About 8 months before I got married I convinced my wife-to-be that it was the perfect time to get a coffee machine given we probably wouldnt be able to justify it once we had a mortgage etc. Having grown dissatisfied with the eBay special of a Kenwood thermoblock even before taking delivery of the thing, I had my sights set on a Quaha / Imat unit. One of the justifications for getting the Napoletana with the built-in grinder was the ability to grind to whatever granularity required by the bean (and have never looked back incidentally!)
Ive worked out that for the beans I get from Alan Frew, I need a grind of about 2.75-3.0, depending on how long Ive had them. Decaf needs to be more like 2.0 or it flows straight through. I recently was given some Cibo beans and found these had to be more like 3.5 to prevent choking. Im sure you all have similar magic numbers for your own blends and grinders.
But why the variation? Why is it that some beans, or blends, need to be ground coarser or finer to prevent choking or fast-flow respectively? Is it that the drier beans absorb more water, therefore expanding more, therefore need to start coarser? Is it the roast level? The caffeine content? What actually happens? All that is clear to me is that for the same blend, the same grind density is required, sometimes slightly finer as the batch ages.
Greg
Ive worked out that for the beans I get from Alan Frew, I need a grind of about 2.75-3.0, depending on how long Ive had them. Decaf needs to be more like 2.0 or it flows straight through. I recently was given some Cibo beans and found these had to be more like 3.5 to prevent choking. Im sure you all have similar magic numbers for your own blends and grinders.
But why the variation? Why is it that some beans, or blends, need to be ground coarser or finer to prevent choking or fast-flow respectively? Is it that the drier beans absorb more water, therefore expanding more, therefore need to start coarser? Is it the roast level? The caffeine content? What actually happens? All that is clear to me is that for the same blend, the same grind density is required, sometimes slightly finer as the batch ages.
Greg
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