What is Coarse Sugar Grind Size for Pour-Over Coffee? Coffee Grind Size Visual Guide [Images]

The Challenge of Coffee Grind Size

Coffee grind size has always been a challenge that many coffee enthusiasts struggle with. When coffee shops share brewing methods, you've probably heard terms like "medium grind," "coarse sugar size," or "Fuji R-4 setting" repeatedly. But you still might not know exactly how coarse that "coarse sugar size" actually is.

The Problem with Vague Descriptions

Why do these parameters seem standard but are actually ambiguous? Some coffee shops like to use "fine grind, medium grind, coarse grind" to differentiate grind levels, which leads to a consensus problem: is your range of fine to coarse consistent with mine? In this way, as a beginner, you must accept their entire theoretical system to understand what their "medium grind" actually means.

Then there's "coarse sugar size," where some shops use analogies for grind parameters, referencing everyday objects. Coarse sugar is a perfect reference point. "Go home and compare with coarse sugar—this coffee's grind size is similar to coarse sugar!"

While having coarse sugar as a reference point should theoretically be scientific, in reality, you're completely baffled during the comparison process. First, sugar comes in four grades: refined, superior, grade one, and grade two. Different grades of sugar vary in purity and particle size accuracy. Sugar particle values are also divided into coarse (0.800-2.50mm), large (0.630-1.60mm), medium (0.450-1.25mm), and fine (0.280-0.800mm). However, in consumer perception, there's only coarse sugar and fine sugar.

Second, ground coffee isn't uniform in size—obvious very fine and very coarse particles are inevitable. Combining these two points, in other words, for someone without experience, comparing with coarse sugar is meaningless!

Grinder Settings as Reference

Then there's "Fuji R-4," which uses common grinder settings as grind parameters, appearing very reliable. For example, if I use the same grinder as you, then your setting is my setting. Even if using different models, many enthusiastic coffee enthusiasts have created reference charts, "such as grinder A's setting a corresponds to grinder B's setting b," establishing a standard system this way. This should seem like the most scientific expression.

Here, FrontStreet Coffee would like to share a customer's story. This customer also loves pour-over coffee, so he purchased a Fuji R grinder from Japan—an authentic one. After more than half a year, he helped his good friend purchase another Fuji R grinder, also authentic from Japan. When he was helping his friend test the machine, he discovered that the coffee ground at the same setting on his Fuji R was different in size from the new Fuji R. Fuji R A's 3.5 setting corresponded to Fuji R B's 4 setting.

I'm sharing this story mainly to let everyone know that even the same model of grinder at the same setting doesn't necessarily produce the same grind size—possibly due to manufacturing precision or burr wear issues. But reality does show errors, which must be acknowledged. So the standard was broken again.

However, FrontStreet Coffee believes that these three methods are still the most direct and acceptable approaches. Although there's a chance of significant errors, they can still work when paired with grinding reference charts.

A More Scientific Approach

Is there a more scientific method? Yes, actually, using coarse sugar as a reference point and grinder settings as measurement standards isn't wrong—it's just that the standard objects aren't reliable enough. Therefore, to create a more scientific way to define grind size, the tool must be fixed with minimal variability.

So we use standard sieves. This calibration method was initially used for cupping. For more objective and accurate cupping, the industry uniformly adopted No. 20 (0.85mm) sieves with a 70-75% pass rate as the standard for cupping grind fineness.

Why can sieves calibrate grind parameters? The No. 20 sieve mentioned by FrontStreet Coffee is the national standard 0.85mm aperture size, meaning regardless of who uses it, the sieve is the same, reducing errors. FrontStreet Coffee's standard for pour-over grind is an 80% pass rate on No. 20 sieve. When FrontStreet Coffee shares brewing methods with enthusiasts, we often use the pass rate percentage on No. 20 standard sieve as a measurement. This way, enthusiasts can calibrate using sieves of the same specifications at home to achieve the same fineness. (This sieve costs about tens of yuan)

No. 20 Sieve Calibration

This must be distinguished from using fine powder sieves to remove fine particles—the purpose is different. This sieve is designed to help you clearly recognize which level your current grind is at—it's a fineness judgment tool. The more coffee powder that passes through the sieve, the finer the grind. This can be expressed as a pass rate percentage. For example, an 80% pass rate is finer than a 75% pass rate.

However, this still has a drawback: there's only one sieve, so even the particles that pass through have variations in size. If the grinder has high precision, this drawback can be ignored. But if the grinder is poor quality, then... no method will help much.

Of course, there are more precise coffee sieves, such as the Canadian brand KRUVE sifter, which has a complete range of sieves from 0.2mm to 1.6mm, capable of precisely sieving out the particle size distribution of ground coffee. Besides being slightly expensive, there are basically no major issues. However, FrontStreet Coffee is just sharing that such a product exists—we're not suggesting everyone should buy one! (Don't misunderstand)

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473