LEARN HOW TO GRIND COFFEE BASED ON THE COFFEE MAKER YOU USE.

 LEARN HOW TO GRIND COFFEE BASED ON THE COFFEE MAKER YOU USE.

GRINDING COFFEE IS ESSENTIAL TO OBTAIN GREAT COFFEE.

Grinding coffee is more complex than it may seem at first glance, the degree of grinding will determine as much as the roast of the coffee the final result of your cup.

Before buying a good coffee maker, especially if it is espresso, think about buying a good coffee grinder, and you will see the difference of grinding the coffee just before doing it.

- LEARN HOW TO GRIND COFFEE BASED ON THE COFFEE MAKER YOU USE and Burr Coffee Grinders Product

"The main function of coffee grinders is to grind coffee beans to the desired degree of grinding."

WHY DO WE GRIND THE COFFEE BEAN?

The objective of grinding coffee is to expand the contact surface of the coffee when water passes through it and thus extract all its properties.
 
The whole bean exposes very little surface area to water, so the coffee without grinding would always come out with little body, without picking up all the aroma and flavor of the coffee.
 
For this process to be effective, the grinder must dispense the thickness of the grind required by the type of coffee maker that we are going to use, and also, at least for professionals, it must do it in a repeatable way and the coffee should not reach high temperatures during the grinding process.
 
There are different technologies to grind coffee and in recent years progress has been evident, especially focused on maintaining the freshness of the coffee and that the coffee grinding is done without heat transfer to the coffee bean, to preserve all its ingredients unchanged. characteristics.
 
Of course, if you want the latest technology, you will have to pay for it, which for a professional is practically an obligation for a fan of good coffee is simply an option to value.
 

" What is true is that having a good grinder that allows you to grind the coffee without increasing its temperature is a huge advantage for making good coffee.  "

BUT SINCE WHEN IS COFFEE GROUND?

 
The first documented news of coffee grinding are some Arabic engravings in which the grinding of coffee in mortars is clearly observed.
 
To find precedents for systems more similar to the current ones, we must refer to the Modern Age, when the Turks, emulating the grinding techniques they used for species, began to place coffee in their grinders with crank and grinding wheels to grind it.
 
That is, the need to grind the coffee was very clear from the beginning, and often l os same merchants had mills individual with a crank removable to occupy less space and be able to sell ground coffee to its customers s .
 
In Africa, rather than grinding coffee, they pulverized the coffee, subjecting it to long sessions inside thick bowls carved from logs.
 
In general, women were in charge of grinding coffee and to do so they helped each other with a thick rounded stick, which they poked to grind all kinds of cereals.
 
This system was brought to America by the slaves who came to Africa and thus the coffee was ground in many large American farms for many years, it was produced by this rudimentary system.
 
In more recent times we all keep it at home, or we have seen the manual coffee grinder with a crank on the top, and a box to collect the ground coffee at the bottom of our grandmothers.

And its evolution in the form of an electric blade grinder that we have at home.



" Warn before continuing, even if it may sound exaggerated, the grind is an essential element to achieve a great coffee.  "


You can count on excellent coffee, masterfully roasted, keep it fresh until the last minute, but if you grind it improperly you can ruin your cup of coffee.



"  Buy coffee beans since coffee lasts much longer in good condition than if we buy coffee already ground.  "




Well-stored coffee beans will last a few weeks, in the second case, well-stored ground coffee will not last for a few days, when the container that contains it is closed it will have lost part of its aroma and flavor.




"  In addition, by grinding we can better control the thickness of the grain that we need to prepare each type of coffee.  "


The thickness of the coffee grounds and not changing the roast point of the coffee in the process is between art and science, so you need practice to get a good grind for your coffee maker.
 
Here we will try to summarize it in a simpler way so that you can prepare a coffee of authentic luxury.

GROUND COFFEE FOR ESPRESSO MACHINES

The grind required for espresso machines is very particular.
 
The ground coffee to prepare espresso has to be adapted to the peculiar characteristics of these coffee makers, which in just 25-30 seconds should extract the maximum aroma, flavor, cream and intensity of the coffee that we serve.

" For this reason, if we are going to use an espresso machine we will need a very fine grind, almost almost powder.  "

Despite this, you have to keep a balance.

If we go too fine, the espresso will be excessively bitter.
On the other hand, if we use a grind that is too coarse in an espresso machine, the coffee will come out scorched and disembodied, with a darker color than normal.

In addition, when preparing an espresso in an espresso machine, other factors influence, such as pressing or the dose (the number of grams of ground coffee that we are going to use).
 
As you can see, preparing a perfect espresso requires a certain skill, and it is surely one of the most traditional processes that we are going to talk about.
 
Therefore getting good results requires practice.
 
Thinking of the home user, the particularities of grinding for espresso machines do not end here, since by requiring great finesse, we find two barriers when purchasing it:

• Commercial ground coffee (that is, the one sold already ground and packaged) is usually too thick for this purpose, so we have no choice but to buy the coffee beans and grind it ourselves.
• Not all grinders are capable of achieving the fineness required to prepare an espresso.

To achieve good results you will have to buy a professional coffee grinder, and once you have the right ground coffee for your espresso machine, it is just a matter of practicing, practicing and practicing.

What an economic and practical investment is going to be necessary to give your espresso that point that good professional baristas give it.

MOKA, NAPOLITANA OR SIMPLY ITALIAN COFFEE MAKER.

Its acceptance among people is surprising because it is totally manual.
 
Perhaps it is because it gives an espresso type coffee without the need for electrical equipment and more investment.
 
The equipment consists of two inverted cones, with a filter in the center.
 
Here the coffee is placed, which must have a fine grind. In the lower cone the water is deposited. It is placed over direct fire, on the stove.
 
The steam and pressure generated propel the water upwards, passing through the coffee and producing a rich espresso in the upper cone.
 
In an Italian coffee maker we must use fine-grained ground coffee but less fine than the one we would use in an espresso machine.
 
Due to the type of infusion resulting from an Italian coffee maker, if we use an excessively fine grind we run the risk that the coffee will taste too astringent.
 
In a mocha or Italian coffee maker, it is not advisable to press the ground coffee inside the filter, unlike in the espresso machine.
 
You must make sure that the coffee is well leveled in the saucepan and that its surface is even , but without pressing it.
 

GROUND FOR FRENCH PRESS KNOWN AS PLUNGER COFFEE MAKERS.

They prepare the coffee by infusion, to achieve this you have to press the plunger to separate the coffee grounds from the rest of the infusion.
 
Infusing is mixing the coffee in water, allowing it to rest for a time -around 4 minutes- by wetting the ground coffee that you have previously poured into water just after reaching the boiling point and gradually absorbing all its nuances.
 
The result is an extraordinarily tasty and aromatic coffee.
 
Not surprisingly, some espresso machines incorporate a system that pre-infuses the beans before extraction to obtain all possible aromas and flavors.
 
To infuse the coffee beans, it is necessary that they have a coarse grind, since if they were too fine the water would hardly have a contact surface with them.
 
The result with another type of grinding is usually a coffee without a recognizable flavor, without body and with little charm.
 
In addition, a too fine grind in the French press causes too many grounds to leak when serving the drink, disturbing the enjoyment of the coffee.

GROUND FOR DRIP COFFEE MAKERS OR FILTER COFFEE MAKERS.

They use a ground coffee of medium grain, more or less the thickness that is sold already packaged normally for the stores.

This does not mean that we recommend using these pre-ground coffees, since inevitably, and as we have already explained on other occasions, the coffee loses properties before being packaged.

Why? As curious readers that you are, you will be wondering.
 
Because freshly ground coffee releases gases that need to be dissipated before being packaged and vacuum packed. In the time it takes to dissolve these gases, the ground coffee has already lost part of its aroma and flavor.
 
So, nothing like having freshly ground coffee ready to use in our coffee maker.
 
In any case, the rule of medium thickness grinding has some nuances depending on the type of filter that we use in our coffee maker.
 
The most common in drip coffee machines are disposable, single-use paper filters for which medium-grain grinds are interesting.
 
It is also possible to use permanent metal filters that have wider pores and therefore allow a somewhat thicker coffee.
 
Fabric filters are also permanent, although less frequent.
 
When using a cloth filter, the grind will need to be slightly finer than the midpoint, as the pores in this material are noticeably smaller.
 
In any case, these variations will be minimal, since we are always talking about various degrees within a medium grind thickness.
 
In a drip coffee maker, if we use a coarser grind than adequate, the coffee does not extract all the aroma and flavor of the coffee, it is discolored and disembodied.
 
On the contrary, if we use a too fine grind, the water will take too long to pass through the filter, and the coffee will be overextracted (very bitter).
 
In addition, we can also find ourselves in our drink with some remains in the form of powder that will reach our cup of coffee.
 
In addition to the medium grind, it is important to ensure that the ground coffee is distributed evenly and horizontally over the entire surface of the filter.
 

Obviously there are many more types of coffee makers, but we have chosen for this post the ones that seem to us to have the most presence in our homes.


" Regardless of the type of coffee maker, it is practiced in grinding, the quality of the coffee, and the extraction times are essential to obtain the cup of coffee that you and your guests deserve. "

How do you grind the coffee? What coffee grinder do you use? Did you know the different degrees of grinding to get good coffees?