The grinding of coffee exposes more surface area of the bean for optimum flavour extraction into your brew. Grinding also releases the wonderful fragrances associated with that perfect cup.
For the engineers and/or fellow coffee extremists: grinding is also technically referred to as comminution : the breaking down of particles into smaller fragments. The best grinding methods produce particles which are all of a uniform size.
The fresher your coffee beans, the more fragrant the aroma. Coffee beans can be ground to different degrees of fineness, which makes the grounds more suitable to a particular preparation method. Eg fine for drip filter and medium-coarse for plunger.
The ideal grinding machine is one which uses two sets of conical burrs creating a “mill” system. Adjusting the distance between burrs alters the fineness of the particles.
A blender spice/coffee grinder (which uses a blade to chop the beans) can be used, but may not be as suitable, since you end up with varying sized particles. The grinds also become heated because of friction from multiple impacts by the blades.
For the ultimate flavour only grind as much coffee as you need immediately! Otherwise store in an airtight container & use within 2 weeks.
