Manual coffee grinder. Old fashioned but do they make the best coffee or not?
It’s like cutting your lawn with a high quality push mower. A friend of mine swears that his manual push mower gives a lawn a better cut. But then he's got a postage size plot of grass. Similarly, a high quality hand crank burr grinder may be the best grinder you’ll ever use if you don’t have a lot of beans to grind. With less heat in the grinding process than electric blade or burr grinders you do not destroy as many essential oils. You grind them SLOWWWWLY out of necessity and get right into the coffee making process. Pretty well noise free there is not the jolt of noise in the morning for you and for others who might still be sleeping. But you still get the jolt of Java! (Sorry couldn’t resist) And with no electricity needed they are the perfect accompaniment to that romantic trip to that mountain cabin or lakeside lodge that the electrical lines still haven’t reached. Or on a camping trip when you want fresh ground beans every day rather than pre-ground. So what are the cons of these little beauties? Well of course it does take more time and energy to grind the beans by hand. If you have a lot of people it’ll take a while. A good one will hold enough beans for about 6 cups. The cheap ones are unfortunately no darned good. Don't waste your money on one. The burrs can break and you can’t get proper leverage with the short handles on them. Experts and connoisseurs all seem to agree that Zassenhaus manual coffee grinder is the finest manual grinder. There are a number of models and they have high quality hardened steel burrs which crush and grind the beans to perfection. They run between $50 to $80. So if you want the old time experience of grinding it yourself and possibly the best tasting coffee or just want to impress your neighbours with your coffee expertise, try a manual burr grinder. |
