Coffee Grinder Wanted - What to look for?

[coffee_king]

Hey All
Ive decided I would like to have a go at grinding my own coffee.
So I would like a machine that can:-

a)Grind from bean for use in Cafetiere, Moka and Espresso.
b)Grind Cafetiere/Moka style down for use in an Espresso machine.

I take it B is possible?

Any ideas on a good, cheapish grinder and what should I look out for and avoid?
thanks!

[bruceb]

Forget B. Preground or coffee that is already ground coarser cannot be ground finely and provide any reasonable distribution of particle sizes. What's more, you plug up the grinder very quickly.

You will have to provide a rough financial limit in order to get useful suggestions. If the sky is the limit there are wonderful conical burr grinders from any number of companies and you can't go too wrong. If your limit is in the hundreds of GBP then you might consider looking at used commercial grinders on e-bay. You will save a lot of money over the price of a new grinder and even if you have to replace the burrs you will be doing well and will probably never have to upgrade. I would not recommend any "home" grinders in the 200 GBP range.

[orrinoconnor]

Any ideas on a good, cheapish grinder and what should I look out for and avoid?
thanks!

Hi CK, the general consensus would probably be:
A second hand Mazzer Supper Jolly if you want to have something that you will never have to up grade, they seem to go at around the £200 mark or the Mini Mazzer.
If you really want something new that will do the job and you are prepared to upgrade to something different later on the Iberital mc2 grinder is a good domestic model at closer to £150.

[coffee_king]

Hey
Sorry I should have specified the amount I'm willing to part with shouldnt I.
I'm only looking to spend about £50, so just something small will do.
But if I cant regrind, or grind finer, I doubt if I will bother at all.

thanks

[grchif]

How about a hand grinder?

For occasional drinks (say less than three shots per days) they work really rather well, for whole beans at least - I'm not aware that re-grinding is possible. A Hario slim mill or Porlex or an older hand grinder from ebay will grind for Cafetiere no problem, and are also supposed to be good enough for espresso although I've never used mine for that, only cafetiere.

Relatively cheap too!

Colin

(edit: added qualifier about whole beans only)

[bruceb]

Good tip, grchif.
In this price range a hand grinder is really the only alternative. Most Zassenhaus hand grinders are really not suitable for espresso. They may grind fine enough to choke an espresso machine, but the distribution of fines and coarser particles is so disadvantageous that the results are very poor. I've never used a Porlex or Hario hand grinder, but they are definitely worth considering, according to the reports of many owners. As noted in the post above this is worth considering for occasional drinks.

[dr.chris]

Getting down towards that price range you get the dualit/solis machine. The big advantage is that it switches between grind size very easily. The disadvantage is that its not necessarily that accurate/consistent and its more luck than judgement if it grinds fine enough for espresso for your machine.

We have a dualit - and it was fine for the old gaggia evolution but nothing like good enough for L'Anna, for which we have an MC2

[bruceb]

The problem with the dualit/solis 166/167 is that they are so attractive and the price is so reasonable. This is a problem because they are just not suitable for espresso. The original poster said that he wanted to be able to grind for espresso and these grinders won't.

[awlred]

I can confirm from (arm aching) experience that the Hario slim CAN choke an espresso machine as to it's distribution of particles I cannot attest (used one once and the result was a choked machine)

To the OP I would recommend investing slightly more in a Iberital MC2 - It does a fantastic job for the money the only draw back is a minor gripe that the gearing on the wormscrew, while providing a very stable grind setting does require a good deal of patience to move between the extreme of grind sizes (cafetiere - espresso for instance).