When you’re ambling through the coffee aisle at the supermarket, familiar brands of pre-ground coffee are typically most prevalent. Brands like Folgers, Maxwell House, and Seattle’s Best dominate store shelves. And while these ground coffees are usually suitable for the average coffee consumer, truly great coffee is almost always ground fresh. If you’ve ever been to a more high-class coffee purveyor, you’ll find that whole coffee beans are typically ground to order. Even high-value retail chains like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts often do it. There’s without a doubt something to be said about this fact.
The Gourmet Coffee Drinker’s Choice
That something, of course, is that coffee simply tastes better when it’s ground fresh. As soon as the beans are ground, their flavor begins to diminish. This is because the oils that the beans contain aren’t preserved after the beans are ground. They begin to separate from the grounds and dissipate right after the process is finished. And, despite technology like Flavor-seal developed by coffeemakers’ marketing departments, the fact remains that fresh ground beans are richer tasting. So, with that established, here’s what you need to know about coffee grinders and grinding your own coffee.
Different Grinds for Different Coffees
Depending on the type of coffeemaker you use and type of coffee you like, certain grinds are suited better than others. For a French Press coffee maker, for example, a very coarse grind is necessary in order to avoid the buildup of residue in your coffee cup. Similarly, drip and single cup coffee brewers necessitate a medium grind. Moderate grinds make it easier for drip-style brewers to make strong coffee while avoiding going through the filter and getting into your cup. Percolators, meanwhile, also require a coarse grind to prevent considerable amounts of the grind from getting into the final product. The type of coffee you like matters as well. If you’re big one espresso, for instance, an extremely fine grind is best suited, as it will serve to strengthen the brew. With all these variables at hand, it’s easy to see why a versatile coffee grinder is a great tool for the avid coffee drinker.
Types of Coffee Grinders
For personal use, there are two main types of coffee grinders available. The first is called a blade grinder. It works much like a blender. You drop in the whole coffee beans, press the power button, and a high speed, double-sided blade spins around – grinding the beans quickly and with little effort. Also known as the “propeller grinder”, blade grinders are often used for grinding spices and flavorings as well. In this way, they serve as a sort of all-purpose kitchen appliance. One common difficulty had with them, though, is cleaning. According to the notable nonfiction book “The Joy of Cooking”, the easiest way to clean a blade grinder after use is to grind a tablespoon or two of sugar in it, and then wipe it down inside and out with a damp cloth.
The other type of grinder often used by coffee drinkers is called a burr grinder. Unlike the blender-style blade grinder, burr grinders have two plates that can either be flat or cones in shape. When powered on, one plate stays in the same position while the other spins around. Gourmet coffee drinkers are often careful with this type of grinder because allowing the plates to spin too fast will heat the grounds prematurely and destroy some of its flavors. Most modern burr grinders account for this by automatically setting the plate RPM relatively slow.
Which Type is Better?
In general, coffee aficionados prefer burr grinders to blade grinders. This is mostly because they offer the bean grinder more control in how their coffee turns out. When blade grinders are operated, they essentially crush the beans instead of truly grinding them. The result is a grind with a wildly heterogeneous size and shape. Thus, you can’t make the optimal grind for your own type of coffee or coffee maker with a blade grinder. Burr grinders at low speeds, meanwhile, will allow you to directly control the size of the grind. Thus, if you’re making espresso, for example, you can make the grind much finer than you would be able to with any blade grinder. The one exception to this accepted fact is people who exclusively make coffee with a percolator or French press. Because they require coarse, uneven grounds anyway, a blade grinder will work just as well as a burr grinder for them.
Coffee Grinding Tips
So, you’ve got the beans and have found the perfect grinder. Now what? Well, as stated before, the method for coffee grinding depends on what you’ll use to make the actual coffee. With an espresso machine, you’ll want to grind the coffee for roughly 20 to 25 seconds, or until it has the consistency of very fine sand. For drip brewers, meanwhile, the best grind is typically somewhere between medium and fine. For the typical burr grinder, this takes between 10 and 15 seconds. When finished, it should have a texture similar to cornmeal. If you’re going to be using a French press or percolator to brew the coffee, a coarse grind is best. With most grinders, this takes between 7 and 10 seconds. You’ll know it’s done when it looks like cracked pepper, with bits and pieces that vary in size and shape
In addition, to grind size, there are a few general rules of thumb for brewing your own coffee. First and foremost is to keep the grounds as fresh as possible. If you can, try to grind coffee beans fresh each time you make it. If that’s not practical, though, you can pre-grind and seal the grounds for future use. They should maintain good flavor for about two days. Finally, always be sure to clean the coffee grinder each time you use it. If left uncleaned, leftover old grounds will almost certainly find their way into your next brew and could ruin its taste. So though it may seem like a pain to clean the grinder each and every time you use it, your coffee will actually turn out much better that way.
