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May 20, 2009

Any good inexpensive burr grinders? ()

by fluffy at 4:33 PM
Lately I've been drinking coffee a lot more, and experimenting with different brewing techniques. The ones I like the best are a French press, and (my current at-work favorite) a Teeli brew basket, as they do a much better job of extraction than paper filters (not to mention are easier to deal with and a bit more environmentally-friendly). The problem, of course, is that with a mill grinder, either my grind is too coarse (and so it doesn't extract properly), or there's enough powder that I end up with a thick layer of sludge at the bottom, and so drinking my cup of coffee becomes like a game of chicken.

Supposedly a burr grinder eliminates this problem because it crushes the beans down to an exact size (in a manner not dissimilar from rock-crushing equipment) rather than pulverizing it randomly, but burr grinders start at $80 for extremely basic (and not very trustworthy) models.

There are apparently some hand-cranked burr grinders out there, and I wouldn't be opposed to trying one of those, but finding specific ones seems to be a bit of a challenge. The two I found on Amazon seem decent but they come from third-party merchants and so I'd like to be sure I'm getting something worth the inevitable hassle. REI sells one of them that's intended to be portable (always a plus) and supposedly pretty good, so I could probably just swing by REI on my way home someday. Has anyone used that one?

Comments

#12106 05/21/2009 02:19 pm
Take your beans to whole foods (or buy them there). Their grinder has settings for certain types brewing.
#12107 05/21/2009 02:21 pm
Every grocery store has that, but I like the beans to be ground as close to brewing as possible. It keeps its flavor better that way. Pre-ground coffee oxidizes much more quickly and gets nasty.
#12112 05/23/2009 06:08 am
Get a cheap rubber sealed glass jar from the container store. Someone gave me a lb of Zabar's beans and I ground them all at once and stored them. They were good to the last drop 9 months later.
#12115 05/25/2009 08:57 am
Capresso's low-end ±$50 burr grinder pro'lly ain't that bad.

But that's based on the low-end one I bought back in 2000 (and still use daily). Cleaning it (when it fails, at least, and you'll know when it fails, heh) is a necessity. Getting the grindy cage out for the cleaning is a bit of a wrench on the wrist... one of those rubber circle jar opener-helpers makes it easier to manage, and far less painful.
#12145 06/04/2009 06:14 am
i have the grinder from rei and love it. depending on where used, it can be a bit awkward to hold - but once figured out it is smooth sailing. and better coffee - no game of chicken.
#12355 08/26/2009 01:16 pm
I just got a GSI grinder (the one they sell at REI) from Amazon. Yeah, a bit cumbersome to hold, but it sure does make a nice consistent grind.