One Easy Thing You Can Do to Massively Improve Your Morning Coffee

Contrary to popular belief, the brewing apparatus isn’t the most important tool—it’s the grinder, usually the weakest link in the coffee chain and the one most deserving of the biggest chunk of your budget. Grinding the beans right before you use them is the easiest thing you can do to improve the quality of your morning quaff, no matter the brewing method or type of coffee you prefer. According to the National Coffee Association—not to mention anyone who’s ever tried it—this will make coffee taste much fresher than pre-ground, or even beans that you grind the night before. (Buying freshly roasted beans regularly is another good idea.) But grinding before brewing only gets you so far. For really superior results, you need the right kind of grinder. Most people settle for an inexpensive spinning-blade grinder, but a “burr” grinder—think of a pepper mill for coffee—is a vastly better choice. Unlike the spinning blade types, which create both fine dust and big chunks, the burrs grind to a uniform size, which makes for an even extraction of flavor compounds and caffeine. The evenness of the particle sizes may not seem that important, but it has a significant effect on how your coffee tastes. When particles are small, the hot water quickly extracts the coffee flavor, caffeine, and other compounds and can easily extract too much, giving a bitter taste. On the other hand, big, chunky particles make it hard for the hot water to take out the caffeine and flavor, which results in under-extraction and a sour taste. For people using blade grinders, these flavors often come together to create a muddy cup that’s nothing more than an eye-opener.

You can see our grinder recommendations here: Brew Like a Barista.