Why you should grind your own coffee

Freshly grinding your coffee beans is one of the simplest and most transformative upgrades you can make to your home brewing. Once coffee is ground, it begins to lose its flavour almost immediately — as little as 15 minutes of exposure to air is enough for oxidation to dull the delicate aromatics and flatten the taste. This is why you should grind your own coffee.

Grinding on demand protects those volatile compounds and gives you a cup that’s noticeably sweeter, brighter, and more expressive. If you’re adding just one piece of equipment to your setup, a quality burr grinder is the investment that pays you back every single day.

Grind size matters

Grinding exposes the interior of the bean to water, which is how flavour is extracted. The size of those particles determines how quickly that extraction happens:

• Finer grinds have more surface area, so water extracts the flavour faster
• Coarser grinds extract more slowly because there is less surface area exposed.

Getting the grind right is essential. Too coarse and your coffee will taste thin and sour (under extracted). Too fine and it becomes bitter, harsh, and astringent (over extracted). Matching your grind size to your brew method is the key to unlocking balance and clarity.

Burr vs blade: Why it matters

Even extraction depends on even grind size, which is why the type of grinder you use makes a huge difference.

• Burr grinders use two cutting discs to crush beans into consistently sized particles. This uniformity leads to cleaner, more balanced flavour and far better control over your brew.
• Blade grinders chop beans unevenly, producing a mix of dust and large chunks. This inconsistency causes uneven extraction — some grounds over‑extract, others under‑extract — resulting in muddled, unpredictable flavour.

For anyone serious about good coffee, a burr grinder isn’t a luxury; it’s the foundation of great brewing.

Grinding fresh is one of the easiest ways to elevate your daily cup — and when you’re brewing expressive African coffees, it’s the difference between tasting some of the flavour and tasting all of it.