can't say I've seen anything about sifting one's grind for uniformity. has anyone done it? does anyone do it? what are the pro's & con's that I might be missing aside from the time and labor required?

For brewed coffee, sifting may reduce some bitterness; the more taste bud advanced members here can probably tell you what the difference is.

Since you are in Richmond/Vancouver, consider Avenue18 for this gadget:

http://www.avenue18.ca/Accessories/Syph...MPS_50.htm

Or, to save some money, most Asian supermarkets carry this item, for about USD$5:



For espresso, the ground coffee actually needs some fines, or a bimodal/trimodal particle distribution, so sifting will not be beneficial.

Friendly wrote:can't say I've seen anything about sifting one's grind for uniformity. has anyone done it?

From the FAQs and Favorites: Grind Sifting for Brewed Coffee. I haven't tried sifting, but sometimes do the French pull. The espro press automates these steps; I haven't tried it, but Randy writes a favorable review of it here.

I haven't tried this either but a barista I know (who is keen enough on his coffee to have bought a bulk grinder new for home use...) reckons it leads to a cleaner cup. He uses a regular food sieve as far as I could tell.

Cons... waste? Mess?

I actually do sift my ground coffee from a Mahlkoenig Vario when using it in a french press, especially for when preparing some Irish Coffees. It's the cylindrical strainer from our tea pot, similar in fineness to the one pictured above, but perhaps marginally larger (meaning slightly more is left through and thus discarded)

sifting 38g of grinds on the coarsest setting for about 45 seconds in total (in 3 batches usually, only half fill the strainer each time, and shake it vigourously with a lid) results in about 32g remaining which is the measure I use generally with 450ml of water in the press. So that would be basically the finest 15% by weight of the ground coffee that is removed.