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Hello friends and welcome to Coffee Sensei. Your one stop information hub all about coffee. This introduction is going to introduce to the perfect coffee grind. One of the most frequent questions I get from seasoned vets and those beginning their coffee journey is how to discover the perfect coffee grind.

This can be a challenge, as most of us buy our coffee in a tin or bag that has the coffee already ground. This isn’t a biggie. It is convenient, easy and helpful that way, but as we move along on our coffee journey the question always comes up as to how to get the full bouquet or flavor profile from the coffee bean. And the best ways to do that my friends is to grind your coffee freshly before each serving.

Now that’s asking a lot and I recognize that. But it’s what I do with each new roasted coffee bean that I want to try. Now I’m not gonna lie to you. Most of the coffee I drink is not pre-ground before each serving. I usually will buy a half pound of beans and grind them all at once and enjoy. That ground coffee will likely last me around a week to 2 weeks, which is roughly within the life span of ground coffee.

However, most folks like to know what the right coffee grind is for their particular uses. And so my welcome message, or home page is all about getting the coffee grind right. The first thing of course to understand is that the fineness of your ground coffee really depends on how you like to use it.

For most of us in North America we usually have our coffee dripped through automatic coffee makers through either a cone or flat bottom coffee filter. In Europe it is common to have the coffee made with a French press as the name implies or percolated, where the coffee percolator is set on a stove or it can be electric, and water in the bottom chamber is forced up through head and pressure through a tube to be percolated over the top chamber which contains the ground coffee. The coffee then drips through a filter into the middle chamber.

In some parts of the Middle East and Africa, a Turkish style of coffee is used. Basically this coffee is made by boiling very finely ground coffee beans in water over a heat source. There is finesse and art involved in this process, and I’ll discuss the Turkish method of making coffee in another article. This is probably the most traditional way of making and enjoying coffee, since the Ethiopians first came across this beautiful bean.

So, selecting the perfect grind for your coffee is perhaps not as easy as one would think! It depends on the type of coffee you are making. My best advice, is to take the general guidelines that I’ll provide and then throw caution to the wind. Experiment a little. Not too much, but experiment a little with the grinds until you find that perfect coffee grind for you.

The general guidelines are as follows. Turkish coffee is the finest and is generally achieved with a mortal and pestle. Most grinders including a burr grinder will not get it fine enough. Then the next finest is for espresso coffee and then a flat bottom filter followed by a cone filter and the coarsest grind for coffee is usually the French press and percolator method.

I’ve attached a picture that shows you the difference in grind between a French press and espresso grind. I like to visually the French press coffee grind as having the coarseness of spit sesame seeds, or half the size of a small sesame seed. Espresso and more so Turkish ground coffee is powdery fine, like powdered sugar.

Some of the best burr grinders will have different settings for the different grind coarseness so experiment. Start with a coarse grind and then go finer until you are happy.

If you really feel talented, go with a mortar and pestle to grind your coffee, though this does take some skill. You can use an electric grinder but these are unreliable as you can’t get a consistent level of coarseness or fineness from the coffee grind. Some of the coffee beans will be coarse and others will be fine. So an electric grinder should be your last option.

Wow, I rambled on their a little bit, more than I had expected. I hope it was hopeful and thanks for visiting. Please keep coming back as I aim to make this your one stop destination for coffee information, advice and lore. If you love coffee I hope you’ll love what I offer over time. Coffee is a drink I’m pretty sure they’ll serve in heaven. And it makes you feel good too!