How To Grind Coffee Beans

If you've ever wondered how to grind coffee beans, you're not alone. I love the taste of fresh ground coffee beans, but the process has always been confusing. When the professionals do it (sometimes even my friends), the resulting coffee tastes rich and delicious. But when I grind coffee beans, the results are less than spectacular.

I suppose the first step in learning how to grind coffee beans is to select great beans to begin with. But after that it gets kind of complicated.

Fortunately Kevin Siloo wrote a great article discussing this very process recently, and I'd like to share it with you (thanks Kevin!)

Do You Know How To Grind Coffee Beans Properly?
By Kevin Siloo

Air is the enemy of all coffee drinkers. Once air comes in contact with your coffee grinds, they begin to lose their flavor. Ground coffee is vacuum packed to retain freshness, but once the seal is broken it starts to lose its taste. Buying whole coffee beans and grinding them yourself is a great way to ensure that your coffee remains as flavorful as possible.

Grinding your own coffee beans right before you brew your coffee is a great way to make sure that you're getting the freshest cup of coffee possible. But do you know how to grind your coffee beans properly? Grinding your coffee is an important part of the coffee making process and as it is important it needs to be done well.

Different types of coffee calls for different types of grinds. So for the freshest best tasting ground coffee you need to grind the coffee beans yourself in the best manner possible.

Of course for the real coffee fanatics and connesieurs you may want to invest in a complete bean to cup coffee machine.

French Press or Percolator Coffee

If you plan on brewing your coffee with a percolator or a French Press coffee maker then you'll need a coarser grind. Place the coffee beans in your coffee grinder and tap the grind button a few times as you would use the pulse feature on your food processor.

The goal is to break the beans up so that they look like tiny pieces of coffee bean. If they look like a powder, then you need to slowly back away from the coffee grinder and start again. Remember to tap the button and not hold it down.

Drip Coffee Makers

Automatic drip coffee makers work best with medium grinds. Picture the grinds that you'd find in a can of supermarket coffee. Those are medium ground coffee beans. The ground coffee looks like the brown sand from a beach made of coffee. Try and grind the coffee beans until it looks like brown sand. Once again, while holding the coffee grinder button, don't get carried away and over grind your coffee beans. Grinding your coffee to fine is a mistake if you are using an automatic coffee machine.

Espresso Machines

Finally if your using an espresso maker, you want those fine powdery grinds that you've been trying to avoid when making coarse and medium grinds. The finer the better so grind away until your heart is content.

About the Author

Trevor Klast is a fanatical coffee drinker always in search of the perfect bean to cup coffee machines for an outstanding expresso coffee.

(Printed with permission from GoArticles.com)