Maybe. It depends on how you brew your coffee and how you drink your coffee.
Keeping your coffee fresher for longer
Grinding as you go will keep your coffee fresher for longer. Whether or not it will have an impact on your cuppa depends...
Like fruit, roasted coffee is a perishable product that changes over time. Coffee that is fresh (but not too fresh) will have all the aroma and flavours the coffee roaster has aimed for. As it ages, the strength of both will slowly reduce. Read more about coffee freshness.
One of the best ways to keep coffee fresh is grinding just before you brew as this protects it from enemy number #1 – oxygen. Oxygen will start breaking coffee down as soon as it is roasted, but the process really accelerates when the coffee is ground into all those tiny pieces and the oxygen can get access to more surface area.
When you grind your coffee just before you brew, you’ll instantly notice a stronger coffee aroma when you brew and drink your coffee. But will you notice a difference in taste? This really depends on you, how you brew, and how you drink your coffee…
- You – Do you notice the more subtle flavour differences?
- How you brew – Coffee freshness will have a bigger impact on the fast, high-pressure brew methods, particularly espresso but also stove top (see below).
- How you drink – The more subtle flavours that fresh coffee has are more obvious in black coffee than coffee with milk.
Adjust your grind for a better brew
The size of the ground coffee (how fine or coarse it is) can have a big impact on the end result. This is particularly true for coffee made using pressure as it’s a fast, more sensitive process – at the top of this is list is coffee made with an espresso machine, and to a lesser extent, stovetop.
When making coffee in this way:
- If the coffee is ground too fine, the water will have a hard time getting pushed through it. You’ll notice the extraction (coffee coming out) will be too slow, stall and/or drip. The extraction may be less than usual, be dark, and taste more bitter.
- If the coffee is ground too coarse, the water will rush through it too quickly. You’ll notice the extraction will be too fast and gush out. It may be lighter in colour, foamy, and taste weak and watery.
If you’re grinding as you go, you can adjust the grind size to make sure you have a perfect extraction.
- For an espresso machine, we use 20 grams of coffee, produce an extraction of around 40 grams, in a time of 25-27 seconds.
- For a stove top, you are aiming to push nearly all the water in the bottom chamber through the coffee in a steady, even flow, before it starts spluttering. To achieve this, you can manage the heat of your stove (e.g. turn it up if it stalls and turn it down if it’s flowing too quickly) and adjust your grind.
Can’t Riley just grind it too the right size before it’s sent?
We do offer pre-ground coffee, and we will test the grind here when we grind and send it. However, there are many variables that effect whether this will be right for you:
- As mentioned, aging process will accelerate once the coffee is ground, and this will affect the way it comes through the espresso machine or stovetop. As the coffee ages, it will start extracting more and more quickly.
- Every espresso machine is different, particularly domestic versus commercial. Those with lower pressure will have a harder time with a finer grind.
- Every person is different in the way they dose and tamp their coffee. Someone that tamps light will want a finer grind than someone that tamps harder.
- The weather when we set the grind will likely be different from when you use the coffee and, yes, even the weather has a role to play. Colder weather results in the coffee coming through more slowly and so a coarser grind is needed. Vice versa for warm weather.
In saying all of this, you can still make espresso and stovetop with pre-ground coffee by using other ways to control the extraction. You won’t get to café-quality, but you can still satisfy that coffee craving. Here are some tips:
- Dose (the amount of coffee you use). For an espresso machine, follow the instructions in the manual regarding how much coffee you use (as an example, we use 20g per double basket in our commercial coffee machine). For a stove top, you are filling the basket to the top and levelling off. If you are finding the extraction is coming out too slowly, you can try adding less coffee. And vice versa if it is coming out too quickly.
- For an espresso machine, you will probably be tamping the coffee. If you are finding the extraction is coming our too slowly, try tamping lighter.
Using a coffee grinder can improve the taste of your coffee BUT if you’re already happy with your cuppa you don’t need to change a thing.
