What Grind Size Should You Use? A Brewer-by-Brewer Guide

Grind size should match how long water stays in contact with the coffee: the longer the brew, the coarser the grind. Espresso runs in 25 to 30 seconds, so it needs a fine grind with enormous surface area to extract anything in that time. French press steeps for four minutes, so it needs a coarse grind or it over-extracts into bitterness and sludge. Drip and pour over sit in the middle at two to four minutes and want a medium grind, roughly the texture of table salt. Cold brew runs 12 to 24 hours and wants the coarsest grind of all. Get this wrong in either direction and the symptom tells you which way: sour, thin and watery means the grind is too coarse and the coffee is under-extracted; bitter, harsh and drying means too fine and over-extracted. Grind size is the single most effective thing to adjust before changing anything else.

Here is the grind for every common brewer. Everything we sell comes in four grind options cut to order, including the Organic Colombia, so you can skip the guesswork.

What grind does each brewer need?

The pattern is the whole rule. Short contact time needs fine, long contact time needs coarse.

How do you tell if the grind is wrong?

Taste it, and the fault names itself.

Sour, sharp, thin or salty means under-extraction. Water passed through too quickly or the particles were too large to give up enough. Grind finer.

Bitter, drying, harsh or hollow means over-extraction. Water pulled out the unpleasant compounds that come after the good ones. Grind coarser.

Most people reach for a different coffee when the real problem is a grind setting. Fix the grind before you change beans, dose or water, because it has more effect than all three.

Does grinding fresh actually matter?

Yes, and more than most freshness advice.

Ground coffee has vastly more surface area exposed to oxygen than whole beans, so it stales in days rather than weeks. The aromatic compounds that carry the fruit, floral and chocolate notes you paid for are the first to go.

That said, grinding fresh is pointless if you grind badly. A cheap blade grinder chops unevenly and produces fines and boulders at the same time, which under-extract and over-extract in the same cup. A burr grinder, even an inexpensive hand-cranked one, is a bigger upgrade than a better coffee. If you do not have one, buying pre-ground to your brewer beats grinding badly, which is why we cut to order rather than selling whole bean only. We covered the trade in whole bean or ground.

Does grind size change the CBD per cup?

Slightly, and in the same direction as everything else it affects.

Our cannabinoids go into the bean during the roast with a water-soluble extract, so they are distributed through the bean rather than sitting on the surface. A grind that extracts the coffee well extracts the CBD well. A badly under-extracted cup leaves some of both behind in the grounds.

That is the practical reason to match your grind to your brewer: the label number is based on the bag, and getting it into the cup is a brewing question. More on that in CBD bioavailability.

What about fermented and flavored coffees?

Both reward a medium grind through paper on the first try.

For an anaerobic natural like our Brazil Anaerobic, paper-filtered pour over gives the clarity that makes the fruit legible. Immersion in a French press muddies it. Once you know what the coffee tastes like, experiment freely.

For a flavored coffee, the spice carries cleanly through paper and gets pushed forward by immersion, which some people like and some find heavy. For the rest of the range, see which single origin to buy.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This article is general information, not medical advice.