Who doesn’t love a good cup of coffee? Good coffee can be made much better if you use a coffee grinder and crush the coffee beans yourself. This makes your coffee taste much fresher since the grounds have not been exposed to air for a long period which causes them to oxidize and become stale.
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.
Coffee grinders come in three basic types, the burr, the crusher and the blade grinder. Of which our personal favorite has to be the Kitchenaid coffee grinder. Like anything, each type of grinder has its pros and cons, which will have an effect on the taste of the coffee you make from the grounds.
The Blade Grinder
The most common coffee grinder is the blade grinder. It is the most popular because it is the least expensive and it produces grounds that make superior tasting coffee when compared to store bought grounds. These coffee grinders are also easy to clean and very durable.
Blade coffee grinders do have some drawbacks though. Due to the way they are constructed, they do not create a uniform consistency among the coffee grounds. They also do not produce a fine coffee ground. Because of this, a blade grinder cannot be used to grind coffee beans for espresso. The blades also create friction and heat that could be passed on to the coffee grounds and affect their flavor.
The Burr Grinder
There are two kinds of burr grinders, a flat coffee grinders and conical burr grinders. The flat wheel grinder spins at a high rate of speed and passes heat onto the coffee grounds and for this reason, it is not preferred.
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.
There are not many drawbacks to owning a conical grinder aside from their relatively expensive price tag. They can be noisy and are more difficult to clean than blade grinders.
The Crusher Grinder
A coffee crusher is one of the least popular coffee grinders. They work just like the name implies, by crushing the coffee bean. These produce coffee grounds of varying size, which can produce inferior coffee.
Conclusion
When selecting the type of coffee grinder to buy, consider the price, ease of operation and the amount of beans that can be processed at a time. All types of coffee grinders will be an improvement over buying coffee that has already been ground and is losing its freshness with each passing day.
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