Owning a coffee grinder is far better than purchasing a coffee maker. The coffee maker brews the coffee—but using a coffee grinder release the taste and aroma kept sealed inside those coffee beans.
The classic coffee grinder is worth purchasing—it will transform your coffee beans and coffee habit in a matter of seconds. Coffee grinders could be handheld or could grind with electric burrs or blades. Grinding your coffee beans will produce finer, workable bits that will improve the brewing process, too.
How Important Is a Good Coffee Grinder?
A coffee grinder is an indispensable tool for elevating your typical brewing game. If you want to experience real brewed coffee served in shops and drink coffee daily, consider buying a sleek coffee grinder. A good coffee grinder is a key in creating the perfect coffee—and here are the other reasons to follow.
Produce freshly ground coffee all-day.
If you buy ground coffee beans in bulk, there is a high chance that your coffee’s actual essence is already muted. Storing ground coffee for too long makes it stale—losing a lot of its flavor. What only remains is the bitter taste that people perceive as the “universal taste” of coffee.
This bitter taste from stale coffee is due to oxidation. Oxidation is a process wherein oxygen found in the air cause the slow breakdown of molecules, destroying the food structure. In the case of coffee grounds, the exposed layer evaporates its aromatic oils.
The truth of the matter, freshly-ground coffee can release sweet, fruity, even nutty tones. This could not be extracted from the priced coffee brewer but from coffee beans precisely ground on a good coffee grinder.
Coffee oils store the complex flavor and aroma of every coffee bean. A newly-ground coffee could retain its original oils for only thirty minutes. Crushing serving size coffee beans for a day’s coffee will protect that coffee oil from oxidation. Produce your freshly ground coffee anytime by keeping a coffee grinder at home.
It can be used on any coffee brewer.
If you have a good coffee grinder, you don’t have to invest in an expensive coffee brewer. You may even use handheld French Press, Aeropress, even paper drip cups for your freshly-grounded coffee. You can also adjust your grinding settings to prevent sediments from spilling for your coffee.
Several popular coffee brewers have their specific grind sizes. Espresso and Turkish Coffee brewers are paired with super fine coffee grinds. Moka Pot and Auto Drip brands could use fine coffee grinds. Pour Over coffee brewer required coarse to fine granules.
Medium granules work perfectly with Aeropress. French Press and Cold brew coffee will need coarse coffee granules. Don’t forget to set your grind size suitable to each coffee brewer you own and experience your best coffee.
Produces the best-brewed coffee
Satisfy your coffee cravings with a good coffee grinder. Any coffee beans will release their best flavors by grinding the right coffee beans for a single serving. You may also experiment with your extraction methods by trying out the grind size suited for your taste.
Coffee extraction is done with the help of the coffee brewer. This process involves extracting the coffee bean’s essence by slowly pouring water on the coarse coffee until it slowly drips the brewed coffee.
Adjusting your course level will make a huge difference in your coffee experience. Finer coffee grinds dissolve quickly, while larger pieces allow deeper notes of flavor and aroma to develop. To test, conduct a taste test on every coffee grind type. Under extracted coffee leaves a sour, bland taste in the palette. Over extracted coffee happens when it leaves a strong bitter taste, with muted nut and fruit tones from the actual coffee bean.
You can fix your under-extracted coffee by setting your grind setting to a finer texture. In this way, this will speed up your extraction process, releasing the actual coffee essence. Setting your coffee on a coarser setting will fix your next batch from being over-extracted.
How Much Should I Spend On a Coffee Grinder?
Coffee grinders have a wide range of prices. The cheapest in the market could cost 10 dollars, while the higher prices could reach up to $350. The prices vary from the type of coffee grinder you are using, sizes, and function. The three main classifications of coffee grinders are (1) handheld grinders, (2) burr grinders, and (3) blade grinders.
Suppose you want to gauge the qualities of these certain coffee grinder types. In that case, you may consider checking their price, mobility, accessibility, and grinding quality.
Handheld grinders
Handheld grinders are compact versions of coffee grinders. It could be as compact as a French press brewer or as wide as a medium-sized glass bowl. Handheld grinders or coffee mills have burr grinders that could be rotated wooden crank placed at the top or the side.
When it comes to pricing, handheld grinders are the cheapest. You can buy a piece of the coffee mill for less than 10 dollars. It can also be carried to areas that don’t have access to electricity (i.e., camping site).
A handheld grinder is also easy to use. Just pour the right amount of coffee beans inside the mill and rotate the burr grinders until it is no longer hard to rotate. The only negative comment about coffee mills is that they tend to produce various coarse levels (coarse-fine texture) that can affect your brewed coffee’s overall taste and texture.
Burr grinders and blade grinders
Burr grinders and blade grinders both require electricity. Burr grinders use a metal plate (called burr) that shreds coffee into finer pieces. Blade grinders use fan-shaped blades that rotate at an extreme speed to pulverize coffee. Unlike handheld grinders, burr and blade grinders have adjustable settings suited to produce the right texture for your ground coffee.
Blade grinders are less efficient than burr grinders since the blades are not distributed enough to create even coffee grounds. This could affect the overall brewed coffee experience. Burr grinder could produce the best coffee grinds among them all.
Low-cost grinders (ranging from 20 dollars) tend to overheat and may sometimes have faulty wiring. If you’ll go for an electric-operated grinder, pick higher-end models.
