Brewing · May 14, 2026 · 5 min read
Grind Size Is Doing More Than You Think
Before you touch water temperature or ratio, get the grind right — it's the lever with the biggest swing.
If a cup tastes sharp and hollow, the instinct is to reach for a different bean. Nine times out of ten, the fix is three clicks coarser on the grinder.
Extraction is a race between water and coffee: too fine, and you pull the bitter, dry compounds out before the sweetness has a chance to catch up. Too coarse, and you're left with something thin that tastes like it's apologizing for itself.
Our house rule for pour-over: start medium-coarse — think coarse sand, not table salt — and adjust from there in small steps, changing one variable at a time. Write it down. The dial-in you find on a Tuesday morning is worth repeating on a Wednesday.