Should You Spray Your Coffee Beans Before Grinding?

29 May

Making espresso at home is a great way to enjoy barista quality coffee at your convenience. If you’ve invested in a home espresso setup then naturally you would want to find ways to brew the best possible coffee by using the most efficient techniques and practices.

One interesting technique which has recently become popular is to spray your coffee beans before grinding them. Coffee machines are even starting to be supplied with small spray bottles to encourage users to do this.
But why exactly should you spray your coffee beans before grinding and how will this improve your espresso shot?

**1. Reduce Static for less mess**

The main reason people are encouraged to spray coffee beans prior to grinding is because this reduces the amount of static. Therefore you have less coffee grounds sticking to the side of your portafilter/grinder so you use all of the grounds whilst creating less mess.
This can be great for making sure you brew accurately by using all of the coffee you grind and also reduced waste.

**2. Greater Brewing Recipe Accuracy**

This technique improves your brewing recipe accuracy by minimising waste and ensuring all of the beans you weigh out before grinding end up in your portafilter. This is great for ensuring consistent brewing.

3. Less Grinder Maintenance

Spraying the beans mean that you reduce the amount of coffee grounds that get stuck to the side of your grinder. Meaning you won’t need to clean your grinder as frequently!

**TIP: Make Sure The Beans Don’t Get Too Wet**

There is one thing to be careful of when doing this, and that’s to make sure you don’t make the beans too wet by spraying too much. If the beans get too wet then this could have a negative effect on your brewing process. It’s best to just spray the beans lightly without adding too much moisture. A couple of sprays should do.

TIP: Shake The Beans After Spraying

After spraying your beans a few times, it’s a good idea to gently shake the container to disperse the droplets amongst all the beans. This prevents just the top beans benefiting from the spray.

TIP: Check Your Grinder First

Spraying your coffee beans will generally always have some benefit as mentioned above, however whether it’s worth your time requires a little more thought. We’ve found that when making espresso and griding coffee directly into the portafilter, we don’t see as much static build up and therefore skip this step when short on time. However, when griding directly into a separate container (for V60, French Press, etc) we see a lot more static and mess, so we make sure to always spray beforehand. So check the amount of static produced by your grinder to determine how neccessary it is to spray.

Which Spray Bottle Should You Buy?

Most small spray bottles will do the job, just make sure you buy on that is small enough to spray your measured beans without getting the rest of your equipment wet. Look for one that’s roughly 10cm tall. Shop Now On Amazon

So, should you start spraying your coffee beans before grinding?

Overall this seems like an easy and relatively effortless step to add to your espresso making process which can help reduce coffee waste, unnecessary mess and improve your brew ratio consistency. If you want perfect coffee and often find you waste grounds when griding then I would definitely recommend doing this every time you grind. However, if you are short on time and your grinder doesn’t produce too much static then it won’t hurt to skip this step.

I’d recommend buying a small spray bottle from a local homeware store if your machine didn’t already come with one. It won’t necessarily improve the taste of your brew, but it will make your griding process more efficient.