The coffee grinder whirls the whole beans until the steel blades chop them into tiny pieces. The more you spin the coffee beans, the more refined ground coffee is on average. The main problem with the blade grinder is that the coffee grounds are serrate, creating uneven results in your morning mug. That is not what you have expected, right? The benefit of the coffee maker with grinder is that they are often the smallest investment. Coffee fanatics are often quick to dismiss the blade grinder because those who want control over every phase of the brewing process find that a higher-end exactness grinder with multiple grind settings is a game-changer. An automatic grinder gives a uniform grind essential to controlling the brewing process and ensuring great coffee.
Do you need a coffee grinder? Technically, no. You can get that freshly ground coffee fragrance with some refreshingly low-tech methods. You can grind your beans in a mortar and pestle — labor-intensive but satisfying techniques on the first end of the scale. Of course, it will form a rough and almost irregular grind.
Buy a Better coffee
The first thing to improve your coffee at home is to buy better coffee beans. You can easily find the best coffee beans online. But. also keep in mind that you are getting freshly roasted beans for the best taste of the coffee. A freshly roasted coffee will just cost a few extra dollars. The second crucial thing to upgrade your home coffee routine is by investing in a great coffee grinder. If you usually buy coffee pre-ground, consider grinding your own, especially if you will not drink it within a week. Once ground, coffee beans begin to release their marvelous aroma compounds, becoming less flavourful with each passing day. And this is especially true for excellent espresso grinds. If you now grind your beans using a blade grinder, consider the upgrade to a coffee maker that comes with a grinder. Not only do they crush the beans more evenly for better extraction, but they don’t heat the beans as much during grinding. If you have experienced unpleasant burnt or bitter tastes in your coffee, your blade grinder could be to blame.
Coffee lovers love finding new ways to be nerdy about coffee. The water quality has been a hot topic for debate, which makes sense when you think about it because coffee is mostly water. If you don’t already filter your tap water or keep a jug in the fridge, consider doing so for the sake of your morning java. Municipalities treat tap water to make it safe to drink, not make it as delightful as possible, and an easy way to avoid any off-flavors in your coffee is to prevent any off-tastes or aroma of your water.
Make the best use of your coffee grinder.
Your coffee-grinder is the most crucial equipment in the delicious coffee making process. Uniform coffee grounds are a prime factor in a balanced extraction. A great brewer and a great technique are also necessary, but it all starts with a grinder. However, sometimes grinders don’t work as well as we’d desire. They lose effectiveness over time, or they have irregular off-days. There is some technique involved with manually grinding coffee. You should also be following some best-practices – and they are all effortless to stick to.
Hold your Grinder Completely Vertical
Holding your grinder at an angle is the most convenient grinding position. This grip feels the most natural to our wrist in this way. Beans are forced through the grinders quickly, and the beans above them drive down beans ground at the lower end with more weight than normal. It causes them to be forced through the grinder a bit more quickly than the others going through the grinders on the upper end.
Anchor the Coffee Grinder to the Counter
People tend to explore the fastest way to grind coffee. We do this by turning the handle with one hand while whirling the grinder’s body in the opposite direction. However, this process can introduce some inconsistency. However, this can also present some inconsistencies. Those beans in the hopper and the burrs are being tossed around like absurd. Some of the beans are being thrown upward out of the burrs to be ground again, and some are being removed from the burrs before they have been ground down to the right size. You need the beans to funnel right down without being thumped around much at all. An excellent technique to keep yourself from tossing the grinder everywhere is to secure the device against your kitchen counter or table. It will also help you keep the grinder upright while you grind. In addition to that, set a towel between the grinder and the counter to absorb noise and vibration.
Give the Burrs a Cleaning
Like anything in this world, your grinder’s burrs need cleaning. Natural oils from the coffee eventually built up on the burrs. These can be rubbed off the burrs by fresh beans and brewed into your mug days or weeks later. But they typically don’t taste good at all – and the oils can even go bad after months and months of hovering around. It is the reason why fancy specialty shops clean their espresso machines every single day. It is an easy task to do if you have a manual grinder. Disassemble your coffee grinder and wipe the equipment with a clean and dry towel. Then, put it back together and grind some coffee.
Replace the Burrs Periodically
No burrs can last forever. Even ceramic burrs become dull after some time. They lose sharpness and even break. The majority of people never change their burrs. Unfortunately, it means their coffee grounds are undergoing uniformity dramatically.
Blade grinders are extremely inconsistent because they don’t have controlled burrs. They just cut the beans with really inefficient and often dull blades. Blade grinders are bad at chopping up all the beans uniformly. Sometimes there are almost whole beans left! One great way is to shake the grinder so that all the grounds are forced through the blades frequently, rather than just 70-80% of them.
