Field Manual · Grind
Every bag comes in three grinds. Here's how to pick the right one — and what goes wrong when you don't.
Grind size controls how fast water moves through coffee, and that controls everything you taste. A brewer that pushes water through in 25 seconds needs a completely different grind from one that steeps for four minutes. Get this wrong and no amount of good beans will save the cup.
The short answer: if you use a drip machine or a pour-over, choose Drip (Medium). If you pull shots, choose Espresso (Fine). If you own a grinder, choose Whole Bean and grind fresh.
Ground coffee starts losing aromatics within minutes. If you have a burr grinder, whole bean is not a small upgrade — it's the single biggest difference between a decent cup and a good one. It's also the only way to get a proper coarse grind for French press or cold brew from us.
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Don't
The default for a reason. Medium grind suits the widest range of home equipment and is forgiving of small errors in ratio and temperature. If you're unsure which to order, this is the one.
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Don't
Fine grind is built for the nine bars of pressure an espresso machine applies over 25–30 seconds. Put it in a drip machine and water can't pass through fast enough; you get an overflowing basket and a bitter, muddy cup.
Use it for
Don't
A medium grind, roughly the texture of coarse sand. That's our Drip (Medium) option. Too fine and the basket overflows and the coffee turns bitter; too coarse and it runs through fast and tastes thin and sour.
No. Espresso grind is far too fine for a drip machine — water can't pass through it quickly enough, which causes the filter basket to overflow and over-extracts the coffee into bitterness. Use a medium grind for drip.
A coarse grind, like rough sea salt. We don't sell a pre-ground coarse option because coarse grounds go stale especially fast, so buy whole bean and grind it yourself. A medium grind in a French press will pass through the mesh and leave silt in the cup.
Yes, noticeably. Coffee loses its volatile aromatics within minutes of grinding, which is why pre-ground coffee tastes flatter even when it's the same beans from the same roast. If you own a burr grinder, whole bean is the better buy every time.
Taste tells you the direction. Bitter and harsh means the grind is too fine for your method — go coarser. Sour and thin means it's too coarse — go finer. Change one variable at a time, and change the grind before you change anything else.