Coffee Grinders – Coffee ad Astra

A Comparison between Standard and Low-Fines Espresso Shots

In this post, I compare several shots pulled with the Niche to others pulled with the EG-1 and SSP ultra-low-fines burrs.

Seasoning Grinder Burrs and Grind Quality

This post is a detailed discussion of the effects of coffee grinder seasoning on particle size distributions.

Grind Quality and the Popcorning Effect

I often heard worries in the coffee community about a difference of quality in the coffee grind size distribution when grinding with a full hopper versus a single dose of coffee in an otherwise empty hopper. The idea behind this is that coffee beans forced through the rotating grinder burrs have no choice but toContinue reading “Grind Quality and the Popcorning Effect”

An App to Measure your Coffee Grind Size Distribution

[Edit April 20 2021: Chris Satterlee generously developed install packages for both OS X here and Windows here ! His full GitHub repo is here. I’m very thankful for this help (it’s not straightforward at all to do this).] [Edit April 25 2019: Please note this is not an iPhone or Android app, and IContinue reading “An App to Measure your Coffee Grind Size Distribution”

A Recipe to Brew High Extraction Coffee with the Siphon

Today I am finally sharing a recipe for the siphon brewer. I will use a bit of technical jargon at times in this blog post. If you encounter a word you’re not familiar with, I recommend you consult Mitch Hale’s glossary. The siphon method is far from being appropriate for most people’s daily routines, asContinue reading “A Recipe to Brew High Extraction Coffee with the Siphon”

Testing a Model of Extraction Dynamics

In a recent post, I presented a mathematical model for the dynamics of coffee extraction that is based on a few simple hypotheses. One of these is that the rate of extraction decreases exponentially. The rate at which it decreases can depend on many things: the type of coffee, the roast, the amount of agitationContinue reading “Testing a Model of Extraction Dynamics”

The Dynamics of Coffee Extraction

[Edit January 30, 2019: After receiving some feedback about this post, I would like to address a few things that I think were not clear enough. I’d like to thank Scott Rao for his comments. First, when I use language such as “over-extraction”, and “under-extraction”, I don’t mean that the associated extraction numbers are necessarilyContinue reading “The Dynamics of Coffee Extraction”

How to Brew Better Coffee with a V60

Table of Contents Introduction Percolation and Immersion Why use a V60 ? The Brew Variables Coffee to Water Ratio Coffee Beans Quality and Roast Profile Grind Size and Uniformity Coffee Freshness Filter quality Brew temperature Water Agitation Uniformity of Extraction and Repeatability Water quality Contact Time Determining Grind Size Practicing the Rao Spin How ToContinue reading “How to Brew Better Coffee with a V60”