Making coffee at home shouldn’t be complicated, but brewing a great cup of coffee is challenging.
When it comes to brewing the perfect cup of coffee, the coffee grind plays a vital role in overall quality. A medium pre-ground coffee is a common standard for coffee that you usually see in grocery stores.
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What is Coarse Ground Coffee?
Coarse ground coffee, however, appears in larger particles. Grinding is done differently than regular grocery store ground coffee and the result is a somewhat chunky grind, similar to kosher salt.
Here’s What You Need to Know About Coarse Ground Coffee
Extraction
Coffee extraction is the process of dissolving ground coffee with hot water. It is the process of water pulling soluble compounds from ground coffee, and it is everything that the water takes from the coffee beans.
The soluble compounds that are extracted will affect the flavor and aroma of the coffee. These compounds include caffeine, acids, lipids, sugars, carbohydrates, and plant fiber.
Grind Size
Ideally, extracted coffee is rich, aromatic and should be balanced and flavorful. So it is crucial to have an even particle size when grinding coffee beans into smaller pieces using a grinder.
An inconsistent grind tends to cause some grounds to be over-extracted while some are under-extracted. No matter what, the grind needs to be consistent.
Coarse Ground Coffee
Depending on your brewing method, you need different types of ground coffee to extract the preferred soluble compounds properly. The surface area of the coffee beans determines the total extraction time.
A finer grind setting will extract quicker, requiring less time to achieve a balanced cup. Coarse grinds, however, require a longer time to brew and extract.
With coarse ground coffee, water takes longer to pass through all the grounds, and it takes time to pull out all the soluble compounds in coffee.
What Is Coarse Ground Coffee Best For?
● French Press
The beauty of a French press is its simplicity – add coffee and water, then press. Making coffee with a French press is a type of immersion brewing technique that requires longer steeping time for optimal flavor extraction; thus, it calls for a coarse, even grind.
It is capable of extracting a strong and robust cup of coffee without the need for any sort of electrical brewer. It has always been able to give coffee lovers the best craft coffee experience right from the comfort of their home.
● Cold Brew
Cold brew is made by steeping coarsely ground coffee in cold or room-temperature water in the refrigerator overnight to extract the flavor of the beans slowly. There is no special equipment or machine required to make this.
Cold brew coffee is smooth and highly-concentrated, which is perfect for drinking plain by itself or as the foundation to any coffee beverage recipe. (Check out our Brown Sugar Cold Brew Coffee recipe!)
It is the perfect beverage for coffee drinkers in the hot summer months because it is always ready and served cold. However, you can warm up a cold brew coffee and have it served hot, the choice is up to you.
● Percolator
A percolator is a coffee pot that continuously draws and trickles boiling water, or near-boiling water, through ground coffee using gravity until the desired strength is achieved.
It has a long brewing process and uses coarser filters. These are the reasons why a coarse grind is best for a percolator brew, since it can’t pass through the filter baskets.
With a percolator, you’re going to get a bold and robust coffee every morning in no time as it does not take much time to brew. If you need to brew coffee for a big party, a large capacity percolator is the way to go.
● Cupping
Coffee cupping, or coffee tasting, is a technique to taste and evaluate a given coffee. It is a professional way to observe the flavor, compare the aroma, and assess the quality and potential of coffee.
In a cupping session, one can compare and contrast several coffees against each other and have a better understanding of each coffee. Usually, there will be a variety of coffee samples. It is a fun and effective way to try different coffees without having to brew a lot of coffee.
Coffee cupping doesn’t have to be limited to just coffee professionals. With some practice, you can use cupping techniques in the comfort of your own home to test the quality of coffee. Grind your coffee coarsely to the consistency of kosher salt for the cupping session.
To achieve the perfect cup of coffee, all you need is a good coffee brewer and quality coarse ground coffee.
No matter which brewing method you choose, always buy fresh coffee beans for the best taste. When it comes to coffee brewing, nothing is more important than the freshness of the ground beans themselves.
Where to Buy Coarse Ground Coffee
You have two options.
1. Our recommendation: Purchase any of your favorite coffee beans and grind them coarsely yourself.
Choose to do this by hand using a manual coffee grinder, which is relatively inexpensive. Or an electric burr grinder that has a coarse setting like the OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder.
2. Buy coffee beans already pre-ground coarsely if you don’t want to do it yourself. It won’t be the freshest possible, but it is an option. It’s accessible on Amazon to get Tim Hortons Coarse Grind Original Blend or a cold brew blend from Bizzy delivered straight to your home.
