Grind your fair-trade coffee to a medium setting for drip coffee, about the texture of table salt. That is the standard starting point shared by the National Coffee Association, Whole Latte Love, and Blue Bottle Coffee, and the fair-trade label does not change it.
The certification covers how the beans were sourced, not how they grind. Bean cell structure depends on variety, altitude, and roast level, so brew method, not certification, decides your grind size.
What a Medium Grind Looks Like
A medium grind looks and feels like regular table salt or granulated sand. Rub a pinch between your fingers and you should feel grit, not powder.
Blade grinders chop beans unevenly, so some pieces end up too fine and others too coarse. A burr grinder such as the Baratza Encore conical burr grinder crushes beans to a more consistent size, which helps drip coffee extract evenly.
- Key Specifications:
- Grind setting: medium, roughly the texture of table salt
- Grinder type: conical or flat burr
- Benefit: even particle size, less bitter dust in the cup
Consistency matters more than perfection here. Every expert source on drip brewing points to the same medium target, so aim for that first and adjust by taste afterward.
Use the Table Below to Match Your Grind to Taste Problems
Use the table below to decide which direction to move your grinder when the cup does not taste right. These are starting points, since bean density and roast level shift the ideal setting in each case.
| Your Cup | What It Can Indicate | Starting Adjustment |
|---|---|---|
| Sour, thin, or weak | Under-extraction, water moving through too fast | Grind slightly finer |
| Bitter or astringent | Over-extraction, water sitting in the grounds too long | Grind slightly coarser |
| Basket drains slowly or clogs | Grind too fine for the filter | Grind coarser, one small step at a time |
| Flat and unremarkable | Grind or dose may be slightly off | Taste-test a finer setting, then compare |
| Perfectly balanced but light body | Dose may be low rather than grind size wrong | Adjust dose first, grind second |
Move one small step at a time, then run a fresh brew. The Specialty Coffee Association’s brewing standards point to taste and extraction balance as the final judge, not any fixed dial number.
Roast Level Changes the Starting Point
Dark roasts are more porous and give up their soluble compounds faster, so a slightly coarser setting within the medium range can help prevent bitterness. Light roasts are denser and extract more slowly, so a slightly finer setting gives the water more surface area to work with.
These are directional adjustments, not fixed numbers. The fair-trade beans in your bag might be a washed Latin American lot at medium roast or a natural Ethiopian at a lighter roast, and each one sits slightly differently inside the medium range.
Roast level, not certification, is what your grinder responds to. If your bag lists a light roast, start on the finer side of medium and taste from there.
Why Fair-Trade Does Not Change the Grind
Fairtrade International defines the certification around pricing minimums, labor standards, and sustainable farming, and its standards include quality testing and moisture controls at origin. Nothing in the certification alters how the roasted bean breaks apart in your grinder.
What actually changes extraction is roast level, bean density, and freshness. Fresh beans matter more than certification here, and an old bag of fair-trade coffee offers less to extract no matter how you grind it.
So ignore the label when setting your burrs. Set the grind for drip coffee and the roast in front of you, the same way you would for any other specialty bean.
Drip Machine Versus Pour-Over
“Drip” covers both automatic drip machines and manual pour-over methods, and many people use the words interchangeably. Automatic machines hold a steady water temperature and a set flow rate, so the medium grind has to do less work balancing the brew.
Pour-over follows the same surface-area and contact-time principles, but the ideal setting shifts with the brewer, filter, and pouring technique. If you brew pour-over style with your fair-trade beans, start at medium and adjust with your pour rather than jumping to a new grind size first.
For other brew methods, the target changes: espresso needs a much finer grind, while cold brew calls for a coarse one.
Dialing In Without Guesswork
Change one variable per brew, either grind or dose, never both. If you also change your dose at the same time you change grind, you cannot tell which adjustment moved the flavor.
A reliable setup makes dialing in faster: a burr grinder, a scale that reads grams, and fresh beans. If your beans have been sitting for months, check how fresh they should be for drip coffee before you blame the grind.
Whole Latte Love’s grind size chart maps each brew method to a texture, and its drip entry lands on medium, the same target the other sources give. That three-way agreement is why you can start your first brew with confidence.
Once the balance is right, write down the grinder setting for that bag. The next fair-trade roast will still need its own test, but you will know your baseline.
Practical Starting Recipe
Use the table below to set up your first brew before making any adjustments. These figures follow the SCA’s Golden Cup ratio guidance of 55 grams per liter, plus 10 percent.
| Item | Starting Setting |
|---|---|
| Grind size | Medium, texture of table salt |
| Coffee per liter of water | About 55 to 60 grams |
| Water temperature | Around 200 degrees Fahrenheit, or just off a full boil after a brief rest |
| Total brew time | Roughly 4 to 6 minutes of contact |
Troubleshooting a bad cup always comes back to the taste test: sour means finer, bitter means coarser. A paper filter, like a basket paper filter, keeps fine particles out of the brew, so grind first and look at every other variable afterward.
Grind your fair-trade beans medium, like table salt, and adjust one small step finer for sour cups or coarser for bitter ones. Buy fresh-roasted fair-trade beans, dial in with a burr grinder, and let the taste test, not the label, set your final number.