Keep read to see what I am talking about.
Today coffee consumers have several options when it comes to buying coffee. We can find ground coffee ready to prepare at home, but we can also buy coffee beans.
If you buy coffee beans, it is important to know some tips related to grinding. However, I would first like to talk to you about the ground coffee bought in the stores.
When we buy ground coffee, it is important to read the labeling on the package since in many of the packages the type of grind is specified. This can be extra-fine, fine, medium, coarse, or quartz type. What type of grind is best? This will depend on the utensil that we will use to brew it and the type of coffee that we wish to prepare.
Generally, commercial ground coffee is of the medium type. It can be brewed using the electric coffee maker and the Italian coffee maker. When this type of coffee is brewed in an electric coffee maker an American-style coffee is obtained. It is a coffee that is not very concentrated. It is not as strong as espresso. It is a coffee that many would call "watered down" since the amount of water is much more than the pure coffee extract. When brewed using the Italian coffee maker an espresso is obtained, but other aspects must be taken into account for this espresso to be of quality.
Before continuing, I am going to show you what the different types of coffee grinds look like and how you can identify them:
To obtain this variety of grinds, you must have a coffee grinder. Homemade grinders are sometimes very basic since they cannot be graduated and only grind the grains of a single thickness. Generally, with this grind, medium ground coffee is obtained, but sometimes it is not uniform. You can obtain a finely ground powder and find beans with more texture.
Professional coffee grinders are used in coffee shops, although you can also buy them to have them at home. These grinders allow you to graduate the grinders that grind the coffee and obtain different textures.
In the case of coffee shops, the coffee must be finely ground, since the coffee machines require that a uniform paste is formed to obtain a good espresso by the action of the water pressure. By obtaining a good espresso a variety of coffee drinks can be made from it. What happens if the espresso machine coffee is ultra-fine? The water pressure drags coffee residues, the flow of coffee dispensed by the machine is greater, and a very bitter coffee without the body is obtained. What happens when the grind is coarser? The flow of coffee is irregular, and the coffee cream characteristic of the espresso is not formed adequately.
Now, if your method for brewing coffee is filtering by drip using a paper or cloth filter, or on the contrary, you have a French press, the coffee grind should be of the quartz or coarse type. These methods do not allow to make an espresso. The coffee obtained is an American-type coffee.
From now on, every time you buy ground coffee you must take into account the brewing method to be used as electric coffee maker, Italian coffee maker, pressure coffee maker, French press, or using a paper or cloth filter. If you buy coffee beans, you have to consider the type of brewing method as well as the coffee that you wish to obtain. However, the type of coffee to be prepared also depends on other factors that I will share with you later in other posts.
