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Coffee Grinders: What's The Right One For You?
Planning to buy a coffee grinder? Here is what you should know about when buying your next coffee grinding equipment!
Published February 17, 2022
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Joachim Estal
Coffee experts@The Coffee Lab
Some people may think that brewing coffee is as easy as pulverizing coffee beans to powder and just simply pouring hot water on it. But if you're a true coffee enthusiast, you surely know it's more than that.
In the process where we extract our coffee during the brew, our main goal is to get the correct amount of sugars, acids, and oils from the beans to produce a beautifully balanced cup with enjoyable flavors and characteristics.
And, of course, the grind size of your coffee plays a major role in this entire process!
How Important Is Grind Size?
When the water runs through the granules of coffee, the grind determines how long the coffee is exposed to the water. This means that grind is also connected to another fundamental: brew time.
When brewing a cup, one should ideally saturate and extract the coffee long enough to yield the flavors you desire. Correlating this to grind, when the brew time is too fast, it's likely because your grind is too coarse. So under-extraction occurs, thus producing sour-tasting components. Meanwhile, a longer brew time may mean that your grind is too fine–then equal to over-extraction and a very bitter cup.
With this in mind, you may now realize how important choosing the right grinder is. So, if you're planning to buy coffee grinder online, read on to this article we've prepared to learn what you should know about coffee grinders!
Different Kinds Of Grinders
When we compare different grinders, it usually falls on how we want our coffee to taste. We've learned how grind size affects our brew significantly. And since nobody would like to end up with a bad cup, let's compare these following grinders to tell us what to use next time we're in our brewing stations.
Blade Grinder Vs. Burr Grinder
A common grinder distinction is whether it’s a burr or a blade grinder. Let’s find out how these grinders differ.
What Is A Burr Grinder?
Burr grinders are composed of two separate revolving burrs wherein the coffee is ground in between. Once the grinder wheel moves in a rotating manner, beans are crushed against the immovable surface of the equipment.
Conical Burr Grinders
The standard burr grinder in the industry is the conical burr grinder. If you're familiar with the Japanese coffee grinder brand, Hario, it falls into this category. In order to produce well-ground coffee, this equipment utilizes a cone-shaped, serrated burr in the center–a heat-resistant and energy-efficient design. However, conical burr grinders do not consistently bring about evenly ground coffee. In fact, if you inspect the granules really closely, you would see different-sized ground beans. Because of this, most coffee enthusiasts prefer flat burr grinders, especially for espresso brewing.
Flat Burr Grinders
The flat burr grinder is composed of two burrs that are shaped like a donut. These burrs face opposite each other and are made up of very sharp edges. With this type of design, we allow beans to grind symmetrically and of the same size. However, flat burr grinders require more heat and energy when grinding coffee, making it not the perfect choice for home-brewing or even commercial use.
What Is A Blade Grinder?
Blade grinders are made up of a blade that looks like a propeller. This kind of grinder can grind more quickly as compared to burr grinders, but the grounds are more likely to be uneven. With this disadvantage, grinding coffee with this type of grinder may lead to unpleasant tastes and inconsistent flavor profiles in your final cup.
High-Speed Vs. Low-Speed Grinders
Under types of burr grinders, we have high-speed and low-speed grinders.
What Is A High-Speed Grinder?
This type of burr grinder offers more control on the resulting size of the grind and also yields a uniform granule size. These are also often called "direct-drive" grinders because of their design–the motor is directly attached to the burrs, allowing them to rotate together at the same speed.
What Is A Low-Speed Grinder?
Low-speed grinders are probably the best type of grinders ever invented. It's made to offer very little or no static charge at all. In addition, it requires very little heat during operation and is quiet when grinding beans. Finally, the motor does not clog up at all, regardless of how fine you want your coffee to be. Low-speed grinders can also be conical and flat burred in design. Also, they are categorized as either "gear reduction" or "direct drive" as well.
Gear Reduction
This grinder utilizes a high-speed motor attached to a set of gears to reduce the speed of the grinding burrs when needed. While this type is a little noisier than direct drive, the motor doesn't bog down.
Direct Drive
This kind is probably the most expensive grinder style, yet it's also the best. The low-speed motor spins simultaneously with the burrs attached to it. Since this grinder utilizes a high-quality motor, it handles coffee load pretty well and does not bog down at all. Aside from those pros, this grinder creates minimal static and heat, runs at low RPM, and is soundless when being used.
Dosing And Non-Dosing Grinders
When choosing a grinder, you may also have to consider whether you want a dosing grinder or not.
What Is A Dosing Grinder?
A dosing grinder will only dispense the amount of coffee you need on demand. This design is composed of a ground coffee container with six different pie-shaped divisions or sections. The beans pass through the grinding burrs from the hopper, and the grounds exit a chute, falling into these sections. Once you pull the handle attached to the equipment, the section rotates and drops through the cavity below the container and into your coffee receptacle.
What Is A Non-Dosing Grinder?
Non-dosing ones are made to grind directly into your container, receptacle, or portafilter. All hand-cranked grinders are non-dosing. Doserless grinders are also commonly used for home-based espresso machines.
The Size Of The Grind
How fine or coarse should your coffee be? The answer to this question is related to the type of method you will use in brewing your cup. Below is a guideline on how to grind your beans per brewing equipment.
- French presses use extra coarse granules as its filter is made up of steel mesh which may allow the grounds to pass through when too fine.
- Pour-overs commonly use a coarse grind setting. However, you may also try different grind sizes depending on the coffee you're using and the flavor you want to achieve.
- Drip coffee uses coarse to medium grind. It uses a paper filter that traps ground coffee during brewing.
- The siphon brewing method usually uses fine ground beans.
- Espresso machines use very fine grounds which have a consistency of powder. This is why the flavor profile is robust and straightforward.
- Turkish coffee uses extremely fine coffee powder. In fact, a "Turkish" grind setting is available in some grinders.
Conclusion
Since you already have an idea of the different types of coffee grinders, choosing which grinder to buy will already be very easy for you. Hand-cranked burr grinders may be the best option if you like to travel. On the other hand, if you're planning to buy an espresso machine for your coffee shop, you should invest in a barista coffee grinder or a dosing grinder too. Always remember to prioritize your needs when it comes to choosing your grinder!
About the author
Joachim Estal
8-year barista for a world-class coffee chain from the Philippines. Passionate writer and coffee champion. "Coffee has always been one of my biggest love interests in life. And I am here to share it with all of you through this platform."
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