I always thought grinding coffee beans finer meant better flavor until I clogged my espresso machine 3 times in one morning

Watched a barista at a shop in Portland weigh out 18 grams of coarse ground beans and pull a perfect shot in 27 seconds, so now I finally get that over-extracting with a fine grind just makes everything bitter and muddy - has anyone else ruined a batch of beans chasing the wrong grind setting?

3 comments

3 Comments

cole35621d ago

Bro I felt that in my soul. I once went so fine that my machine sounded like it was trying to blend rocks and then just gave up and started dripping hot watery mud. That Portland barista probably uses a $3000 grinder that laughs at our home setups too.

the_emery21d ago

Funny enough I had the exact same issue until I started doing a quick single spritz with a spray bottle on the beans before grinding. It cuts down the static and clumping like crazy, plus my shots started running way more consistent. For the grind itself I found my sweet spot at 16g in a 20g basket with a medium fine grind, just barely above what I use for a pour over, and it finally stopped choking my machine.

susan13021d ago

Nah, 18 grams is actually pretty standard for a double shot, but coarse grind for espresso sounds like it'd just run through too fast and give you sour under-extraction. Maybe the barista was doing some kind of turbo shot or you misremembered the coarseness level?