Working out what to do next once you've decided to grind your own coffee can be bewildering. The intimidating range of shiny equipment and the thousands of different varieties of coffee out there is enough to confuse anyone.
But, once you've got started, creating a truly delicious cup of coffee in your own kitchen is actually surprisingly easy.
Good chemistry
Brewing coffee is a matter of simple chemistry – you take water and add the ground coffee of your choice. The water pulls out the soluble elements of the coffee, and the resulting liquid is one of the most widely consumed beverages on the planet.
The finer the grind, the more soluble material the water pulls out. All simple so far.
But how long does the water need to extract the coffee? And what's the best way to put the two together to get the drink you want? This is where it can get complicated. At Coffee Hit, we take all the stress out of the process – we've got everything you need to brew some seriously good coffee.
No need to be coarse
Burr grinders are made up of two abrasive surfaces, between which the coffee beans are ground. Their advantage over a blade is the coffee comes out a uniform size. A coarse grind has big pieces of coffee in it, and a medium grind gives you a texture like granulated sugar, and a fine grind is basically powder.
Now you've done the groundwork
Every coffee fan has a different preference, so making it is not an exact science. But at Coffee Hit, we encourage everyone to have a play with their grinder to see what it is capable of. By doing so, you'll start to learn what you like best and how to refine your cup of coffee into something really special.A fine grind will enable you to brew an espresso, the classic Italian concentrated coffee shot. The coffee has to be fine to provide resistance to the water that is pressed through your coffee machine at high pressure.
An AeroPress coffee maker also requires a fine grind, with an end product not unlike an espresso. An AeroPress is similar to a syringe full of coffee, which the operator plunges, forcing the water through the coffee, ready to pour into your cup.
A coarser grind is required for a French press, where the coffee sits in hot water before the grounds are filtered out by a plunger. This results in an easy-drinking, full-bodied coffee. A medium grind is perfect for a French press – too coarse, and you'll end up with a watery drink, too fine, and you run the risk of a bitter brew.
A still coarser grind is perfect for the Chemex range of coffee makers (stocked here), which use a filter to hold grounds for water to be dripped through, creating coffee below. Coarse grounds are better here as they allow the water to pass through quicker than fine grinds, which could block the filter and lead to a better-tasting end product.
For automatic drippers, which automatically heat water and drip it over your grinds through a thin filter, a medium grind works best. This stops the water from flowing through too quickly, leaving you with a weak drink.
At Coffee Hit, we have brought together the UK's best coffee roasters ready to supply you with amazing coffees from around the world. Roasted fresh, delivered direct.
You can buy a bag, or why not take advantage of our fantastic value subscription packages? You just select your favourite types of coffee, tell us how much you want and how often you want it, and we take care of the rest.