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Happy Monday, Mark!
"I can make far better espresso with a $300 grinder and a $250 espresso machine than with a $50 grinder and a $2,000 espresso machine."
I blurted this out, off the cuff, to a reporter from Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper 20 years ago, and it ended up getting a lot of traction. He even used it as a pull quote in a full page feature story on CoffeeGeek, which led to newspapers like the New York Times and others writing up the importance of the coffee grinder.
Since those early days, it’s been a mission to stress the vital importance of a good coffee grinder in a home coffee and espresso setup. The coffee grinder is the single most important tool in the home arsenal for making better coffee. The lack of one is the biggest mistake people make in home espresso.
Getting people to understand this has been a constant challenge. Everyone wants the flashy espresso machine or the shiny auto drip they load with pre-ground the night before, but many balk at spending $200 on a good coffee grinder.
Owning a quality grinder delivers several things. First and foremost, you get the luxury of grinding just before brewing. Second, today’s slate of good grinders – both manual and electric – deliver nicely uniform, even particle sizes that didn't exist 20 years ago in a home grinder. These are both major benefits.
Grinding just before brewing is vitally important to cup quality. this has been known and preached for hundreds of years. Coffee has over 1,200 chemical components that contribute directly to taste, aroma, and body / texture. Many of those elements are not water soluble. Some are resistant to water extraction on their own. But coffee has its own secret super power to help with that: Carbon dioxide.
Roasted coffee has a lot of carbon dioxide inside those whole beans. So much so that roasters don’t like to sell or package roasted coffee for a few days after it is roasted: they prefer to let it “degas” somewhat, releasing some of the excessive stored CO2 along with other expelling gases.
That CO2 will act like a transit bus for some of the water-resistant taste, aroma and body elements, moving them from the grinds to your cup during the brewing process. These lipids, oils, and fats attach themselves to CO2 bubbles and take a ride, pushed on by water flow. The more CO2 in the ground coffee during brewing, the more flavour makes it into the cup.
The thing is, when you grind coffee, you give all that CO2 gas an escape route. And the finer you grind, the faster that CO2 leaves into the atmosphere, carrying along with it those aromatics and tastes. This is why fresh ground coffee smells so awesome: the CO2 is evacuating and taking the aromatics with it. Wouldn’t you rather have that in the cup?
You can. By grinding literally seconds before you start brewing coffee. This is why pre-ground coffee is so bad, and why many cannot seem to get a fantastic cup of coffee or espresso in the home, like they do at their favourite cafes.
We’re fortunate these days that it’s easy to get a quality grinder, and not break the bank. Sure, there’s $1,500+ grinders out there, but there’s also many under $300 (and some even under $75) that can produce a superior grind for brewing fantastic coffee and espresso.
The lowest price electric one we recommend is Breville’s Dose Control Pro, which at $150 street price or less, is an espresso-centric grinder that can easily do all your grinding needs. Baratza has arguably the best consumer grinder maker in the world, and has a range from the $170 Encore, on up to the $600 Sette 270Wi (and beyond), which is our primary espresso grinder in the CoffeeGeek Test Lab. There’s also the Wilfa Uniform, which is turning out to be one of the best single dose brew grinders we’ve ever tested, and it is under $300.
Manual grinders have come a long way too. Even the $60 (street price) Timemore Chestnut C2 produces excellent grinds for espresso through to Chemex. There’s also the Knock Aergrind, at $180, designed as the perfect travel companion for the AeroPress and one of the fastest manual grinders we’ve tested, with speeds outpacing some electric budget coffee grinders.
In the coming weeks, we’re going to be reviewing more coffee grinders to fit every budget point, including the Knock Aergrind, the Baratza Vario+ lineup, the Orphan Espresso Lido 3 ET, the Etzinger ETZ-I and more. They will be found in our review section.
Bottom line? The coffee grinder is often an afterthought in the home coffee setup, but in reality, it should be the rockstar, the centre of attention. Think of it this way and your taste buds will thank you.
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