How to choose a coffee grinder is a very important question to ask. It would be best to break coffee beans into small pieces to increase the surface area to extract more flavors, aromas, and other ingredients from the beans.
The finer the size of your grounds, the faster it will be to extract the good stuff from the coffee beans. Grinding the beans to the right size for your brewing method is also very important.
It is recommended that you only grind coffee beans right before you brew. This allows for a better-tasting cup of coffee.
Grounds that are allowed to sit undergo oxidation which causes the grounds to become stale and dramatically decreases the final coffee’s taste.
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Types of Grinders to Choose From
The first you should know when considering a coffee grinder is that there are two types of grinders – these are blade and burr grinders.
Blade Grinders
Blade grinders are the more affordable types of grinders, and they often are the most straightforward and most commonly available. These coffee grinders can be found in a wide variety of retailers, both online and offline.
These grinders have a blade, motor, and vessel into which you pour your beans. Pressing a button easily operates them and grinds beans by rotating the blades, which break the coffee beans into pieces.
A longer grind time allows for a finer grind. The overall process of grinding with a blade grinder is very easy. Still, the drawback is that you don’t have much control over the uniformity of the grind, so you may have some parts of your grounds that are chunky and others that may be powdery.
Burr Grinders
Under this category, there are two subtypes. You can find a flat-blade burr grinder and a conical burr grinder. Burr grinders are the most highly recommended grinders. See how a burr coffee grinder work.
The flat-blade burr grinder features two burrs that are parallel to each other. These burrs are flat and break up the coffee beans with a shearing effect.
The conical burr grinder has two burrs that are cone-shaped that face each other. One of these burs remains stationary while the other rotates to crush the coffee beans against each other.
You will find further classifications of burr grinders, such as by dosing capability, speed, and the available types of grind adjustments.
Speed
Regarding speed, you can find gear-reduction low-speed models, direct-drive high-speed models, and direct-drive low-speed grinders. Your entry-level models will likely have a high-speed direct drive motor attached to the burrs.
These models will add heat, which will lower the grounds’ quality. These also tend to be noisy and produce static that can cause lumps in your grounds.
Then there are the gear reduction low-speed and direct drive low-speed models. These are often the grinders you will find in commercial coffee shops.
You will find that coffee enthusiasts will have these in their homes. These grinders will offer little to no static, so you don’t have to worry about your grounds clumping up.
They are also a lot quieter than high-speed directed drive models and don’t produce heat to reduce the quality of the final taste of your cup of coffee. The direct-drive low-speed grinder is probably the pricier version when looking at coffee grinders. A low-speed reduction model will be noisier than a direct-drive slow-speed model.
When looking at how to choose a coffee grinder, you want to look at just more than the price. Remember that the quality of your grounds affects the taste of your final cup of coffee, so you want to start with a good quality coffee grinder.
The best grinders to purchase are burr grinders, which allow for more control over the grind size and more uniform grounds.
If you want to create a tastier cup of coffee, you don’t want to skimp on quality and purchase an inferior coffee grinder, do the right thing and choose the best coffee grinder you can afford.
