Please Do Not Cheap Out On Your Electric Grinder

Please Do Not Cheap Out On Your Electric Grinder

Understanding the Process: Carbonic Maceration

Continuing our series on coffee processing, we learn about carbonic maceration—a unique, newer processing method. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Cafe Imports Editor’s note: Check out more entries in our “Understanding the Process“ series here. The rise of the specialty-coffee scene has helped many people understand that talking about coffee as something […]


An Unfiltered History of Vietnamese Coffee

We explore the history of coffee in Vietnam and how the industry’s perception of Vietnamese coffee is evolving.  BY EMILY MENESES BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Featured photo by frank mckenna via Unsplash What do you think of when you hear the term “Vietnamese coffee”? For Kim Dam, founder of Portland Cà Phê, it extends far beyond […]


An Unfiltered History of Vietnamese Coffee

We explore the history of coffee in Vietnam and how the industry’s perception of Vietnamese coffee is evolving.  BY EMILY MENESES BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Featured photo by frank mckenna via Unsplash What do you think of when you hear the term “Vietnamese coffee”? For Kim Dam, founder of Portland Cà Phê, it extends far beyond […]


What I Learned from My First Tea Ceremony

After taking in a brief moment of a tea ceremony in Thailand, I finally had the chance to participate in the full experience recently in Malaysia. BY TANYA NANETTI SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos by Tanya Nanetti In the years that I worked as a barista in a café, tea always played a marginal role in […]

Please Do Not Cheap Out On Your Electric Grinder

Joven and Atucún Join Forces to Empower Young Farmers

The two brands have collaborated to create a unique coffee bar and support young farmers in the coffee and cacao industries. BY VASILEIA FANARIOTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Joven Coffee  For their first-of-its-kind bar, Joven Coffee and Atucún Chocolateria combined coffee beans, extracted cocoa butter, and organic cane sugar. Committed to supporting young farmers […]


Coffee News Recap, 2 Feb: Applications open for Australia’s Richest Barista 2024, De’Longhi reports 4.6% revenue increase after La Marzocco move & other stories

Every Friday, Perfect Daily Grind rounds up the top coffee industry news from the previous week. Here are this week’s coffee news stories. The word of the week is: expansion. Mon, 29 Jan AeroPress launches limited-edition Clear Pink brewer. The coffee brewer is made from the same Tritan material used in the standard Clear model. […]


A Look at Digital Coffee Future’s Digital Origin Education Program

The new program connects coffee producers to one another, provides them with educational resources, and more. BY VASILEIA FANARIOTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of the Cocaerol, Comal & Amprocal cooperatives in Honduras Since 2021, Digital Coffee Future (DCF) has been working on a digital training program to address the needs of coffee producers. In September […]


Understanding the Process: Anaerobic Processing

We continue our series on fermentation with a look at the anaerobic process, which has quickly become a favorite in cafés worldwide. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Bram de Hoog for Ally Coffee A simple cup of well-brewed coffee can have endless variations of flavors and aromas. These are closely linked to […]

Please Do Not Cheap Out On Your Electric Grinder

How to Make the Best Coffee at Home By James Hoffmann: Book Review 

James Hoffmann’s new book, How to Make the Best Coffee at Home, is finally out, and is the perfect guide for both professionals and amateurs. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos by Tanya Nanetti James Hoffmann is one of the most recognizable people in the world of specialty coffee. His YouTube channel is both informative […]


Brewing at Home and On the Road with Darrin Daniel

We check in with the Cup of Excellence executive director to learn his current coffee-brewing habits. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Featured photo by Emre via Unsplash Brewing coffee is, for many coffee professionals, more than just a job.   They usually brew coffee every day, both for themselves and their customers. Perhaps they do it […]


Breaking New Ground: A Sicilian Coffee Plantation, Part One

The impacts of climate change are starting to be felt in Sicily, but while they’re causing problems, the rising temperatures are also bringing new opportunities. BY JOSEPH PHELANSPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Featured image courtesy of Henrique Ferreira on Unsplash The Sicilian love affair with coffee is known the world over. Sicily, the largest of […]


Design Details: A Petit Le Café Coffee in Midtown Manhattan

Welcome to Design Details, an ongoing editorial feature in Daily Coffee News focused on individual examples of coffee shop architecture, interior design, packaging design or branding. If you are a coffee…

Please Do Not Cheap Out On Your Electric Grinder

Please Do Not Cheap Out On Your Electric Grinder

minimum dose size?

Jan 31, 2024 |

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

Please Do Not Cheap Out On Your Electric Grinder

If you take the title at face value, my job is done. If you need to be convinced, here goes…

With the winter holidays coming up and my Baratza Encore deciding to have electrical issues, I needed a coffee grinder for the few pounds of beans in my kitchen cabinet. Amazon wouldn't get a new Encore to me in time so I went to my local Williams Sonoma and bought a Cuisinart automatic burr grinder. A burr grinder's a burr grinder, I thought, and since it was almost half the price of an Encore I went for it and hoped for the best.

Right out of the box there were issues. Cheap construction, tiny and absurdly inconsistent ceramic burrs, and an automatic "number of cups" dispensing method instead of a toggle or hold switch. "No biggie" I thought, figuring that the flat burrs might perform OK and that I could just slam it to the highest cup setting to make sure all the beans were ground.

On to the brew test. I loaded in 18g of coffee with the grinder set to just under "Medium" which was the recommended setting for auto-drip and usually a good starting point for Aeropress, plugged it in, moved the super cheap feeling slider to 10 cups, and pressed start.

When I tell you that the grinder sounded like a jet turbine winding up on a runway, I am not exaggerating. The only thing keeping it from hitting approximately 500,000rpm was the presence of coffee beans in the hopper, and once there were only a few left, it kept going faster and faster and faster to the point where the last remaining beans didn't have a chance to get in between the burrs without being flung back out into the hopper.

The end result was a ridiculously inconsistent grind and lots of static cling, despite adding water to the beans as recommended by our lord and saviour Hoffman. It did not make a good cup of coffee. I might have been able to get a better result with a blade grinder.

Maybe I'm just spoiled because I got to use the Encore for the past year and a half, but this was a truly abysmal experience. The Baratza was loud but it had torque, a reasonable speed, almost perfect consistency, and a no-frills easy to use interface. Everything about it instilled confidence in a good end result being in my coffee cup, something which Cuisinart is incapable of creating. I intend to return this unit after Thanksgiving and buy another Encore or Virtuoso

Now I know, and I hope my experience can help you know, that some things aren't worth spending less on. If you don't want to shell out for a good conical or flat burr grinder, get a hand grinder. It'll be more work but you'll get a much better cup of coffee than a cheap electric burr grinder can produce.

​

Tldr; if you're looking at electric burr grinders and can't afford a good one, consider a hand grinder or buying preground coffee from a coffee shop because both of those will give you a much better result than a sub $100 electric grinder.

submitted by /u/JazzioDadio
[link] [comments]

Please Do Not Cheap Out On Your Electric Grinder

Perfect Little Beans

Chinmey Hill Coffee uses specialty-grade beans with zero primary defects (such as black beans or sour beans) and less than five secondary defects (such as broken beans). This is important because primary defects will greatly affect the taste of the coffee. Having zero defects allows the coffee to be the most optimal flavor.

Window for Optimal Flavor

Chimney Hill Coffee ships our coffee the same day it was roasted, so you will receive it before it enters the window of optimal flavor.  This means you’ll never miss the opportunity to enjoy the coffee’s peak flavor.

Coffee Ratings

Coffee undergoes many scoring processes by professionals who achieved their Q Grader certification. Coffee is first graded when it’s green. If there are defects the coffee is determined to be “not-specialty grade”. For those coffees that pass green grading, they are sample roasted and cupped. (Cupping is the official term for critically tasting and scoring coffees. The official cupping form is standard worldwide, and where the 100-point scoring system comes from.) A coffee’s dry fragrance, wet aroma, flavor, aftertaste, body, acidity, balance, and overall impression are taken into consideration while uniformity issues and defects, will lower the overall score.

Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee, coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974, refers to a coffee that receives a quality grading score of 80 percent or higher. While “premium” or “gourmet” seem like they’re synonymous with “specialty,” they simply are marketing terms with no defined standards. Specialty coffees are grown in specific and ideal micro-climates, and have distinctive and unique flavor profiles, with little to no defects.

Third-Wave Coffee

We’re currently in the third wave of coffee. The first wave of American coffee put pre-ground, vacuum-sealed cans in kitchens across America. The second wave started with the late ‘60s introduction of Peet’s coffee (by Alfred Peet) through the proliferation of Starbucks. The third wave of coffee focuses on origin transparency, nuanced flavors, and artisan roasting. The term “third wave” is synonymous with specialty coffee.

Please Do Not Cheap Out On Your Electric Grinder

Shopping cart0
There are no products in the cart!
Continue shopping
0