Page 70 - #59 English

c CTI Class

A wide

thought

distribution

about

grinding

There’s a number of various
grinding-related thoughts rolling around
my head at the moment. They’re not
fully formed (and possibly red-herrings,
so look out!) but I thought I should put
them out there. I don’t have any data to
back them up, and I’m nor even sure
they’re all true.As such, this will be a
slightly more conversational and open-
ended post compared to most of my
writings of last year, and I hope many
of you can engage with it in the com-
1
ments below or in the Slack.

Fines are Fine

Fines are the tiniest of coffee grinds. I’ve been hearing more and more profes-
sionals calling any coffee grind smaller than ~100 microns (0.1mm) in diameter a fine
and I’m inclined to agree. They’re the ones that get stuck in your pores, and lend your
shoes that unmistakable eau de barista after a shift.
Fines have a lot of surface area, and not a lot of volume. This means that all of
their coffee flavour is pretty much instantly accessible to water. Compare this to a large
coffee grind (a boulder) where the vast majority of the flavour is hidden away inside
the grind and you’ll quickly see why grind size is such a big deal.
For as long as fines have had a name, it seems like people thought they were evil.
“Fines instantly over-extract making your brew taste terrible” being the most common
phrase I’ve heard over the years. I’m now fairly certain that’s untrue, and I can’t help
but think the complete opposite is more likely.

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