Buzz
Not everyone is willing to sacrifice a significant portion of their account surplus for the experience of crafting coffee. But if you're serious about wanting to brew delicious coffee at home, don't hesitate to invest in a good and reliable coffee grinder.
Two Reasons to Own a Personal Coffee Grinder
Having a personal coffee grinder on hand will help you ensure that the flavor of your coffee is 'unlocked' at the right moment while actively controlling the grinding process without relying on external factors.
Preserve the Authentic Flavor of Coffee
You might master the exquisite pour-over technique to the point where you don't need to use a gooseneck kettle when pouring, but surely you can't replace the role of a coffee bean grinder.
On the other hand, if you believe that buying pre-ground coffee outside the shop is sufficient, you've truly been manipulated psychologically by the marketing gimmicks of the sellers!
Coffee beans are structurally very complex, still not fully explored. However, one thing we can be sure of is that the flavor compounds in coffee beans will gradually degrade in quality when exposed to air, moisture, and light for too long. This phenomenon begins the moment the beans are ground, as the protective outer shell is broken.
Therefore, buying pre-ground coffee has long been nothing short of a nightmare for discerning craft coffee enthusiasts. Instead, only grind coffee when you're ready to extract and enjoy it immediately afterwards, without letting it sit for too long.
(Photo: Excellent Cup)
Control the Ingredient Processing Process
If you intend to continue experiencing handcrafted coffee brewing with various types of brewers in the future, lacking a personal coffee grinder is a decidedly misguided decision.
Each type of coffee brewing accessory - whether it's pour-over, full-immersion, or automatic machines - only delivers the standard flavor when used with the appropriate grind size. Therefore, the method of buying pre-ground coffee hides more risks. Even a slight deviation in grind size can ruin the formula. Even if you realize it in time, you can't turn back time to correct it because you've already bought the pre-ground coffee.
On the contrary, when using a personal grinder, you'll have the freedom to adjust as you like. For example, if the brewing result isn't satisfactory, we can comfortably adjust, grind a different batch with a more suitable size for the next time.
Classification of Coffee Grinders
Blade Grinder
The mechanism of grinding with blades is already well-known and widespread, appearing in most grinders from manual to automatic ones. The longer the grinding time, the finer the grind size becomes.
However, when processing solid ingredients, the grinding results always vary in many different sizes. This is an unresolved weakness because the blade is fixed at the bottom of the grinder, making more contact with the grains below. Meanwhile, the grains above may not necessarily come into even contact with the blade.
Blade grinders are not truly optimal for coffee use. (Photo: Coffee Affection)
Even if you try to mitigate (crushing the ingredients before grinding, or grinding intermittently and shaking evenly), the end result is still not more optimistic than before.
Uneven grind size will shatter your hopes of brewing delicious coffee in an instant. Fine grounds are prone to over-extraction when they meet water, resulting in a bitter taste. At the same time, medium and coarse grounds are not fully extracted, creating a cup of coffee with a chaotic flavor profile.
Burr Grinder
Using burr grinders is the most reliable choice for processing coffee beans. Instead of sharp blades to cut through the beans, this type of grinder features multiple layers of burrs that move against each other to crush the beans into small particles.
Burr grinders also come in both automatic and manual versions, depending on your needs and corresponding price range. (Photo: NYTimes)
Each grinder has a function to adjust the distance between the burrs, corresponding to the desired grind size. The smaller this gap, the finer the grind (and vice versa).
The bottom part of the grinder is usually a chamber for storing the ground beans. Only particles ground to the right size can pass down into this chamber. Therefore, the grind size from burr grinders will be significantly more consistent than from blade grinders.
Of course, the ground particles still won't have identical shapes and weights, but the difference in size is entirely at an acceptable and consistent level.
Tips & Notes for Using Coffee Grinders
Posted by: Quỳnh Như
Keywords: Coffee Grinding Machine
