was surprised by the degree of difference though, so it does show that grinding too coarse can negatively affect the mouthfeel though in my opinion not a major flaw for the average coffee drinker who most likely adds creamer, milk, sugar etc. THough this would be a major issue in if you diluted your coffee to adjust the strength. Then you would be left with a far too watery of coffee and not a great experience.
A quick way to judge grind
Are you confused on what grind you need for your coffee? Worry no more and check out this awesome chart to help you grind to perfection. These are general guidelines to help you out and get you started. If you are using a hand grinder you may have to experiment on some low cost beans to dial in the exact grinds for your favorite processes. As well if your using a blade grinder (not recommended) then you might wind up with a lot of variations for every new coffee and have to best average the grind.
Tip: How to grind by eye like a master Barista!
Coarse = Sea salt
Drip = Sand
Espresso = Garlic Powder
Turkish = Cocoa Powder
With great power comes great responsibly!
What does this experiment mean for us decaf lovers for grind size? Overall I think the key is to grind the right size for the process i.e. coarse for French Press or fine for a Chemex. As well I would experiment in the acceptable range of grinds to see what works best for each individual coffee. Some coffees I love in my French press and others are better in a Chemex. It’s all up to individual tastes and preferences. Just like I like a big bold dark roast and some people prefer a bright medium roast. I would say the only hard and fast rule is don’t go too coarse or fine for the process that will either lead to over extraction or under extraction and dirty sock water coffee!
If you enjoyed this post check out my article on the 20 Must Try Decafs here! Or if you want 42 reasons to drink decaf check out my article here!