Pour-Over Coffee Beginner's Guide: Common Coffee Grind Size Reference Chart and How to Use a Coffee Flour Sifter

"What's the grind size for pour-over coffee?", "Why does the 10 setting on your grinder differ from the 10 setting on my grinder?", "Does 'sugar-sized' mean fine sugar, coarse sugar, or brown sugar?"... Are you still struggling to find the right grind size for your coffee brewing equipment? FrontStreet Coffee will guide you through determining the perfect coffee grind coarseness in this article! (Save! Save! Save this!!)

How Important is Coffee Grind Size?

At the same weight, the finer the coffee grind, the more cutting increases, surface area increases, and the area where water can contact the coffee grounds increases. Conversely, the coarser the grind size, the lower the coffee concentration and extraction rate, the lower the body, and the stronger the acidity of the coffee.

Different coffee brewing methods require different grind sizes due to their extraction methods, and there's no unified standard for grinder settings. Therefore, we need a reliable testing tool—China Standard #20 0.85mm aperture sieve/coffee bean grind size cupping calibration sieve, which is what FrontStreet Coffee commonly refers to as the coffee grounds sieve.

How to Use a Coffee Sieve to Determine Coffee Grind Coarseness?

attentive readers might ask: Why a cupping calibration sieve? Although there are various brewing methods on the market with different opinions on brewing parameters, cupping is the recognized testing standard in the coffee industry. Initially, cupping was used to test green bean quality, but gradually people also use cupping to determine coffee flavor before deciding on suitable brewing parameters for samples. The grind size for cupping coffee is 70-75% pass-through rate with a #20 sieve.

The usage method is also very simple: When FrontStreet Coffee determines grind size, they use 10g of coffee beans for a rough grind, then pour it into the middle layer sieve, cover with the lid, and shake horizontally until no coffee particles fall into the lower collection bowl. Then weigh the coffee particles that passed through the sieve—the resulting weight is the pass-through rate. If 7g-7.5g of 10g coffee passes through the sieve, then this grind size has a 70-75% pass-through rate with a #20 sieve. The finer the coffee particles, the higher the pass-through rate; the coarser the coffee particles, the lower the pass-through rate.

Common Brewing Equipment Grind Size Standards & Reference Images

Drip Extraction/Pour-Over Coffee Grind Size (68-80% pass-through rate with #20 sieve)

Suitable for V60, Kono, Ice Drip, Origami filter cups, fan-shaped filter cups, cake filter cups, Clever dripper, American drip coffee makers

Drip brewing, or pour-over coffee, works on the principle that water extracts substances from coffee grounds and then passes through filter paper to produce clean coffee liquid. Generally, pour-over coffee brewing time is shorter, so the grind size needs to be finer.

Different roast levels of coffee beans require different grind coarseness. FrontStreet Coffee suggests that light-medium to medium roast coffee beans should have a grind coarseness of 75-80% pass-through rate with #20 sieve; medium-dark roast coffee beans should have a grind coarseness of 70-75% pass-through rate with #20 sieve.

(75-80% pass-through rate coarseness)

(70-75% pass-through rate coarseness)

Immersion Extraction/French Press Grind Size (68-75% pass-through rate with #20 sieve)

French press uses immersion for coffee extraction, with longer immersion time (4 minutes), plus its filter mesh has larger holes, so the grind size needs to be coarser. This helps reduce over-extraction and better filter coffee particles.

Different roast levels of coffee beans require different grind coarseness. FrontStreet Coffee suggests that light-medium to medium roast coffee beans should have a grind coarseness of 70-75% pass-through rate with #20 sieve; medium-dark roast coffee beans should have a grind coarseness of 65-70% pass-through rate with #20 sieve.

(70-75% pass-through rate coarseness)

(65-70% pass-through rate coarseness)

Low-Temperature Extraction/Cold Brew, Ice Drip Coffee Grind Size (80-85% pass-through rate with #20 sieve)

Low-temperature extraction differs from high-temperature extraction. In ice water mixture/refrigerated environments, coffee extraction efficiency is very low, so the release rate of flavor substances from coffee grounds also slows down, making the production time very long. The benefit of low-temperature extraction is that it can fully extract sour and sweet substances while reducing the extraction of bitter substances.

Due to slow extraction speed, coffee grind size can be finer, but not too fine. FrontStreet Coffee suggests that coffee beans for cold brew/ice drip should have a grind size of 80-85% pass-through rate with #20 sieve for optimal results. If you want it richer, choose 85% pass-through rate; if you want it cleaner, choose 80% pass-through rate.

(80-85% pass-through rate coarseness)

Pressure Extraction/Espresso Machine Grind Size (Cannot be determined with #20 sieve)

The grind size used by espresso machines is very fine, finer than 0.85mm aperture, so it cannot be determined using a #20 sieve. As for how fine, we can refer to the image below.

(Espresso grind coarseness)

If you need to determine the grind size for espresso, it must be done through continuous extraction and tasting. FrontStreet Coffee's espresso extraction recipe is 20g of coffee grounds extracting 40g of coffee liquid in 28 seconds (with ±1 margin of error). Everyone can refer to this extraction recipe and make fine adjustments based on the espresso's flavor performance.

Steam Pressure Extraction/Moka Pot Coffee Grind Size (Cannot be determined with #20 sieve)

Moka pot is the same—it uses very fine grind size, but slightly coarser than espresso machine grind size, yet still finer than 0.85mm aperture, so it cannot be determined using a #20 sieve either.

As for the grind size, you can refer to the gap size of the moka pot's coffee chamber, ensuring coffee particles don't pass through the gap. You can refer to the image below.

(Moka pot grind reference)

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473