Extra fine
Powdered sugar / sifted cocoa
Gentle heat ~2 min 30
Turkish coffee (cezve / ibrik)
03 / GRIND SIZE & EXTRACTION
Fractions of a millimetre.
Worlds of flavour.
If you change just one thing tomorrow morning to brew better coffee, make it your grind. Particle size controls both exposed flavour surface and how fast water flows through the bed.
Six visual and tactile benchmarks.
Rub a pinch of grounds between thumb and forefinger — tactile texture beats arbitrary dial numbers across every grinder.
Fine
Fine table salt
25 to 30 seconds at 9 bars
Manual or semi-auto espresso
Medium-fine
Soft, fine sand
2 min 15 to 3 min
Conical pour-over (V60), AeroPress, Moka pot
Medium
Even beach sand
3 min 30 to 5 min
Electric drip brewer, flat-bottom pour-over
Medium-coarse
Rough sand / raw sugar
3 min 30 to 4 min 30
Large Chemex, gentle immersion
Coarse
Flaky kosher / sea salt
4 min (hot) to 14 h (cold)
Classic French press, Cold brew
Grind size
Why burrs always outperform spinning blades.
A blade chopper shatters beans randomly, leaving big chunks (which under-extract sourness) right alongside powdery dust (which clogs filters and over-extracts bitterness) in the very same cup. A burr grinder — hand or electric — sets a fixed gap so particles emerge uniform and sweet.
- Even extraction: matching particles release their sugars at the exact same moment.
- Predictable dialling-in: one click finer or coarser produces a clear, repeatable taste shift.
- Cooler milling: burrs crush cleanly without scorching delicate aromatics before water even touches them.
Helpful habit: ignore someone else’s dial number — two grinders rarely share the same zero point. Trust draw-down time and your own palate.
INTERACTIVE BARISTA COMPASS
Taste your cup: what clue is it giving you?
Select what you notice on your tongue to see what happened inside the brew and the exact tweak for your next cup.
UNDER-EXTRACTED (< 18%)
Water needed more contact or finer particles.
Water rushed through too fast or ran too cool: it pulled out fast early acids but left behind the rounded sugars needed for balance.
→ Grind one or two clicks finer on your very next brew.
Extra checks: keep water at 92–96 °C, give a full 35-second bloom, and make sure no dry pockets remain.
THE SWEET SPOT (18 – 22%)
You nailed the extraction sweet spot!
Lively fruit notes, caramelised sugars and gentle cocoa structure sit in harmony, leaving a lingering, clean aftertaste that invites the next sip.
→ Jot down your grinder setting, gram dose and brew time.
Curious to explore? Keep this exact grind and try 1:15 for richer body or 1:17 for extra tea-like clarity.
OVER-EXTRACTED (> 22%)
Water worked the coffee grounds too hard.
Water lingered too long or fought through fine dust: past the sugars, it pulled out woody, astringent compounds that dry out your palate.
→ Grind one or two clicks coarser on your next cup.
Extra checks: drop water temperature slightly (88–90 °C on dark roasts) and rinse away old coffee oil build-up.
Separate “strength” from “extraction”.
This single distinction unlocks stress-free brewing: strength (watery vs. heavy) comes from your coffee-to-water ratio, whereas balance (sour vs. bitter) comes from grind size!
Harsh, drying bitterness on the finish
That’s over-extraction — not necessarily too much coffee! Using fewer grams can actually worsen channelling; keep your dose steady and grind coarser.
Sharp, lemony sourness with thin body
That’s under-extraction. Grind finer to slow flow slightly and give water time to dissolve natural sweetness.
Balanced flavour, just too weak or too heavy
Your grind is spot on! Simply adjust your ratio: move from 1:17 toward 1:15 for fuller body, or add a splash of hot water (“bypass”) if it feels too dense.