(3 Minute Read)

Is it snowing where you are? Because it’s snowing here and we are loving it.

Snow days are a good day to stay inside, snuggle up, bundle up, and pour up … a cup of BlackNerd Coffee. Maybe some Ethiopia - Sidamo – Medium Roast perhaps?

So, while the snow was coming down nicely to form a soft, pillowy blanket that eventually the little black nerds will attack, we were busy inside messing around with some coffee grind sizes.

We briefly mentioned coffee grind size in a previous post. This post, we want to dig into the details regarding the different types of coffee bean grinders. There are mainly two types of coffee grinders available: blade and burr.

If you’re asking which one is best for you, well it depends. The major factors that people use to choose one over the other are price and grind quality / consistency.

First, blade grinders. You’ll easily find some affordable blade grinders online and on store shelves. The way it works is just as you would imagine. There’s a blade that slices (and dices) the coffee beans into tiny little pieces for when you’re ready to brew. You’ll typically see a lot of uneven grind pieces when using a blade grinder. Blade grinders are typically the first foray into in-depth brewing that people use, so they are a great way to get into the whole coffee making experience.

Then, there’s the burr grinder. This type of grinder is the coffee enthusiasts’ standard when it comes to coffee grinders. There are two types of burr grinders: conical burr and flat burr. Here at BlackNerd Coffee, we use conical burr grinders (manual and automatic). We like them for consistency and control of the grind size. The way a burr grinder works is there are two main parts: an inner cone shaped burr and an outer serrated burr. The settings on the burr grinder are adjusted (from fine to coarse). This adjustment causes the outer and inner burrs to be closer or further apart dependent on your selection.

Since we started doing more French press brews, we typically start with a coarse grind size (think large pieces of kosher salt). This grind size is best for French press brewing because with French press you’re steeping the grounds in the hot water instead of pouring it over and through a filter. Anything smaller would directly impact the time that you should steep your coffee (longer steeps of finer coffee grind size will produce a “stronger” coffee).

It is best that you experiment for the grind size, water steeping time (extraction) and coffee to water ratio that suits your taste.

Let’s do a quick comparison:

Here are some of the tools we use to make our coffee at BlackNerd Coffee HQ:

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• Chemex 8 Cup Pour Over Brewer
• Chemex Filters
• Bonavita Electric Kettle
• Eravsom Digital Scale
• Cuisinart Auto Burr Grinder
• Javapresse Manual grinder
• Veken French press

Okay, now that you’ve got your specs and your tools, go and make great coffee. You deserve more than “just okay” coffee.

Additional News:

• You can now buy our Ethiopia - Sidamo Whole Bean or Colombia - Single Origin Whole bean in a larger 5lb bulk bag. Email info@blacknerdcoffee.com for more details and inquire about our wholesale pricing program
• The people have spoken and we are listening. Look out for an announcement to start offering coffee purchases on subscription. Set it and forget it. Never run out of BlackNerd Coffee (imagine the horror?!)
• Check our social media posts and find out who our first corporate partner is. Hint, hint – There’s been a buzz around town.