Coffee Grind Size Chart: The Ultimate Guide

Coffee grind size can be a bit of a mystery. Coffee grinds that are too fine will produce a weak cup of coffee, while coffee grinds that are too coarse will produce a bitter cup of coffee. So, what’s the perfect grind size for your brew method?

That’s where a coffee grind size chart comes in handy.

Luckily, we’ve created this helpful Coffee Grind Size Chart to take out the guesswork. Simply match up your brew method with the grind size listed below and you’ll be one step closer to the perfect cup of coffee.

Whether you’re using a drip coffee maker, French press, or espresso machine, this chart will help you get the perfect brew. So take a look and find the right grind for your coffee needs.

Perfect extraction is the heart of coffee drinks. If you cannot extract it properly, then you cannot taste the exclusive flavors of your coffee. So, the most crucial part of coffee extraction is the grind sizes of coffee beans. The taste variation of different types of coffee depends on the coffee grind size and brewing time. Finer grounds cause over-extraction and taste bitter. And, coarse grinds cause under-extraction and taste sour.

If you want to taste a velvety, full-bodied, and intense espresso, then have to use finer grounds. If you want a French Press or Cold Brew coffee, then use coarser coffee grounds. Finer coffee grounds cannot work in this case. So, each coffee brewing methods have its coffee grind size. A good grinder can deliver you the perfect grind size you need.

In common, there are three basic categories of grind sizes.

• Coarse ground
• Medium ground
• Fine ground

But, when we are talking about coffee, we go deep down and expand each grind category. Coffee experts usually use 7 grind categories instead of 3. To be more precise, you may even find 40 grind settings in regular coffee grinders nowadays.

For better understanding, take a look at the coffee grind size chart and corresponding coffee drinks.

Grind Size	Coffee Drinks
Extra Fine Grind	Turkish Coffee
Fine Grind	Moka pot, Espresso, Aeropress
Medium-Fine Grind	Aeropress, Moka pot, Coffee dripper, Siphon, Cone-shaped pour-over brewers
Medium Grind	Siphon, Chemex, Flat drip, and Aeropress
Medium Coarse Grind	Clever Dripper, Chemex
Coarse Grind	French Press, Percolator
Extra Coarse Grind	Cowboy Coffee, Cold Brew

Collect a coffee grind size chart if you are new to in-home grinding coffee beans. Compare your coffee grounds with the ground chart to get the exact size. Here, we will explain a little to help you understand the different types of coffee grinds.

Extra Fine Grind

This coffee grind is similar to powder or flour. Generally, this more powdery ground uses in Turkish coffee. For your convenience, Turkish coffee is also known as Ibriks.

Fine Grind

Fine grinds look like table salts. Finer grinds commonly use for Espresso and Moka pot drinks. You can use it in AeroPress.

Medium-Fine Grind

Medium-fine grinds are like Kosher salts. The AeroPress and cone-shaped pour-over brewers need this grind size for brewing.

Medium Grind

The medium coffee grinds are similar to the sand of masonry work. It is a little bit big than the previous grinds. A wide range of brewers uses medium coffee grinds in brewing time. Mostly covered with Siphon, AeroPress, pour-over, and drip brewers.

Medium-Coarse Grind

The rough sand-like medium grinds suit many coffee makers. It is easy to use in brewing. The Chemex, Clever Dripper, and café solo brewer need medium-coarse grinds.

Coarse Grind

Coarse grinds are like sea salt in size. It is bigger than the previous grinds. Coarse grinds commonly use in French Press and Percolator coffee brewing process. You need to brew these grinds for 3-5 minutes to get the full flavor. 

Extra Coarse Grind

Extra Coarse Grinds are similar in size to black pepper or ground peppercorns. Or, you can define it as a rough chunk of broken coffee beans. You can use these non-uniform grinds to brew Cold Brew Coffee and Cowboy Coffee.

In this section, we will discuss some popular brewing methods and different types of coffee grind sizes. This is the notability for that specific coffee drink.

The boiled water passes through the finer grounds under high pressure to brew espresso drinks. It bestows an intensely flavored cup of Joe. There are lots of espresso drinks that are very popular among young people.

Grind size: Fine

Grind settings: 

• Baratza Encore: 4-9
• Baratza Virtuoso Plus: 4-9
• OXO BREW Conical Burr Grinder: 1-3
• Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder: 2-4
• Bodum Bistro: 1-3

Brew Time: 20-30 seconds

Temperature: 92–96 °C (198–205 °F)

Pressure: 9-15 bars

Notes and Taste: Well-balanced intense velvety crema that lingers aftertaste

Since the nineteenth century, French Press is one of the regular coffee drinks. You need coarser coffee grinds to make French Press coffee. The fresh home grinds provide you with a balanced pure black coffee in French Press.

Grind size: Coarse

Grind settings: 

• Baratza Encore: 31-36
• Baratza Virtuoso Plus: 31-36
• OXO BREW Conical Burr Grinder: 11-13
• Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder: 12-14
• Bodum Bistro: 11-13

Brew Time: 4-5 minutes

Temperature: 93–96 °C (199–205 °F)

Notes and Taste: Full-bodied flavor

In pour-over coffee, we use medium-ground coffee beans. Different cup brewers are a great example of pour-over coffee. The use of different types of filter paper may vary the flavor.

Grind size: Medium-coarse to Medium-fine

Grind settings: 

• Baratza Encore: 11-29
• Baratza Virtuoso Plus: 11-29
• OXO BREW Conical Burr Grinder: 4-11
• Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder: 4-12
• Bodum Bistro: 4-10

Brew Time: 3-5 minutes

Temperature: 90–96 °C (195–205 °F)

Notes and Taste: A little bit of sour flavor

Chemex is another very popular coffee brewer. You have to use blotting filter paper to get the ultimate flavor of Chemex. 

Grind size: Medium-coarse to Medium

Grind settings: 

• Baratza Encore: 24-29
• Baratza Virtuoso Plus: 24-29
• OXO BREW Conical Burr Grinder: 9-11
• Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder: 10-12
• Bodum Bistro: 8-10

Brew Time: 3-5 minutes

Temperature: 90–96 °C (195–205 °F)

Notes and Taste: Sparkling nuanced taste with a less acidic flavor

Cold brew coffee is brewed at room temperature and may serve as chilled drinks. It originated in Japan centuries ago.

Grind size: Extra Coarse

Grind settings: 

• Baratza Encore: 31-40
• Baratza Virtuoso Plus: 31-40
• OXO BREW Conical Burr Grinder: 11-15
• Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder: 12-16
• Bodum Bistro: 11-14

Brew Time: 12-24 hours

Temperature: Room temperature or chilled water

Notes and Taste: Smooth, less acidic with a sweet taste

Aeropress is a machine, that brews a wide range of coffees, such as Cold brew, Filter coffee, and Espresso. So, it can work for a variety of coffee grinds. It is a portable and travel-friendly brewing machine.

Grind size: Medium to Fine

Grind settings: 

• Baratza Encore: 4-23
• Baratza Virtuoso Plus: 4-23
• OXO BREW Conical Burr Grinder: 1-8
• Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder: 2-9
• Bodum Bistro: 1-8

Brew Time: 30 seconds for espresso drinks and 1-5 minutes for others

Temperature: Uses external boiled water

Pressure: Air pressure

Notes and Taste: Wide range of flavors depends on what brewing methods use

A wide range of coffee brewers counts under Drip Coffee makers. These include cup brewers, drip coffee machines, and other drippers. It uses medium-fine grinds and provides simple flavored coffee in your cup.

Grind size: Medium-fine

Grind settings: 

• Baratza Encore: 17-23
• Baratza Virtuoso Plus: 17-23
• OXO BREW Conical Burr Grinder: 6-8
• Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder: 7-9
• Bodum Bistro: 6-8

Brew Time: 4-5 minutes

Temperature: 90–96 °C (195–205 °F)

Notes and Taste: Full-bodied innocent fresh black coffee

Moka Pot is also known as a stove-top espresso drink. In Moka Pot, the coffee brews under step pressure, which is not so high. But, Moka Pot provides you with pure coffee with a slight bit of crema touch.

Grind size: Fine

Grind settings: 

• Baratza Encore: 4-16
• Baratza Virtuoso Plus: 4-16
• OXO BREW Conical Burr Grinder: 1-6
• Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder: 2-6 
• Bodum Bistro: 1-6

Brew Time: 7 minutes

Temperature: 100 °C (212 °F) or above

Pressure: 1.5-2 bars stem pressure

Notes and Taste: Full-bodied balanced coffee

Grind size affects coffee drinks so much. It associates with under-extraction and over-extraction directly.

The flavor of the coffee depends on the coffee grind size and brewing time always. The more time goes during brewing, the bitter the coffee will taste. For example, if you use coarse grind in an espresso maker, it cannot brew at all. Again, using finer grounds in the French Press will make a mess of the coffee maker. So, there is no alternative to putting the correct grinds into the appropriate coffeemaker. Else there are 2 possible outcomes: under-extraction and over-extraction.

Under-extraction and its Reason

• Coarser coffee grounds
• Low-temperature water
• Less brewing time
• May taste sour or tasteless

Over-extraction and its Reason

• Finer coffee grounds
• High-temperature water
• More brewing time
• Taste bitter

There is no fixed size of coffee grind for all types of coffee drinks. You require different grind sizes for distinctive drinks. For instance, French Press and Cold Brew required coarse grounds for brewing. Also, finer grounds for Espresso or Turkish coffee. You can follow our grind size section in this article to know the details.

The amount of coffee grinds is varying from one drink to another. According to NCA, the golden ratio is 1 tbsp or 2 tbsp ground for every 6 Oz of water. You need around 6-16 grams of grounds to brew coffee in Chemex, Coffee dripper, and French Press. If you want to brew Espresso drinks, you need around 16-21 grams of ground coffee. So, depending on the brewing methods you follow, the minimum amount of coffee grinds changes. You can adjust the amount of coffee per cup depending on your preferences.

Coarser grinds will take short time than finer grinds. So, it will depend on what type of grind size you want to make. Generally, you have to grind for 5-10 seconds to make coarser grinds. And 10-15 seconds to make medium grinds. You need 30 seconds for the finer grounds. Remember, you may need to adjust the grinding time according to your grinder.

If you want to store coffee grounds for further use, then put them into an airtight jar. Otherwise, coffee grounds will lose their traits gradually.

When the coffee beans are roasted, they start degrading due to the presence of air. Both coffee beans and grounds face moisture effects, oxidation, and CO2 depletion. So, grinding a big batch of coffee beans is never a good idea. But you can mill and store it in an airtight container for using the next 3-5 days.

Since you are here, you must search for the best setting for grinding coffee beans. We are sorry to inform you that coffee needs a different grinding setting. If you want to brew Espresso, Chemex, French Press, or Cold brew with just one grind, then it will be a disaster. So, you require multiple grounds to brew these coffee drinks.

In every grinder, there have grinding scales to set the grinding category. Select any options from coarse, medium, fine-medium, and fine grinding. These four categories will cover any brewing methods that you desire. Nowadays, regular grinders on the market have 4, 8, 10, 18, 40, and more settings. So, you can tune the grinding scale. It will be good if you have a grinder with 10-18 frames. Then, it will help you to brew any type of coffee drink.

Coffee grinders grind coffee beans into different sizes to make coffee drinks. Check out some basic information about coffee grinders.

You can categorize each grinder into many types. First, according to the action performed, grinders are of two types, manual and electric. 

• The Manual grinder needs muscle energy to grind coffee beans
• Contrary, the Electric grinder uses electricity to grind the beans

According to the grinder blade, you can use burr or blade grinders. 

• The Blade grinder misspends the grinds and makes non-uniform grinds
• The Burr grinder is more effective and produces uniform grinds than the blade grinder

Two types of burr grinders are available out there.

• The Flat burr grinder grinds beans better than the blade grinder. But waste slightly because of the burr placement
• The Conical burr grinder lets the most ground out from the coffee grinder

Depending on the grinder you use, the process may vary from one to another. The general steps you could follow are,

• Roast and cool the coffee beans before put into the grinder
• Put a small number of roasted beans into the grinder and close the lid
• Set the grinding scale according to your brewing methods. Then start grinding
• After finishing grinding, collect the grounds and start brewing. You can put coffee grounds into an airtight jar for next-day use
• Clean the grinder after use

For cleaning, you will need a soft brush, toothpick, and grinder cleaning pellets. Sometimes you may need other helping objects as well.

• Collect coffee grounds and store them in an airtight jar
• Use a soft brush to clean the excess grounds from the inside of the grinders
• If needed, then use a toothpick to clean narrow spaces
• If you pull apart the grinder for deep cleaning, you can scrub and wipe thoroughly. Let every part dry. Then, reassemble those parts again

You may also use grinder cleaning pellets for deep cleaning. Deep cleaning is mandatory once or twice a month.

There are no perfect alternatives for coffee grinders. But do not worry. You can use the below items to grind your coffee beans in the absence of a coffee grinder.

• Mortar and Pestle
• Blender
• Food Processor
• Rolling Pin
• Hammer
• Knife

At the end of this article, you know that coffee is not just a drink. It is an art of knowledge, skill, and timing. Coffee connoisseurs are so picky when it comes to flavor. That is the reason you should grind the coffee beans properly according to the categories. You need perfect beans, roasting, grind sizes, and brewing methods to enjoy a cup of Joe.

Grind right before you brew and focus on the size of grinds always. Put a grind chart in your kitchen if you are not familiar with the measurements. Brew different coffee drinks and enjoy the absolute flavor till the end.

Enjoy Your Coffee!