Improve your Small Coffee Maker Experience – Buy a Grinder

Perhaps you’ve already picked out your small coffee maker or maybe you’re in the market for a grinder to go along with your machine. Whatever position you find yourself in, making the decision to grind whole roasted beans vs. buying already ground coffee is a critical one. The simple fact is that coffee begins losing much of its unique flavor compounds and wonderful odors within seconds of being ground. Knowing this, you will be much more likely to make the small investment in a standalone grinder, preferably a conical burr grinder. This article will serve to illustrate the importance of purchasing a grinder to grind your own beans including what to expect in terms of price and performance for a wide range of different coffee grinders.

Among the cheapest of grinders are the blade or “whirly-bird” grinders. These grinders are cheap for a reason – it’s because they pulverize the beans into different sized chunks including dust, which ends up creating bitterness in the finished cup. Whatever you do just be sure you don’t purchase one of these grinders. If necessary, save your money until you have enough (about $75) for a good quality entry-level conical burr grinder. Notice I said “conical” burr grinder, as there are two different types; conical burr grinders and wheel burr grinders. I will go into the differences between the two types in the paragraphs below, so read on.

The great thing about conical burr grinders is the way in which they grind the beans, producing a grind that is consistent in particle size and without dust. The grinder accomplishes this by crushing the beans between a movable grinding wheel and a non-moving surface. The reason to purchase a conical burr grinder over the other type, a wheel burr grinder, is that the conical version tends to produce less noise and mess. These are features that you will appreciate in the long run, so be sure to make the extra investment. A high quality burr grinder can be purchased for between $75 and $100 and will last you a lifetime if you take care of it properly.

Buying a burr grinder is a great decision, but there are other things to consider besides just purchasing the grinder itself. The freshness of the beans is perhaps equally important as the grinder used to grind them. You should use your beans within 1 week of purchasing them and should use the ground coffee within seconds of grinding it; otherwise, the resulting cup will be negatively affected. Grinding the beans ahead of time will not result in anything positive, so be sure to adhere to the advice recommended above.

If you’re really interested in having the ultimate coffee experience then you will want to look for a local or online roaster. A good roaster can be found through a simple Google search or through a popular coffee forum such as Coffee Geek. You will want to purchase beans that are 3-5 days removed from the roast process and you should use these beans within about 1 week. If you’re not yet ready to make this step don’t worry – store bought coffee beans can still produce a fantastic cup of coffee if you’re using the right set of tools.

In summary, the decision to purchase an external grinder is a good one. By doing so you will be rewarded time and time again with a cup of coffee that is better than you can get at most coffee shops and you can take pride in knowing that it was created using your own equipment and methods.

Conrad writes information and articles to help you choose the very best small coffee machine and also writes information about the best accessories forsmall coffee machines