![]() ![]() The best manual coffee grinders rely on elbow grease to create consistent coffee grinds. While you can find them in high-end home grinders, they are most commonly found in commercial grade equipment, Gotthelf says, adding, “I don't think the average coffee drinker needs to own a pricier flat burr grinder.” Do I need a hand coffee grinder?įor people who are venturing away from an outlet and into the woods, say, but don’t want to settle for flavorless instant coffee, there are manual burr mills. They also produce a unimodal grind size, Gotthelf says, which lends itself to more even extraction and better flavor.Ĭreating a machine that can handle this is pretty expensive, and since the actual difference in grind consistency is fairly marginal, few companies have spent a lot of time trying to incorporate flat burrs into more affordable machines. But because of how they’re designed, with two equally sized burrs that sit on top of each other as they run (one fixed, while the other spins), flat burrs produce a lot more friction and heat than conical burrs. The best flat burr machines will produce coffee of a more consistent grind size than the best conical burr machine-it’s also why they tend to run a lot more expensive. “Gravity scoots coffee through the burrs where beans are crushed into smaller or larger particles depending on the distance between these burrs,” she adds. Gotthelf explains that conical burrs are cone shaped, where a moving cone-shaped burr sits inside a stationary outer ring that forms the second burr. Within the burr family, there exist two main types of grinders: Ones that use flat burrs and others that use conical burrs. No coffee drinker deserves this, which is why for electric grinders, we pretty much exclusively recommend burr models here. The size of your grounds, finer or coarser, depends on how far apart you set the burrs.Ĭheaper grinders that use blades tend to slice up coffee beans indiscriminately usually result in a mixture of coffee that is both far too fine and not really ground at all. But if you’re someone who’s really serious about the quality of your cup of joe-and customizing the grind size based on whether you’re making a French press coffee or using an Aeropress-the only grinders worth considering will employ a pair of abrasive ceramic or stainless steel burrs to crush your beans to a consistent size. What's the difference between blade grinders and burr grinders?Īlmost everyone’s first coffee grinder purchase is a blade grinder, usually bought because paying $20 sounds a lot better than paying $150. Ideally, your coffee grinder should also be light and relatively small, but not so light that it rocks around spewing grounds everywhere every time it runs. Actually adjusting the grind size should be easy too, so that you have the option to toggle between a fine, medium, and coarse grind depending on the type of coffee you’ve decided to make. You shouldn’t have to do much more than just put in your coffee, flip a switch, wait a bit, and then take out your grounds. Like the very best coffee makers, the best grinders are extremely easy to use. The very best coffee grinders do more than just provide a consistent grind. ![]() Hence, taking the extra step to grind beans before you make coffee, rather than buying pre-ground coffee, improves your coffee's taste. Grinding your beans right before brewing gives the oxygen in that air less time to react with and remove all the wonderful flavor-producing chemicals you actually want to taste. ![]() The reasons for this are pretty simple: When you grind coffee, you increase the surface area that's exposed to oxygen. We need to smash coffee into smaller pieces so water can access all the things we want to get out of it, like flavor and caffeine.” The better your coffee grinder is, Gotthelf says, the better you’re able to access all of that good stuff for coffee brewing. Jenna Gotthelf- Counter Culture Coffee's national wholesale education manager, who has competed in over a dozen US Coffee Champs Brewers Cup and Barista competitions, up to the national level-explains the power of a good grinder thusly: “We can't just drop whole bean coffee in water and expect anything to happen. You could venture through the forests of Ethiopia, harvesting Geisha beans yourself and spend years honing the perfect pour-over technique, but without a good grinder, that fancy coffee is going to taste like flat coffee-flavored La Croix. Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: The best coffee grinders are your ticket to the best brewed-at-home coffee.
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