Coffee Grind: How to Find the Right Kind

Ground decaf coffee is available in a few different grades and there’s a great deal of confusion as to what the grind has to do with flavour, the kind of coffee-making equipment you have, and so on. It can be baffling for anyone but now, the guesswork is over, with our guide to the grind.

What coffee grind is best for me?

From fine ground to coarse, the grind of the coffee affects how it tastes in your cup. if you pay attention to what ground coffee you are putting into which piece of coffee-making equipment you will always get the best taste and aroma. If your coffee tastes bad, it is usually because you have over or under brewed your drink. 

It’s not surprising that with a myriad of kinds of coffee making machines, there are many ways of brewing, from the super-fast to the grindingly slow. Your chosen machine will require a specific size, grade, and grind of coffee to work properly.

How to find the perfect espresso grind

Espresso machines are fast because the hot water is in contact with the coffee for less than half a minute. This liquid extracts the flavour quickly, and a finer grind leads to a richer, more flavoursome cup. The science behind this is simple, a finer grind means more surface area in contact with the water, gram for gram. 

If you tried coarse ground in an espresso machine, you would find the flavour of your hot brown water sour and undeveloped.

The right ground coffee for your French press

A French press or cafetière takes much longer to work than an espresso machine. In a French press, the grinds float about in the water steeping for minutes on end and so brewing fine ground in a cafetière would allow serious over-extraction of the coffee’s flavour and turn it into a bitter-tasting brew.

For drip filter machines or pour over coffee makers of the kind that fill a carafe or jug, drip by drip, try a medium ground coffee

What kind of coffee grind is right for your kind of coffee machine?

Whenever you buy ground decaf, match the grind to the equipment you own. If you’re always disappointed with your machine’s coffee, it could be as simple a fix as buying different grinds for your machine.

Not only do we love decaf, but we also love keeping decaf simple. We sell coffee in different grinds for different machines. It can be difficult to tell what grind is suitable for each method, so we say what kind of machine it’s good for. Sometimes, to save space on the label, we use a letter instead on our Brasilia coffee and call it what it is for others. But what you will see is: Beans, Ground (cafetière) and Find Ground (espresso, moka and filter machines)

B Unground, whole beans (CHOOSE BEANS)

Unground beans are perfect if you like complete control over your coffee, you own a bean-to-cup machine or, alternatively, have more than kind of coffee machine and need to vary the grind accordingly.

C French Press or Cafetière (CHOOSE GROUND)

You fill a cafetière with very hot water and leave it to steep. When it is brewed, you compress all the grounds out of suspension behind a metal screen by pushing a plunger down.

E Espresso coffee (CHOOSE FINE GROUND)

An espresso machine at home can be very convenient and makes us all into a barista. But originally, people brewed coffee using a stove-top percolator called a Moka pot. This boils water under pressure, forcing steam and water through the coffee grinds. When the grinds are saturated with pressure from boiling water, the steam further forces the brewed coffee up a funnel and then into the top chamber. Once you hear the characteristic sound of gurgling, your coffee is ready.

P Coffee Pods and Capsules

Not all pod systems create environmentally responsible coffee. Many of these will be thrown away after one use and the environmental consequences will not be limited to a small area. However, it is best to find those that are refillable to avoid this dilemma. We sell one of these on ilovedecaf.com, but many other companies offer refillable pods as well.

F Filter Coffee and AeroPress (CHOOSE FINE GROUND)

The simplest way to make coffee is to drip feed or pour hot water over grounds sitting in a filter cone. From the pour-over to the new AeroPress machine, a medium grind works best.