Coffee Grinding Tips; How The Grind Affects Flavor - KitchenAid A-9 Instructions Manual

• Use the correct grind for the brew
process you are using. 16 grinds are
available from "Fine" to "Coarse".
"Fine" can be used for espresso,
"Medium" is appropriate for
automatic drip coffee makers, and
"Coarse" is suited to French Press
brewing. Experiment – your tastes
may be better served by using a
slightly finer or coarser grind.
• For drip coffee makers, a good
starting point is to grind 1 ounce of
coffee for every 4 cups of brew
water as measured with the carafe
(a carafe "cup" is about 4
Finer grinds require less coffee, but
too fine a grind will result in bitter
flavor – see "How the Grind
Affects Flavor."

How the Grind Affects Flavor

The flavor of coffee depends on a
variety of factors, including the
quality, freshness, and roast of the
beans, the purity of the brew water,
the cleanliness of the brewing
equipment, and the brewing
temperature. The fineness and
consistency of the grind is also critical.
Coffee that is ground too fine for a
particular brewing process – using a
fine espresso grind in a drip coffee
maker, for example – will result in the
brew water over-extracting the oils
and aromatic compounds in the
coffee, yielding a brew that is
extremely pungent and bitter.
Conversely, coffee that is too coarsely
ground for a particular process will
result in the under-extraction of the
oils and essences, resulting in a very
thin and weak flavor. If the correct
grind is used, adding more coffee
simply makes a brew stronger without
making it excessively bitter.

Coffee Grinding Tips

1 ⁄ ounces).
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• Ground coffee loses flavor and
aroma quickly. For best results, grind
only as much coffee as you intend
to use immediately.
• Grinding flavored coffee beans is
not recommended – they will impart
an off-taste to any other coffee that
is ground in the mill, and may cause
the burrs to clog.
• Do not grind spices. The Coffee Mill
is intended for grinding whole
coffee beans only.
The consistency of the grind is also
an important factor in the flavor of
coffee. If the grounds are uniform,
equal amounts of soluble compounds
will be extracted from each. If the
grounds vary in size, some will be
over-extracted and some will be
under-extracted, leading to extremely
poor quality.
The Model A-9™ Coffee Mill uses a
pair of stainless steel cutting burrs to
grind coffee with precision. This helps
ensure that your coffee is the best it
can be.
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