Grind guide
Get the grind right first
Grind size sets how fast water pulls flavor out of coffee. Coarse grounds give water little surface to work on, so extraction runs slow. Fine grounds give it far more, so extraction runs fast. Dose, temperature and timing are fine-tuning.
Miss in one direction and the cup comes out thin and sour. Miss in the other and it turns heavy and bitter. Nothing changed but the grind.
The scale
Coarse to fine, step by step
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1
Extra coarse
Cracked peppercorns
Contact 12+ hours
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2
Coarse
Flaky sea salt
Contact 4–5 minutes
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3
Medium coarse
Rough sand
Contact 4–5 minutes
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4
Medium
Regular sand
Contact 4–6 minutes
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5
Medium fine
Fine sand
Contact 1–3 minutes
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6
Fine
Table salt
Contact 25–30 seconds
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7
Extra fine
Powdered flour
Contact Under 1 minute
Swatch density is a relative illustration of particle size, not a measurement. On a phone, swipe the scale sideways.
Your brewer
Match it to your brewer
Every recipe in our brew guides is written around these settings. When a cup tastes off, look here before you change the coffee, the water or the dose.
| Method | Grind | Contact time | Common fault |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cold brew | Extra coarse | 12+ hours | Harsh or woody Shorten the steep to 12–14 hours or grind coarser. |
| French press | Coarse | 4–5 minutes | Muddy, gritty cup Grind coarser and press more gently — fines are slipping the mesh. |
| Chemex | Medium coarse | 4–5 minutes | Stalls or drains slowly Grind coarser — Chemex filters clog easily with fines. |
| Batch drip | Medium | 4–6 minutes | Weak and thin More coffee, not a finer grind — drip machines extract on a fixed schedule. |
| AeroPress | Medium fine | 1–3 minutes | Hard to press Grind coarser; you're compacting a too-fine bed. |
| Moka pot | Medium fine | 1–3 minutes | Burnt, metallic taste Lower heat, start with hot water, and pull it off at the FIRST gurgle — the sputter is steam scorching the last of the bed. |
| V60 pour-over | Medium fine | 1–3 minutes | Tastes sour or thin Grind finer or raise water temperature — you're under-extracting. |
| Espresso | Fine | 25–30 seconds | Shot gushes, done in 15s Grind finer. Keep the dose at 18g and pull again. |
Freshness
Grinding starts a clock
A whole bean keeps its aromatics behind a hard shell. Grinding shatters that shell and multiplies the surface exposed to air, so the compounds that make coffee smell like coffee start leaving straight away. Grind right before you brew and you keep them.
Rough guidance for a bag kept in a cool, dark cupboard. We roast to order and ship in 3–5 days, so the clock that matters starts when your bag is opened.
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Whole bean, sealed
3–4 weeks
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Ground, sealed
7–10 days
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Ground, open
2–3 days
Equipment
Burr, not blade
Burr grinder
One size, on purpose
Two abrasive surfaces sit a fixed distance apart and crush the bean as it passes between them. Nothing gets through until it fits the gap, so almost every particle leaves at the same size. Particles the same size extract at the same rate.
That is what makes a grind setting mean anything. Move the burrs closer and the whole batch gets finer together, so you can dial a recipe in today and repeat it tomorrow.
Blade grinder
Every size at once
A blade spins and chops whatever it happens to hit. Run it longer and you do not get a finer grind. You get more dust alongside the boulders that never met the blade.
Dust has enormous surface area, so it over-extracts and turns bitter. Boulders give up almost nothing, so they under-extract and taste sour. Both land in the same cup, and no adjustment to dose, water or time separates them again.
The short version: if you buy one piece of coffee gear this year, make it a burr grinder. A modest hand grinder beats an expensive blade one. And if grinding at home isn't for you, pick your grind at checkout and we'll grind each bag to your brewer when we pack it.
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