Particle Size Distribution – 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.

Why Can’t we Grind Coffee Finer for Pour Over ?

In this post, I discuss issues and possible avenues for grinding finer for filter coffee

The Physics of Fines Migration

In this post, I explore the details of physical phenomena that can cause fines to migrate and clog coffee filters.

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”

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”

Extracting Shells of Coffee

Recently, Barista Hustle posted a very interesting video on YouTube. I am embedding it to this blog post to make sure that you view it before reading more. I found this video rather illuminating, but at first the last minute or so was a bit confusing to me, so I decided it may be worthContinue reading “Extracting Shells of Coffee”