Pre-ground coffee may be better than freshly ground coffee!

Click to follow | Daily boutique coffee culture magazine Coffee Workshop

When you come into contact with specialty coffee, you must have heard some golden rules, one of which is "always use freshly ground coffee powder, never use pre-ground powder", but is this iron rule necessarily the truth?

Let’s take a look at the differences between pre-ground coffee and freshly ground coffee yourself.

Reasons to Avoid Pre-Ground Flours

Why do we grind coffee? To increase the surface area of ​​the roasted coffee beans, which helps to extract better flavor and aroma from the coffee. If we throw the whole coffee beans into water, we will only get a watery, aroma-less liquid.

Grinding means allowing the coffee powder to come into contact with water to a greater extent, which allows the substances in the coffee to dissolve quickly in water and achieve the purpose of extraction. If you understand the basics of extraction, you will know the pros and cons of grinding the coffee powder in advance.

When coffee is ground into powder, the surface area is greatly increased, exposing more coffee to the air.

Coffee exposed to oxygen will outgas, meaning it will release the gases produced during the roasting process. Outgassing is important to avoid under-extraction and foaming. Grinding accelerates outgassing. The longer you grind your coffee and leave the grounds exposed to air, the more flavor and aroma you lose. When all the gasses are outgassed, the brewed coffee will be bland.

Likewise, ground coffee is more susceptible to moisture, and when coffee beans get damp, it affects the oils and flavor of the coffee. Surface area is also the reason why finely ground coffee loses flavor faster than coarsely ground coffee.

If coffee is ground and exposed to air, much of its flavor and aroma will be lost.

Coffee that has lost its oils and aroma is not delicious, which is why pre-ground coffee has a bad reputation. Why take a well-roasted, high-quality coffee bean and let it be ground into powder and exposed to the air, wasting its flavor?

Ken Selby, the 2018 American Cupping Championship winner, said: "When you use pre-ground coffee versus freshly ground coffee, you will find that the aroma and acidity of the coffee you brew will be very different."

Airtight coffee beans.

Can the powder be preserved to make it taste fresh?

Is there a way to stop the flavor of coffee from deteriorating? Actually, no. But we can slow down the deterioration through some methods.

The same recommendations for preserving coffee beans apply to preserving ground coffee. The most important thing is to minimize exposure to external environmental factors, including oxygen, heat, and light.

The method is actually very simple. Ken said that the best way to preserve coffee powder is to place it in a vacuum, sealed, light-proof container. Avoid placing it in the refrigerator, after all, extreme changes in temperature and humidity are not conducive to maintaining the flavor of coffee.

Is freshly ground flour always good?

Minimizing flavor decay is one thing, but is it always better to grind fresh for each cup? Usually it is, but not in every case.

When we grind, we turn coffee beans into aromatic particles, but if we use a blade grinder or a poor quality grinder, we will get inconsistent grinding results and form coffee powder of many different sizes and shapes.

Inconsistent coffee grounds lead to inconsistent extraction. Speaking of this, let's look at extraction. The substances in the coffee beans will dissolve into the water at different rates, and the first thing to be extracted is acidity, followed by sweetness, and finally bitterness. When you brew, you definitely want a cup of coffee with a balanced flavor.

By brewing coffee with a consistent grind, you can expect the coffee to be extracted in the same state, which allows you to better control the flavor and aroma.

When brewing with inconsistently ground coffee, some grinds will extract faster than others, leading to over-extraction. It’s virtually impossible to control the brewing results, let alone reproduce a great cup of coffee with these random grind sizes.

Uneven ground coffee

Poor quality grinders can also easily produce fine powder, which can lead to rapid extraction and bitter taste caused by over-extraction. They can also grind coarse coffee powder, resulting in insufficient extraction and a sour taste.

Alex Choppin, a technical specialist at grinder burr manufacturer Baratza, said that having a reliable grinder is the key to making a good cup of coffee. The first thing is good quality coffee, and then a grinder that can grind the right quality of beans.

If you are looking for ways to improve the flavor of your brewed coffee, you should first check your grinder. Is the ground powder stable enough? If it cannot be ground stably and there is no way to replace the machine, you can use a sieve to separate the unevenly ground particles.

Stable ground coffee helps to brew good coffee

When Pre-Ground Coffee Could Be Better

When you don't have access to a good grinder, it may be better to use pre-ground powder. A store near your company or home may have a very good grinder, so you may consider buying beans from there and asking the store to grind them for you.

If you buy only a small amount at a time and store the pre-ground coffee well, the coffee you brew may taste better than the coffee you grind and brew yourself.

Alex compared the "week-old ground coffee" with the "freshly ground coffee using a cheap blade grinder" and found that the pre-ground coffee tasted better.

"This was a surprising result for me, as I was convinced that even freshly ground coffee from a low-quality grinder could beat pre-ground coffee. But the flavor of the pre-ground coffee was still good. In my experience, pre-ground coffee either completely deteriorated in flavor or was inferior to the coffee ground from a blade grinder."

When you don't have a good grinder, you might be better off using pre-ground coffee.

It may sound counterintuitive, but I would tend to choose "pre-ground coffee using a good grinder" over "freshly ground coffee using a blade grinder."

But remember that the finer the grind, the faster it will decay. If you want to pre-grind coffee and store it, coarse grinding is a better choice.

It may sound reasonable that freshly ground coffee is better than pre-ground coffee, but this is only true if you use the same grade of grinder. If you don't have a good grinder, it's best to ask the store to grind it for you.

Compare the flavor of two cups of coffee yourself, one freshly ground and one pre-ground, and you might be surprised at the difference.

Source: Perfect Daily Grind

Disclaimer: Some of the pictures in this article are from the Internet. For some of the content on the website, such as pictures, we will respect the copyright of the original work and indicate the source, but due to the large number of pictures, some pictures and texts may not be indicated in time, please forgive me. If the original author has any disputes, please contact the website to deal with it. Once verified, we will correct it immediately. It is edited by "Coffee Workshop". Please indicate the source when reprinting. This article is intended to spread coffee culture. If there is any infringement, please inform us to delete it. Thank you~!