Reference · grind

Grind size chart by brew method

Grind size sets how fast water can pull flavor out of coffee. The rule behind every chart: the longer the water and coffee stay in contact, the coarser the grind should be.

Updated 2026-10-13 · sources listed at the end

The chart

Grinders do not share a universal scale — "setting 15" on one burr grinder means nothing on another — so the chart uses texture descriptions taken from the sources, ordered coarsest to finest.

Brew method	Grind	Texture cue	Typical contact
French press	Coarse	"roughly the consistency of cooking salt"	≈4 min (4–7)
SCA "coarse" category	Coarse	—	6–8 min
Kalita Wave (flat-bottom)	Medium-coarse	"about coarse sea salt"	3–4 min
V60, 4:6 method	Coarse	per the recipe author	3:30
SCA "drip" category	Medium	—	4–6 min
AeroPress (competition style)	Slightly finer than filter	—	30–60 s steep
AeroPress (official recipe)	Fine	—	≈10 s stir, then press
SCA "fine" category	Fine	—	1–4 min
Moka pot	Fine	"finely ground"	until gurgling starts
Espresso	Fine	—	pressurised shot
Turkish / Greek coffee	Extra fine	"almost powdery"	boiled, unfiltered

The SCA rows are the association's own contact-time guidance for fine, drip and coarse grinds; the other rows come from the method-specific sources listed below. Cold brew, which steeps in cold water for 8–24 hours, sits at the very long end of the contact-time scale.

Why grind size matters

Brewing references state the rule plainly: methods with longer contact between water and coffee need a coarser grind, and faster methods need a finer one. That is why methods with a long, full-immersion steep (French press, cold brew) call for coarse grounds, while fast, pressurized methods (espresso, moka) use fine ones.

Get the match wrong and you can taste it. Grounds that are too fine for the method over-extract and taste bitter; grounds that are too coarse under-extract and taste weak unless you add more coffee. With a French press, very fine grounds also make the plunger hard to push and seep past the mesh filter — see the French press guide for the full recipe and troubleshooting.

Grind and the other variables

Grind is not a standalone setting. It interacts with:

Contact time. In a pour-over, a finer grind slows drainage, which lengthens contact time — two changes at once. If a V60 suddenly takes a minute longer, the grind (or the fines it produces) is the usual suspect.
Temperature. UC Davis research found that when strength and extraction are held fixed, brew temperature alone had little sensory impact — the researchers adjusted grind size and brew time to hit the same targets at each temperature. See water temperature.
Ratio. If a coffee tastes balanced but too strong or weak, change the ratio, not the grind.

Blade vs. burr grinders

Encyclopedic references note that blade grinders are not recommended for pump espresso machines, and that drip brewing is the method that tolerates a blade grinder best.

Competition baristas take evenness further. Several World AeroPress Championship winning recipes describe sifting out fines — for example the 2022 champion's recipe sifts out particles in the 100–200 µm range, and the 2025 winning recipe sifts at 200 µm. You do not need a sieve at home, but it shows how much the fine fraction matters to flavor.

Dialing in: a simple routine

Start from the chart's texture cue for your method.
Brew at a fixed ratio and note the total time.
Sour, thin, fast? Go one step finer.
Bitter, drying, slow? Go one step coarser.
Change only the grind until the cup is balanced, then fine-tune strength with the ratio.