The Daily Grind Part 2: Grinder, Grinders and More Grinders

As with all major purchases like appliances or vehicles, some of the best advice I have received has been: Take the amount of money you have and buy the best you can with it. This is also true for home coffee grinders. I will talk about specific home grinders and my recommendations in the next installment of this three-part series. The truth is: grind does matter. The question is: how much does it matter to you? In this installment of this series, I want to give you some basic information and details about the three types of grinder: blade, flat ceramic or steel burr, conical ceramic or steel burr. As you read through this blog, I would like for you to pay particular attention to the pictures displaying the ground coffee. I have also placed those pictures again at the end of this blog so you can compare them for yourself. (Note: some of the quality of pictures is less than desirable. My apologies for that. I will replace them in the future with higher quality pictures when we get some better weather and longer daylight.)

The most basic of electric coffee grinders is the blade grinder. The advantages of this kind of grinder are compact, ease of use/simple and inexpensive. The disadvantages are it is small and produces an inconsistent grind. By inconsistent, I mean the sizes of the ground coffee are very inconsistent.

(Pictured: Coffee ground with a standard blade grinder from the early days of our coffee journey.)

Some of the coffee is fine as dust while some particles are the size of coarse table salt. This results in great variability in taste and quality of brewed coffee due to the overextraction of the smaller particles (called fines) and underextraction of the larger (coarser) particles.

The most sophisticated of baristas and coffee aficionados will tell you these are really glorified spice mills. If this style of grinder works for you, continue using it!

Burr grinders have two parts that fit together to crush or grind coffee. There are also flat and conical burrs. Sometimes flat burrs are referred to as burr plates. There are people who have strong opinions about each style of burr. The style I currently am using is the conical burr.

(Picutred: Stainless steel conical burrs)

There are two materials burr grinders are made of: ceramic and steel. Ceramic burr grinders tend to produce grounds that are variable in size however not as variable as a blade grinder. One of the leading grinder manufacturers, Baratza, reports that ceramic conical burrs are more desirable for brewing traditional style espresso. Stainless steel conical burr grinders produce a much more consistent grind size. A number of small/compact hand grinders have ceramic burrs.

(Pictured: White ceramic conical burrs seen in the center of this slim hand grinder)

When we travel overseas, we take a small hand grinder. Our current hand grinder has ceramic conical burrs. In the interest of full disclosure, no, I don’t usually have to use the hand grinder. Roastmaster Jeff is kind enough to grind for us when we travel. I could grind, but why?!

(Pictured: Coffee ground with a conical ceramic burr hand grinder.)

Our three primary grinders are all stainless steel conical burrs. The major disadvantage of electrical conical burr grinders is the size. The first installment of this three-part series was about changing the conical stainless steel burrs in our most used grinder. The reason I choose a conical steel burr grinder is because I want to reproduce consistent brewed coffee, and I believe this particular style of grinder gives me that ability. I also appreciate that I can change the burrs without having to replace the entire grinder.

(Pictured: Coffee ground using the conical stainless steel burr grinder.)

My recommendation is to do your homework, take your time and make the choice you feel the most confident about when selecting a home grinder. Take into consideration how much coffee you grind, how often you grind coffee, how much space you have to store a grinder and what are your expectations for your coffee in how it brews up and tastes.

You can read more about grinding coffee here in my blog containing “Two Crucial Coffee Maven Tips About Grinding.” In the next installment, I will discuss some of the various manufacturers and specific grinders along with their cost. Remember what I said in the first sentence of today’s blog: Some of the best advice I have received has been: Take the amount of money you have and buy the best you can. This is also true for home coffee grinders.

Thank you for joining us on our coffee adventure!

Pictures of ground coffee for better comparison: For this blog, I attempted to grind the coffee for a drip brewer in each of the grinders.

Blade grinder: Note the extreme variations in the size of coffee grounds. Blade griders slice coffee beans as they fly around the chambers resulting in the huge variation.

Ceramic conical burr hand grinder: Note there is still some variation in the sized of coffee grounds, although less so than the blade grinder. Conical burr grinders crush the beans between the burrs. Ceramic burrs are not as sharp as conical steel burrs, but they also are more consistent over time due to the fact they dull at a much slower rate.

Conical stainless steel burrs: Sorry for the quality of this photo, but it still demonstrates a much more consistent grind. The more consistent the grind size, the more consistent the extraction of coffee from each one of the grounds.

#grind #homebrewing