Choosing a coffee grinder




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Most consumers buy their coffee pre-ground to suit their needs. This is based purely on a convenience as many coffee drinkers don't have the luxury of owning a grinder and in many cases it's just too much effort to grind coffee before you make it. However, there is something to be said for grinding your beans on demand. Benefits include increased freshness, delicious taste and aroma and the knowledge that you are in control of your daily fix. But which grinders are best and why should you think of investing in one? 

The answer is very simple and it really depends on your needs and your budget. There are many makes and models on the market and depending on how much you are willing to spend, your options are varied.

Let me start with blade grinders - although grinder is not a very apt name for what this device does to your coffee beans. A blade grinder operates with a spinning blade which slices and chops the beans. How fine you want your beans depends on how long you let the blade spin. Although these devices are relatively inexpensive they don't give the best results leaving the user with an inconsistent, unevenly ground coffee. This unevenness results in an inconsistent quality when brewed. For a finer grind coffee, the heat generated by the blade could leave your coffee tasting burned. Blade grinders can be used if you are planning to add things to your coffee brewing process like vanilla pods or cinnamon sticks. You could chop everything up together before you brew and the device can be easily cleaned. This is impossible with the more expensive burr grinders.

Burr grinders come in two forms, the wheel burr and conical burr types. The less expensive wheel (or disk) burr grinder operates by crushing the coffee between two burrs. One of these spins while the other remains stationary. The grind size can be adjusted by changing the setting of how far apart the burrs are and grind size can range from very fine Turkish to coarse French press/plunger. A burr grinder gives you a more consistent grind size and better extraction when brewed. The wheel burr type grinder is relatively noisy and the faster spinning burrs may have the tendency to "burn" the coffee. Wheel burr grinders tend to clog easily and require regular cleaning. This is, however, a far better option that using a blade grinder - especially if you are buying beans regularly. They are ideal for grinding smaller quantities of coffee and therefore the best to have at home.

Conical burr grinders (using conical or cone-shaped burrs) function in the same way as a wheel burr grinders by crushing/grinding the coffee to a consistent size. These burr grinders are the most ideal for grinding coffee as the burrs spin at a slower rate and as a result doesn't "burn" the coffee. It is also less likely to clog. As with wheel burr grinders, the grind size can be changed and as most conical burr grinders are meant for high volume coffee production they have a finer setting adjustments. Although this is the ideal grinding method for coffee, few consumers can afford them.

If you are feeling adventurous, you could always refer to the oldest of grinding methods by using a mortar and pestle. Although this not use this to make filter, plunger or espresso, you could try using an Ibrik or Cezve to make Turkish coffee, which needs a very fine powder.

Which grinder you buy depends on your needs and budget. However, if you really want to experience a truly fresh coffee experience, then I would recommend investing in a burr grinder and grinding your beans on demand.

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How much coffee makes coffee?

Since developing a passion for coffee and discovering the joys of experimenting with single origins and blends, the one element that has confounded me is the amount of coffee to use when making my morning pick-me-up. I thought I knew the answer - the packet says use 7 grams per cup right? Well, right... and wrong.

Most coffee brand packaging and coffee related websites recommend using 7 grams per cup. But how big is this cup? Is it an European sized cup? American? Many coffee sites talk about cups in liquid ounces (6 or 8 being the most popular). But is that imperial or US ounces? You can understand the confusion that all this talk causes and still I don't think that everyone quite knows how it all works. Many people think of a cup as the standard measuring cup used in baking (250ml). Don't be fooled. A cup is not the cup you think it is. To add to this, South Africans like their coffee is mugs. This started another question, if 7 grams makes one cup, how much would I need for a mug of coffee?

The universal consensus among coffee snobs is that the ratio of coffee to water is 55 - 60 grams of coffee per litre of water. This is the rule of thumb and the starting point of experimentation. I have determined that it is not the size of your cup or mug that is important but what ratio of water to coffee that you use that is. So forget the cups and mugs, look at the amount of coffee you want to brew and start from there.

If your drip coffee maker (filter for South Africans) has a one litre capacity, then it's simple: add 55 grams of filter-ground coffee to your brew basket and off you go. If the capacity is 1,5L then it's 55 x 1.5 = 82.5 grams. If you're making half a litre it's 55 / 2 = 27.5 grams. You can use the same calculation for standard 1.8L and 2.2L coffee brewers.

I have found it useful to weigh my coffee on a digital kitchen scale. This is an inexpensive tool and soon you'll be used to weighing your coffee and not just spooning in an estimated amount wondering if you've added 4... or wait was that 5 measures of coffee?

All this weighing and measuring might appear a little pedantic but using these rules ensures that my cup of coffee tastes wonderful every time. In order to judge coffee taste and compare one with another, you need to keep your brewing ratios consistent. In this way your favourite blended coffee with taste the same every morning and will allow you to compare apples with apples (or beans with beans...).

I could get stuck into grind size and how that influences brewing, extraction time and a host of other technicalities but I will save that for another post.

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