What's the Difference Between Freshly Ground and Pre-Ground Coffee? How Are Drip Coffee Bags Made? How to Brew Drip Coffee for the Best Taste?

Recently, the topic of freshly ground coffee has become quite popular. Some friends came to the shop and asked FrontStreet Coffee an interesting question: What's the difference between freshly ground coffee, manually ground coffee, and pre-ground coffee?

What is Freshly Ground Coffee?

So-called freshly ground coffee refers to coffee beans that are ground right before brewing. This act of grinding coffee beans on-site is what we call "fresh grinding," and the coffee brewed from these freshly ground beans is known as freshly ground coffee.

No matter what ingredients we're working with, we always emphasize one principle: "freshness." Fresh ingredients can possess the most abundant aroma and flavor, and the same principle applies to coffee. Before brewing, beans only need to maintain their intact, airtight structure to slow down the rate of gas loss.

If they are kept in a vacuum environment, they can maintain their flavor compounds for a very long time. This is particularly important for consumers who primarily drink pour-over single-origin coffee, as they have more demanding requirements for coffee flavor. However, due to lower consumption rates, they cannot finish a whole bag of beans quickly, so they need to store the beans in their whole form and grind them only when ready to drink. This way, the beans can maintain their excellent flavor for a longer time.

What is Manually Ground Coffee?

Manually ground coffee refers to coffee that is ground using human power. The grinding equipment can be a hand-crank coffee grinder or even a mortar and pestle, as long as it's driven by human force.

The reason why manual grinding is considered a separate category is that in coffee bean grinding, there is also electric grinding, which is driven by electricity.

Due to differences in burr design and power source, these two methods produce coffee grounds with significantly different uniformity, which is why they are often compared. However, it's important to know that because they serve different purposes, each has its own advantages, and there's no distinction between "good" and "bad." If you want portability and no electricity needed, choose a hand grinder; if you want uniform grinding and time-saving convenience, choose an electric grinder.

What is Pre-Ground Coffee?

Pre-ground coffee is the complete opposite of freshly ground coffee. It refers to coffee that was ground long before brewing. There are many reasons for pre-grinding, whether for convenience and saving time by grinding before travel, or perhaps to allow excess carbon dioxide to escape from the coffee grounds, giving hot water better extraction space, among other reasons.

The most representative example is drip bag coffee, where manufacturers grind and package the coffee in advance to reduce operational steps for buyers. However, the drawback is that when the time between grinding and brewing is too long, the coffee flavor won't be as full-bodied as freshly ground coffee.

This is because after coffee beans are roasted, they continuously release carbon dioxide and flavor compounds. The more air they come into contact with, the faster these compounds escape. Therefore, we need to find an airtight container to store coffee beans, which reduces contact between fresh air and the beans, allowing the flavor to be preserved longer.

However, once coffee beans are ground into powder, their increased surface area means they come into contact with more air. This causes the optimal flavor period, which could originally last over a month, to be shortened to about half of its original duration. The accelerated loss of flavor compounds leads to this shorter flavor window.

Therefore, if you want to experience rich, diverse, and full-bodied flavors in your coffee, it's best to use freshly ground coffee. After all, coffee grounds lose a significant amount of their flavor within just two hours of grinding. How to choose depends on your personal preferences!

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