Discover the Best Coffee Grinder for Yourself with our Reviews
If you are new to home coffee grinding you will find everything you need about it here. Do not neglect the importance of fresh grinding. Whether it is espresso, drip or French press coffee, the proffesionals will tell you one thing: 'grinding is the most important process in preparation of the perfect cup of coffee'.
A familiar example. Have you ever tasted few days old popcorn? Freshly made they were crunchy and tasty. Few days later the taste went away and crunchiness changed into softness. You can storage corn for years and pop them just before eating. But you cannot keep popcorn even for a week.Same story with coffee. Coffee beans can be storied for years. Similarly as popcorn, ground coffee loses its features very quickly.
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Forget blade grinders. Most decent coffee grinders for home use come with conical burrs.Read conical burr coffee grinders reviews and recommendations |
This short and frequently updated guide is for those who know their budget for a coffee grinder and want to get the best for their money. |
Usually flat burrs are used in high-end grinders. These burrs are bigger thus produce more coffee in a shorter time. Read flat burr grinders reviews and recommendations. |
Blade. This type is most common at home. Even though these appliances are noisy and have some other disadvantages it is really cheap and having at least this type of coffee grinder at home is a great idea. It is still better to have a blade coffee grinder than to buy already ground coffee. Read more about blade coffee grinders...
Manual & antique. Like the crunchy sound of coffee beans being crushed? I love manual coffee grinder sound. It adds some mysterious value besides fresh smell and flavor. Even though it takes some time to grind coffee - no automatic coffee grinder will grind coffee better. Besides old-style coffee grinders enhance home very well. Learn more about and order manual coffee grinders here...
Turkish. You need to crush coffee beans into dust to create Turkish coffee. There are some special and very nice looking Turkish coffee mills. Some Conical burr coffee grinders are also fitted to do just the job. Find more info about Turkish coffee grinders and offers...
Coffee grinders secret explanation
We don't want to go too deep into science but here's is a simple explanation. Ground coffee has a larger surface exposed to oxygen. While ground coffee oxidizes, coffee bean's surface preserves its inside content. And what happens when you freshly grind them? You get the freshest coffee with the best smell and taste it posses!
Grinding Just Before Brewing Impact
Coffee ages like any other food product. Here's the main difference between ground coffee and coffee beans: roasted coffee bean has a hard thick surface like a shell, like a vacuum box that cans it's internal products. Coffee beans protect their content from contact with atmosphere, most importantly from oxygen and humidity. As soon as you crush open the beans you release oils and all other fragrant contents they possessed and you can actually smell and taste fresh coffee.
The exposed surface area of coffee increases dramatically when beans are ground. The shell is crushed and the content is open to air and humidity. You have just a short time now to put the grinds to a good use - prepare your coffee. You might think you taste the real coffee because it was packed in a vacuumed box directly after grinding and you would be partially right. However packs aren't that reliable and you will not use whole coffee from a box at once. You will store coffee somewhere not that environmentally friendly for it. Best practice of baristas: grind only as much coffee as you will use at the moment.
Most Important Coffee Grinder Features
It is partially true that any grinder is better than no grinder. The taste and aroma you will extract by yourself will be greater than from any kind of pre-ground coffee. Prices of mills vary from $10 for the simplest blade coffee grinder to $2000 and even more for a burr commercial coffee bean grinder that is usually used in cafés and bigger restaurants. Here come two major factors into the game: grind consistency and heat produced by a coffee grinder.
Frictional heat. Rotating parts of the grinder touch coffee beans, cut or crush them and thus create frictional heat. Excessive heat burns the particles and oils of coffee resulting in bitter taste of brewed coffee. A simple conclusion: the less frictional heat a grinder creates the better. Blade coffee grinder blades spin at uncontrolled high speeds. To crown it all, ground coffee gathers together and opposes the blades. Keep the blade grinder on for too long and you'll get the bitterness promised.
Meanwhile burr grinders (whether flat or conical burr) rotate quite slowly and freely. Even though you will hardly burn any particles with a burr coffee grinder some professionals prefer manual coffee grinders. With a hand-crank coffee grinder you will have to work to get the grind but will also receive pleasure and definitely will not receive a single burnt coffee particle (correction: unless you can spin you hand at more than 400rpm).
Grind Consistency. Because burr coffee grinders resolve the overheating problem the capability to produce even sized coffee particles remains the main aspect to look after in a grinder. Are you still reading? Here's an advice: forget blade grinders. They will chop your beans into uneven sized coffee particles. Such grind clogs the filters and it is not suitable for anything more than pour-over coffee.
For decent espresso coffee bean grinder you should consider to invest about $200. Cheaper models just won't provide the necessary consistency of grind so much needed for good espresso or any other coffee drink which uses espresso as the base.
Conclusion. All in all it is not recommended to buy blade coffee grinder unless you are truly short on cash. If you can invest ~$250 for a coffee grinder, by all means do that. However if you prefer drip, French or even Turkish coffee and espresso or cappuccino is not your drink you can find a decent coffee grinder for about $100.