Nav: Home > Coffee >

Expressing Pour-Over Coffee Grind Size: How to Distinguish Fine and Coarse Sugar

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, From beginning to end, we've never had a clear description for the coarseness of grind size. Therefore, when people discuss grind size, various expressions emerge. Some describe it using "fine sugar," others prefer using the grind setting numbers on their equipment, and some, like FrontStreet Coffee, use sieve retention rates to express it. Although these methods

From beginning to end, we have never had a clear description of coffee grind size. Therefore, when people discuss grind size, various expressions emerge. Some use terms like "fine sugar" to describe it, others are accustomed to using the scale settings of grinding equipment, and some, like FrontStreet Coffee, express it through sieve pass rates. Although these methods have certain limitations, their ultimate goal is the same: to help everyone better understand the coarseness of coffee grounds.

Scale Reference Method

This method uses the scale values of grinders as parameters for coffee ground coarseness. Generally, it takes popular and highly versatile grinders as reference standards. For example, scale 7 on the EK-43, 26 clicks on the C40, and so on...

This is a reference method with significant drawbacks. The wide variety of grinders on the market makes it unlikely for buyers to have the same model. The grinding values differ across models, and the same scale setting on different grinders will produce coffee grounds of varying particle sizes. Even with the same grinding equipment model, differences in installation, usage, and maintenance conditions mean that the same scale setting can hardly serve as a reference standard. If both parties have different grinders, applying this reference method becomes even more challenging.

Visual Analogy Method

The visual analogy method involves using common objects to compare with the coarseness of coffee grounds. Coarse sugar and fine sugar are the most commonly used adjectives for grind size.

Visual comparison of grind sizes with sugar

Such descriptions allow people to most directly associate the coarseness of the grind, but this is also an "unreliable" description method because human eyes can hardly distinguish differences between small objects. When our eyes are attracted by focal objects, we easily overlook other details. Here's a small example: when using a hand grinder to grind relatively fine coffee, there will inevitably be some seemingly larger particles that attract your attention, making you mistakenly think this is a "coarse sugar" grind, when it's actually a "fine sugar" particle grind size. The eyes mislead your judgment, which invisibly increases the probability of error. Therefore, when initially judging grind size, you can spread out the coffee grounds and observe the overall picture to minimize the error rate.

Sieve Calibration Method

This is the most frequently mentioned method in FrontStreet Coffee's articles, mainly used for calibrating cupping and pour-over grind size judgments. FrontStreet Coffee uses a #20 standard sieve with a mesh diameter of 0.85mm. This sieve is not for removing fines, but primarily for determining grind size.

Its advantage is strong reproducibility - as long as you find the right sieve pass rate, different grinders can achieve the same grind size. The disadvantage is that it's quite labor-intensive... The usage method is to take 10g of coffee beans (or a multiple of 10, for easier calculation - the more powder used, the more accurate the data), select a grind size for grinding, then pour the ground coffee into the sieve, and shake it! Shake it horizontally left and right!!! Shake until no more particles fall noticeably (usually 3-5 minutes). Then weigh the particles that have fallen through, and divide the weight of the passed powder by the total powder weight to get the sieve pass rate.

Demonstration of sieve shaking technique

Here's an example: If we use 10g of powder and 8g passes through, then the sieve pass rate is 80%. If we want to reach 90%, we can increase the pass rate by adjusting the grind to be finer. Whatever reference method is used, the parameters provided are ultimately to reduce trial and error when brewing new beans. For example, coarse sugar size or an 80% sieve pass rate can help us adjust the grind to an appropriate range before brewing, and then combined with our pouring speed and extraction time during brewing, we can ultimately consume fewer coffee beans to adjust to the most suitable grinding parameters.