Find your happy grind.

Your grind controls how quickly water moves through your coffee. A simple starting point is all you need.

French press: think coarse.

Start with a texture like coarse sea salt. A longer steep gives the water time to do its work.

Filter coffee: somewhere in the middle.

A medium grind is a friendly place to begin for most automatic brewers. For a pour-over, adjust based on how long the water takes to drain.

Espresso: go finer.

A fine grind gives a short, pressurized brew enough contact with the coffee. Small changes make a big difference here.

Let your cup be the guide.

Sharp and thin can mean you should grind finer. Dry and bitter can mean you should go coarser. Freshly grinding right before brewing is a lovely habit, but a bag ground for your brewer works too.