Grinders come in all sorts of shape, sizes and cost. There are no great rules, but perhaps the most important thing is just to have one!
It’s said that beans keep up to forty times longer than ground coffee, so if you want the freshest possible brew, a decent grinder will pay you back every time.
Hand grinders:
These make a great starting point, just so long as you only want to brew one cup at a time. Slow but accurate, in fact, some of the best hand grinders can produce results to match the very best machines, for a fraction of the cost.
Blade grinders:
Cheap and cheerful, can be messy and tricky to clean, but will do the job for a Cafetiere or Filter brew. The tricky part is getting the grind consistently right – that’s doen to you, practice and a good counting system so you grind for the right amount of time each time you use the little beast. Basically, the longer you grind, the finer the coffee will be, but a few seconds can make the difference between being bang on target and a whopping great miss. – end result being a bitter and poorly extracted, or over extracted brew.
Burr grinders:
Generally have the advantages of hoppers to store your daily stash of beans, timers for consistent output, a simple grind adjust meant mechanism, often with pre-set icons for each brewer, and they produce a much more consistent grind particle size – which leads to better coffee brews. So, put simply, if you can invest in one or persuade Father Christmas to deliver you one, go for it!
