Coffee grinders for your home coffee heaven

How to choose a coffee grinder for home

A coffee grinder is the most important piece of equipment for your home barista accessories. It has a huge impact on your coffee making process and the quality of a cup you get. The choice of a coffee grinder is probably the most important decision when setting up your own coffee brewing heaven at home. 

The choice of a coffee grinder will depend on the way you brew your coffee. For brewing espresso, you will need a much more precise (and more expensive) grinder. If your brewing method doesn’t require a very fine grind, for example French press, then a less precise grinder will do. 

What makes a good coffee grinder

A good quality coffee grinder will cut coffee beans into even pieces with as little dust as possible. If there are different sizes of grind, the smaller ones will burn during brewing causing bitterness in your coffee.

What characteristics of a coffee grinder influence the quality of coffee?

5 characteristics of a good coffee grinder

• Burrs not knives
• Steel, not ceramic burrs
• Possibility to adjust the grind grade
• Easy access to burrs for cleaning
• Tight built (no rattling) 

Types of coffee grinders

There are two main types of coffee grinders depending on how they are operated:

1. Electric coffee grinders
2. Manual or hand coffee grinders

Electrical vs hand coffee grinders

Electrical coffee grinders are generally more precise, but they are more expensive. 

The most important part of the grinder

The most important part of the grinder is what cuts or crushes the beans. Some coffee grinders have knives, some have burrs for this. Burrs can be ceramic or metal (usually steel). So let’s compare the following types of grnders:

• Burr and blade grinders
• Cone and flat burr grinders
• Metal and ceramic burrs

Burr vs blade griders

Blade coffee grinders

Blade grinders cut the coffee beans into small parts. Thanks to the sharp blades they cut coffee without producing much dust. 

Their huge advantage however is the price – they are usually very inexpensive, so that’s a good option for beginners.

But, they have some disadvantages. The first one is tha they don’t have the option to adjust how finely the coffee is ground. The only way to change the coarseness of the grind is the duration of grinding: the longer it is, the finer the grind. Another downside of blade grinders is that they aren’t very precise – they produce rather uneven grind. 

Coffee grinders with blade mechanisms are best for brewing coffee which requires a finer grind – espresso or Turkish coffee. 

Burr coffee grinders

If you are looking for a better quality device, consider a burr coffee grinder.

This is how they work: burr coffee grinders have two burrs; one burr is stable and the other one rotates crushing coffee beans. Coffee is crushed with an even force; the advantage of this is that there is a good consistency of the size of the grounds. 

There are two different types of burr grinders:

• Flat (also called disc) 
• Conical 

As the name suggests, flat burr grinders have burrs on two flat discs, while conical grinders have cone-shaped burrs, where one sits inside of the other.

Is there any difference in the grind quality?

Yes, cone-shaped burrs allow for more precise adjustments of the grind size, but the difference is not significant. Another small difference is that coffee bits fall through the cone-shaped burrs easily, while they may remain in between the flat burr discs, so you may need to pay more attention to cleaning if you have this type of grinder. 

Ceramic vs steel burrs in grinders – pros and cons

Are steel burrs better or ceramic burrs in coffee grinders?

Ceramic burrs crush the coffee beans because the edges of burrs aren’t very sharp. This produces a lot of dust and lowers the quality of your brew. The advantage of ceramic burrs is that they don’t change temperature quickly and they last longer. 

Steel burrs have sharp edges, that’s why they are more precise and  don’t produce as much dust. However, the downside of metal burrs is that metal can heat up very quickly during grinding and heat up the coffee as well, which is not desirable if you want to brew a quiality cup.

Which is better, ceramic or steel burr?

The answer will depend on how long you use it for at a time (this depends on how much coffee you need to grind for your brew). If you need to use it for a while, go for a ceramic burr grinder. You will avoid heating up your coffee grounds. If you have only small amounts of coffee to grind, you can use a metal grinder. It will give you a higher precision but won’t have to work for long enough for the metal to heat up. 

Presuming that you normally grind small omounts of coffee for your home brew, steel burr grinder is the best choice. 

2 red flags when buying a hand coffee grinder

Rattling 

The rattling issue refers mostly to hand coffee grinders. If you can hear a rattling sound when you shake the grinder, this means that the burrs are not stable, there is empty space between the parts inside and the beans won’t be cut with a high level of precision. A good grinder should be built tightly. 

Short handle

A short handle on a hand coffee grinder is not the best feature, as you will have to work much harder. Longer handles make hand grinding much easier. 

Which coffee grinder brands are good?

The most popular brands of quality coffee grinders include:

• Baratza
• Concept

Professional coffee grinders examples:

• Mazer Super Jolly
• Malconiga