4 types of coffee grinders you should know
Grinding your own coffee beans is extremely important if you want a high quality beverage. There are out there several machines that can do that work for you. In this article we will analyze the pros & cons and how 4 of them work: electric blade, burr, manual and coffee maker.
Also, we will try to guide you to take the decision of which one of these coffee grinders machines will be more suitable for your day to day.
Index
The 4 most popular coffee grinders
Electric blade grinder
Burr grinder
Manual grinder
Coffee maker machine grinder
Can I grind coffee beans without these grinders?
Which coffee grinder should I buy?
Your turn
The 4 most popular coffee grinders
Electric blade grinder
The most popular one. Its low price makes it a good option for those who just start grinding their own beans.
The electric blade grinder works really similar to a food processor. A very sharp metal blade spins at a high velocity so it can, literally, destroy the coffee bean. There we have the main disadvantage, coffee beans get destroyed there, so the result is very uneven pieces of coffee particles.
When we brew coffee with an uneven grind we will have an uneven cup of coffee. Bigger particles will get unextracted, while smaller particles will easily get over extracted. If you already read our article where we talked about 6 coffee grind sizes you will be familiarized with the risks of over and under extracting coffee.
Burr grinder
An old but very effective method to grind your coffee. This machine works by passing the coffee beans through a metal crusher which has an adjustable opening to change the grinding size.
Personally I love this method because it is a simple way to get a very even grind of the coffee beans.
If you have several brewing systems you will need different grind sizes, and a burr grinder will let you achieve that consistently.
The two main consequences I can find in the burr grinders are its size and price. If we compare them with the electric blade grinder, burr loses in both categories. These machines tend to be bigger and take up more space in your kitchen. Also, they are way more expensive than the electric blade grinder.
Manual grinder
An excellent option for those who like to travel with their coffee kit. Manual grinders are small, compact and they do an excellent job.
Manual grinders work like any other spice grinder, you have to put your coffee beans in and manually spin the handle. With this system you will have a very even grind of your beans, which is great for a good quality coffee.
You can find some cheap manual grinders and also some more expensive ones. The main differences are going to be the materials they are made and the amount of sizes you can regulate your grind.
The only disadvantage I can find is that you have to make the job manually, but it is not even a 100% disadvantaje, because that characteristic allows you to take your manual grinder to any place without the necessity of electricity.
Coffee maker machine grinder
There are some coffee makers, like espresso machines or drip brew, that have grinders attached to them.
It is quite hard to review them as an only category, because a $500 dolar machine can have a pretty good grinder, while a professional espresso machine that costs thousands of dollars will probably have an excellent one.
The main advantages I can spot here are that they do a very constant and even job so you will be able to achieve the same results one and another time. Also, as they are attached to the coffee machine, you can save some space in your kitchen.
On the other side, the cons are that they can be a nightmare to clean and the coffee machines with grinder incorporated tend to be expensive.
Can I grind coffee beans without these grinders?
As you may have noticed, some of these grinders work really similar to other kitchen tools. For example, we can easily compare a food processor or a blender to an electric blade grinder. Also, a manual grinder has the same system as a normal spice grinder.
Although there are some differences in the way they work and especially in the final result you can achieve, there are some ways to grind coffee beans without a grinder. You can read this article in which we explain 5 of them.
Advertence: Coffee Devotion highly recommends using special grinders to grind coffees. Those alternative methods are just for emergency cases when you need to drink a coffee and have no grinder.
Which coffee grinder should I buy?
Are you a coffee lover? Are you very demanding with high quality results? How much money do you want to spend? Where are you going to use it? How many times will you use the grinder?
Those are some questions you have to answer to know which coffee grinder is more suitable for you. All of the 4 models we saw in this article have some good and bad points. If you are just starting and don't want to spend much money on them, go ahead with the electric blade grinder. If you will travel with it, the manual grinder is your answer. If you love high quality coffee, have several brewing systems and have the money, go for the burr or the coffee maker machine grinder.
As it happens many times when it comes to coffee there are no better or worse machines, but correct or incorrect reasons and moments to buy them.
Your turn
Now you have all the knowledge you need to select the coffee grinder that it's more suitable for you day to day. Try to answer the questions we set before and think of yourself using each machine. After that you will have the answer and know which coffee grinders is meant for you.