Coffee Grind Size Guide: Right Grind for Every Brew Method

Find the right grind for every brew method, from Turkish coffee to the French press: the texture to aim for, our illustrative micron bands, the signs a grind is off, and how to dial it in.

By Jay Arr Updated

This article accompanies our video from December 2019.

Grind size sets how quickly water can dissolve the coffee, so each brewer needs a grind that suits how long the water stays in contact with it. I’ve brewed with nearly every method out there. Below is the grind for each one in our tools, finest first, then how to find it on your grinder and dial it in.

Our 2019 video predates this revision; for grind ranges and brew times, follow the text here.

The grind for every brew method

The texture words are the quickest guide. The micron (µm) ranges are our Grind Guide’s bands: where most of the coffee should sit for each brewer. They’re illustrative, not measurements: every grinder makes a spread of sizes, and a particle size only becomes a setting on a specific grinder. Our grind size micron chart explains how grind is measured, what the spread and the fines do, and why burr travel isn’t particle size.

Extra fine: Turkish coffee

Turkish coffee needs the finest grind of all, about the texture of flour. It’s the one brew in the Grind Guide without a Brew Guide recipe yet. At this size there’s no finer setting to go to: if your grinder clogs or the powder cakes, that’s its limit. Our Turkish coffee guide covers the brew.

Fine: espresso

Espresso is ground fine, like powdered sugar. The Brew Guide’s espresso recipe makes an 18 g dose into a 36 g shot in 25 to 30 seconds, and the grind is how you hit that time. On that recipe, a grind that’s too fine usually makes the shot run longer than about 30 seconds at the same dose and yield, and it can taste bitter or harsh; too coarse, and it usually runs faster than about 25 seconds and can taste sour or thin. Those are common signs on this recipe, not rules: taste decides.

Medium-fine: moka pot, AeroPress and V60

Medium: Kalita Wave, Chemex and drip machines

Coarse and extra coarse: cold brew and French press

The Grind Guide doesn’t cover the siphon or the Clever Dripper; their own guides give a starting grind.

Finding the setting on your grinder

A micron band becomes a setting only on a specific grinder, so start from your grinder maker’s chart. Baratza’s chart for the Virtuoso+, for example, suggests setting 8 for espresso, 12 for the AeroPress, 15 for a Hario V60, 18 for an automatic brewer, 20 for a Chemex and 28 for a French press, as published by the maker. That’s the same order as our bands, except that Baratza puts the Chemex a little coarser than a drip machine; the bands overlap, which is why they’re a guide rather than a rule. Baratza adds that you’ll need to adjust for the recipe, the roast, the coffee and your taste.

The Grind Calibrator shows published starting settings for the grinders it covers, with each setting’s source named.

Why grind size changes the cup

Smaller particles expose more surface for the same weight of coffee: a particle a tenth the size has about ten times the surface per gram (calculated for simple spheres). So finer grounds extract faster. In his experiments grinding finer for pour-over, Gagné found that past a certain point the coffee tastes harsh and astringent, and that very fine grounds can clump, clog the filter and let fines into the cup.

No grinder makes one size. Every grind is a spread, with a share of fines (under about 100 µm) that extract fastest. Burr grinders keep that spread narrower than blade grinders, which chop a wide mix of dust and large chunks into the same cup; the fines can clog the filter and slow the drawdown, while the larger pieces extract more slowly. Better technique can’t make the particles uniform. Our guides compare conical and flat burrs, manual grinders and electric grinders.

Dialing in by taste

  1. Start in the band for your brewer, at your grinder maker’s suggested setting.
  2. Brew the recipe as written and note the time.
  3. Taste and change the grind one step. If it’s sour and thin, try one step finer; if it’s bitter and drying, one step coarser. These are common signs, not rules. Gagné passes on Scott Rao’s method: grind finer, changing nothing else, until you can taste astringency, then go back one notch.
  4. Change one thing at a time, so you know what helped.

The roast shifts the start. The Brew Guide puts light roasts in the finer half of each band and dark roasts in the coarser half: for a V60, about 450 to 550 µm for a light roast and 550 to 650 µm for a dark one. Water, freshness and pouring cause the same tastes as grind, so if a cup won’t come right, Fix My Coffee helps sort out which one it is. Our guides to brewing temperature and extraction cover the other levers, and the freshness guide covers when to grind and how to store beans.

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