How to Choose the Right Coffee Grinder
Imagine yourself sitting at the breakfast table, with a steaming cup of freshly brewed coffee in your hand. This is the ideal way to begin each morning for many people, and nothing beats this image in their minds. The rich aroma that steams out of coffee attracts even non-coffee drinkers and lures people from the pavement into coffee shops.
Many coffee enthusiasts believe that instant coffee is a fake, and shun the product. Going to coffee shops can put a dent in your budget so that many prefer to enjoy their coffee in the privacy of their own homes. Once you have decided that you want to start brewing your coffee at home, apart from getting the beans and the coffee maker, you may also want to invest in a coffee grinder. You can buy the coffee beans ground, but it is better to grind the beans just before brewing. This ensures that most of the coffee flavor is locked in, as ground coffee loses its flavor as soon as it is exposed to air. How do you choose the right coffee grinder then?
Decide on the budget
Before going shopping for a coffee grinder, you must first know your budget. There are lots of grinders to choose from that are available in the market and they can cost anywhere between twenty to hundreds of dollars. So it will be wise to have a set amount to spend beforehand, to avoid splurging when you are on a tight budget. Some coffee makers already have a built-in grinder, which is more practical and convenient if you have limited space on your kitchen counter. If space is not an issue, then you may want to educate yourself on what types of grinders are available in the market.
Types of coffee grinders
There are several ways to grind coffee beans. You can even use the good, old fashioned mortar and pestle to grind your beans, but that will take you too much time and energy. You will then be too tired to enjoy your beverage! Above the mortar and pestle, you may want to decide if you like to manually crank-grind your beans or if you prefer an electric grinder. For most people, the electric grinder is handier and takes a lot less effort.
Two main types of electric grinders are the blade grinder and burr grinder.
The blade grinder is the more popular pick for home coffee brewing. The Braun Aromatic, Krups and KitchenAid grinders are the more well-known brands in this type. As the name implies, this type uses a blade, which whirls around, to grind the coffee beans to your desired consistency.
The burr grinder, on the other hand, uses a set of gears which you can adjust to get the desired size of coffee grounds and it is the type used in coffee shops. The top choices for burr grinders are the Solis Maestro, Capresso Select and KitchenAid Pro.
Although the blade grinder is cheaper and more popular than the burr grinder, it also has its setbacks. The coffee granules produced by the blade grinder are not consistent, so you get different sized granules which may affect the taste of your coffee. Obviously, you will not be able to get most of the flavor out of the bigger granules, while the really tiny granules produce a very bitter taste when exposed to hot water for a considerable amount of time. Plus, the tiny granules will also get stuck in the sieve of your coffee press, if you use one. You will not get this problem with a burr grinder, as it produces a very consistent grind and is the best one to use if you like making espresso.
One other difference between the two grinders is that the burr grinder produces less heat that the blade grinder. Heat emitted during the grinding process alters the taste of the coffee, so this is not an issue for burr grinders.
Now that you are fully informed, you are now ready to make that purchase! The choice of coffee grinder basically boils down to how particular you are with the taste of your brew and how much you want to spend to get that taste.