What's the Difference in Coffee Bean Grind Sizes? Pour-Over Coffee's Characteristics Beyond Ritual: Great Taste

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FrontStreet Coffee - Pour-Over Coffee Characteristics and Grind Size Introduction

Pour-Over Coffee

In an era where various coffee machines are flourishing everywhere, pour-over coffee with its simple equipment and emphasis on manual technique has become a refreshing return to simplicity. Pour-over may represent the pinnacle of coffee brewing—using the simplest tools, supported by rich experience, to obtain a cup of highly distinctive coffee by controlling water temperature, amount and fineness of grounds, pouring speed, technique, and extraction time.

Characteristics of Pour-Over Coffee

Fast extraction speed and efficiency: Compared to other coffee brewing methods, pour-over coffee continuously passes fresh hot water through the coffee grounds during extraction, resulting in faster extraction and the ability to extract more substances from the coffee surface. However, because of the speed, poor control may lead to over-extraction.

Overall, coffee grinding is for better extraction. Finer grounds lead to more complete extraction, but more complete is not always better. We don't want all the contents of the coffee to be extracted—that would be undrinkable. You could try chewing coffee beans directly. As for detailed coffee extraction compounds, that will be covered in a separate article. Moreover, extraction is not solely determined by grind size; factors like time, water temperature, and roast level also play a role. Here, we'll focus specifically on grind size.

Grind size can be roughly divided into five levels: coarse, medium, medium-fine, fine, and ultra-fine. We can first look at their particle size differences and corresponding reference objects.

Among these, coarse grind is equivalent to raw sugar or brown sugar, medium grind to commonly used white sugar, fine grind to table salt, and ultra-fine grind to rice flour or coarser flour particles.

Coarse Grind: Generally suitable for French press. Because French press involves full contact with grounds and stirring, extraction is very thorough, so coarse grounds should be used whenever possible. If conditions allow, use a sieve to remove fine particles, as even minimal fine particles in this extraction mode can produce very prominent and noticeable bitterness.

Medium and Medium-Fine Grind: Often there's no strict correspondence with specific equipment. Generally, medium grind is suitable for American drip brewers, while medium-fine grind is suitable for pour-over and siphon pots.

Fine Grind: Suitable for moka pots. Some people also prefer using ultra-fine grind for moka pots. This is purely a matter of personal taste, with no distinction between superior or inferior.

Ultra-Fine Grind: Suitable for espresso machines. There's not much discussion needed here, as adjustments of about 0.2 scale are typically made based on roast level or bean storage time. This can be adjusted according to personal taste.

Knowledge Point: Pour-over coffee uses single-origin, single-variety coffee beans manually brewed by hand. Enthusiasts even roast and grind their own beans.

In Summary

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research establishment dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation simply to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Additionally, we hold three discounted coffee events each month, because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends enjoy the best coffee at the lowest possible price—this has been our mission for the past 6 years!

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473