As an Amazon Associate, Barista Life earns from qualifying purchases.
Set a Comandante C40 MK4 between 7 and 13 for espresso, per Honest Coffee Guide's compiled Comandante C40 MK4 chart. Start in the middle of the window and adjust on taste: finer if the shot gushes and tastes sour, thin or salty, coarser if the shot chokes, drips past your target time, or tastes harsh and drying.
Comandante C40 MK4 espresso settings, and the bands either side
| What | Setting on the Comandante C40 MK4 |
|---|---|
| Espresso window | 7 to 13 [1] |
| The Turkish band on the same chart | 2 to 8 [1] |
| The moka pot band on the same chart | 14 to 24 [1] |
| Full grind range of the grinder | 0 to 1090 microns [1] |
The neighbouring bands are there for context. If your espresso sits at one end of its window and still tastes wrong, the answer is usually a different variable, not another step in the same direction, because past that edge you are grinding for a different brew method.
Why espresso wants this part of the dial
Espresso forces hot water through a compacted puck at high pressure in well under a minute, so the grind is the main lever on how fast the water gets out the other side. There is no second chance inside the shot: the setting decides the flow, and the flow decides the taste.
Dial it in from the chart in 3 steps
1. Set the middle of the espresso window above and brew once, changing nothing else. 2. Taste against the two failure directions: finer if the shot gushes and tastes sour, thin or salty, coarser if the shot chokes, drips past your target time, or tastes harsh and drying. The full logic is in how to dial in espresso grind size and why espresso runs sour. For the rest of the recipe, see why espresso runs bitter. 3. Move in small steps and write each attempt down; the free dial-in logbook exists for exactly this. Weigh the dose and the yield while you do this. Changing grind and dose in the same attempt is how people spend a week convinced the chart is wrong.
How the Comandante C40 MK4 adjustment reads
The Comandante C40 MK4 uses a click ring under the burr counted in clicks from fully tight. Find your zero before trusting any chart: with the hopper empty, close the burrs until they just touch, call that zero, and count from there. A zero point calibrated differently from the chart's shifts every range by the difference, which is behind most complaints that a chart is wrong. The full Comandante C40 MK4 grind settings chart has every other brew method on one page.
Espresso on other popular grinders
| Grinder | Espresso setting |
|---|---|
| Turin DF64 Gen 2 | 0 to 20 [2] |
| 1Zpresso J-Max | 0.6.9 to 1.5.3 [3] |
| KINGrinder K6 | 0.22 to 0.45 [4] |
| Fellow Opus | 1 to 2.5 [5] |
| 1Zpresso X-Pro | 0.3.5 to 1.1.3 [6] |
Get the grinder
The Comandante C40 MK4 is on Amazon: check the current Comandante C40 MK4 price. We link the search rather than quote a price that will be stale by Friday.
Related reading
FAQ
What grind setting is espresso on the Comandante C40 MK4? 7 to 13 on the compiled Comandante C40 MK4 chart. Start in the middle of that window, brew once with everything else held steady, then move in small steps on taste.
My espresso tastes wrong on the Comandante C40 MK4. Which way do I move? If the shot gushes and tastes sour, thin or salty, go finer. If the shot chokes, drips past your target time, or tastes harsh and drying, go coarser. Change one thing at a time and write down what you did.
Where do these Comandante C40 MK4 numbers come from? Honest Coffee Guide's compiled Comandante C40 MK4 chart, read from the published table and cited in the sources list on this page. It is a compiled chart built from that site's research and reader feedback, not a manufacturer document, so treat every range as a window rather than a verdict.
Sources
- [1] Honest Coffee Guide's Comandante C40 MK4 chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/comandante-c40-mk4-grind-settings/
- [2] Honest Coffee Guide's Turin DF64 Gen 2 chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/turin-df64-gen-2-grind-settings/
- [3] Honest Coffee Guide's 1Zpresso J-Max chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/1zpresso-j-max-grind-settings/
- [4] Honest Coffee Guide's KINGrinder K6 chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/kingrinder-k6-grind-settings/
- [5] Honest Coffee Guide's Fellow Opus chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/fellow-opus-grind-settings/
- [6] Honest Coffee Guide's 1Zpresso X-Pro chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/1zpresso-x-pro-grind-settings/
Barista Life runs on coffee people. Browse the Barista Life shop to support the site.
Get the good coffee stuff
One email a week: what we verified, what is worth buying, and what is not. No spam, unsubscribe any time.