Grinding Your Own Coffee Beans
A cup of coffee in the morning has become a ritual for most of us. Whether you brew your own coffee, buy at the nearest coffee shop or use instant coffee is beside the point. The crux of the matter is that the modern world cannot do without this drink to start the day. Coffee aficionados are not contented using ground coffee beans.
If you buy coffee beans and have them ground at the store, the beans loses their flavor even if you store them in super air-tight containers. At the onset, the first whirr of the grinder already released a great part of its essence and flavor. This is the reason why the use freshly ground coffee is on the rise.
Though ground coffee beans have their own pros, today’s coffee drinker prefer to grind their own coffee beans and brew them in methods they prefer. This is why aside from coffee makers, coffee grinders are a “hot” commodity too.
If you are a new convert to the art of drinking freshly ground coffee, you might be in a quandary as to what coffee grinder to buy. For starters, there are two types of coffee grinders: the blade and the burr.
A blade coffee grinder chops up the beans with its whirly motion. Most models are easy to use and inexpensive. The downside is the resulting coffee grounds are uneven. Even if the grinder has numerous settings for fineness and coarseness, an even ground is difficult to obtain. If your coffee maker is the drip kind or French press, or a percolator, the blade coffee grinder is good enough to use. However, if you use a Pod or vacuum an espresso machine, then the blade coffee grinder is not for you. If you already bought your blade coffee grinder and you find it unsuitable, don’t throw it out. It would be perfect for grinding nuts and spices.
The burr coffee grinder is classified as a wheel burr or a conical burr. A wheel burr has two round plates grinding the coffee beans between them. The conical burr works on the same principle except its uses two cone-shaped with a smaller cone inside a bigger cone. These types of burr will give you even-sized granules with no burnt aftertaste much like the ones produced by blade coffee grinders. The beans only go though the “grinding” process once so there’s no fear of “burning“the beans. The burr coffee grinder is perfect for your espresso machine.
As almost all blade coffee grinders are electric, they make a tolerable noise when in use. The same is true with burr coffee grinders. However, there are burr coffee grinders that are manually operated. The manual burr grinder can manage different levels of coarseness and fineness too. The downside is you cannot grind a large batch and on some “off” days, you might not feel like cranking up a batch.
Whichever type of coffee grinder you choose, remember to consider the type of coffee maker you have. It is best to grind a batch that you will immediately use for coffee grinds start to lose their flavor once they come in contact with air. Grinding your own grounds right before brewing is best for a real fresh cup of coffee.