Love Coffee? Then You Need A Coffee Grinder
If you love to start your day with a cup of coffee, you should know you can make your coffee taste so much better and fresher if you use a coffee grinder to crush the beans yourself. This causes your coffee to taste better because the grounds haven’t had time to oxidize due to exposure to air.
With coffee grinders, you can create enough coffee for what you are going to drink right away. In that way you can ensure you will always have the freshest coffee available.
Most coffee you buy at the grocery store is already ground. The coffee has already started to go stale and it will continue to oxidize the more it is exposed to air. The advantage of buying whole coffee beans is that the freshness is sealed inside the shell of the beans waiting to be released by your coffee grinder.
There are three types of coffee grinders. They are the burr, the crusher, and the blade grinder. Of which our current favorite at the time of writing is the Kitchenaid coffee grinder. Of course each grinder has its own advantages and disadvantages and can have an effect on the coffee you make.
The Blade Grinder
Blade coffee grinders are the most common and the least expensive coffee grinder. The advantages to owning a blade grinder are: they are affordable, they are an improvement over buying coffee already ground, they are durable and they are easy to clean.
Blade coffee grinders do have disadvantages. Because of their inexpensive construction, they do not chop coffee beans into a uniform consistency. For this reason, a coffee grinder cannot be used to make espresso. In addition, the friction created while grinding produces heat that may affect the beans and give a bitter taste to your coffee.
The Burr Grinder
Burr coffee grinders come in two types, conical burr coffee grinders and flat wheel grinders. Of these the conical burr coffee grinder is the most popular because it spins at a slow rate and does not impart heat to the grounds. Flat wheel grinders spin at a rapid rate and heat up the grounds, which can negatively affect the flavor.
The conical burr grinder is a popular choice for coffee lovers although it is more expensive than a blade grinder. The advantages of a conical burr is that they spin at a relatively slow speed so the ground coffee does not heat up. One such example is the Capresso Infinity conical burr which is getting a lot of praise throughtout the coffee world. Conical burr’s also offer the most uniform ground size, and they can produce a very fine grind for making Turkish coffee.
Conical grinders do not have many disadvantages other than the more expensive price tag. They are a little more work to clean than blade grinders and they can be noisy.
The Crusher Grinder
The crusher type coffee grinders are not very popular because they create grounds that are not uniform in size. They work by crushing the beans in the same manner you would crush spices. The varying size of the grounds creates coffee that is inferior when compared to other types of coffee grinders.
Conclusion
When considering what type of coffee grinder to buy, think about the consistency of the coffee grounds it will produce. The consistency plays a big role in the quality of the coffee. Also consider the price and how easy the grinder is to clean and operate. All types of coffee grinders will provide you with fresh coffee grounds that will make much better tasting coffee than store bought grounds that are starting to go stale.
