Selection of bean grinder

If you don't remember anything by reading the espresso purchase guide, please remember this advice: "the bean grinder is an absolutely necessary equipment for making a cup of high-quality espresso at home."

It can be said that I cannot overemphasize this point.

As mentioned in the title, many friends in the forum will ask me for help when they buy an espresso machine. But the common situation is that some friends buy a coffee machine after taking my advice, and as a result, many people complain that the coffee made with this coffee machine does not have enough fat and tastes bitter, or muddy. The flow rate is too fast. In fact, 99% of the cases are that they do not have a suitable bean grinder, and most of them only buy finished coffee powder.

Why is the bean grinder so important

Making an espresso is very demanding. It can be said that the extraction method of espresso is the most complex way of coffee extraction, but it is also this complex process that makes the coffee more fragrant and delicious. This is something that mocha pots and other equipment will never be able to do. Espresso is brewed with 135 pounds of water per square inch of coffee powder and extracted for 25 seconds, a process akin to "abuse" of coffee powder.

Then why does espresso only favor some people? Why do some family baristas and even non-mainstream professionals make good espresso?

If you ask them what their secret is, everyone will mention the bean grinder except the coffee raw material itself (quality, bean roasting freshness, water quality) and skilled technology. This can be said to be a core issue, these people must have a high-quality bean grinder, can grind fresh beans, and grind into uniform coffee powder, so that they can be successfully extracted. It can be said that the bean grinder is a crucial determinant of a small cup of espresso.

I often say that I can use a $200 coffee machine and a $400 bean grinder to make a cup of coffee of far better quality than a $2000 coffee machine and a blade grinder. This is absolutely true! This is not an exaggeration.

This is definitely my experience, and it is also the experience of tens of millions of family baristas. It can be said that a good bean grinder is the most important thing you can improve the quality of your espresso at home. This is so important that I have to say: if you want to ignore the coffee maker, you don't have to bother to read any other guide articles about buying a coffee maker.

Budget for the purchase of bean grinders

How should you set the budget for your bean grinder? I can tell you a very simple and quick rule, that is, when buying a $200 bean grinder, your coffee machine and bean grinder should each account for half of your budget, and when your budget is bigger, your bean grinder's share of the entire budget can be reduced.

In other words, if your budget is $500, you will spend about $200 to $250 on a bean grinder and $250 to $300 on a coffee maker. If your budget is $1000, you can consider spending $300 to $350 on a bean grinder and $650 to $700 on a coffee maker.

I know that some readers will certainly question it, and may laugh at me for spending $300 or more to buy a mill. But if you spend $1000 on a machine, the $300 mill doesn't really make up much of the overall budget. Now you have to accept the fact that the bean grinder is very important in the whole process of purchasing coffee equipment. Let's think about it this way, coffee equipment purchase budget = coffee machine + bean grinder + additional equipment, rather than coffee equipment budget = coffee machine. Practice can fully prove this, when you have a good bean grinder, your espresso will even be unmatched by 95% of professional cafes, and it will be easier to make. Here is a breakdown of the proposed budget:

What kind of bean grinder do you choose?

Now you have to choose which style and type of bean grinder according to your budget.

The first thing you need to do is undoubtedly browse the user feedback section of the bean grinder in the forum, but it is a bit difficult to find the information you need from more than 900 feedback. Therefore, we have specially edited a page of the forum search guide, which can effectively help you find the information you need. Click here to view it (sorry, this section is not translated, it's just a forum guide)

Besides, I do have some suggestions. Whether at the high end, the terminal or the low end, there are some good choices, and I will tell you how to spend less money to achieve the best results.

From the above article, you can see that a suitable bean grinder has many needs, so spend more money on your bean grinder, maybe your espresso has made a qualitative leap.