Bump the Grind

A friend recently asked me to help him find an upgrade coffee grinder for his home. "Upgrade from what?", I asked. This all spiraled into a long, in depth conversation about different types of grinders, their merits and downfalls and ultimately, what amount of equiment you want to have laying around your kitchen. The short side of the story is that my friend was looking to make the jump from your standard $18 Kitchen Aid blade grinder to a full-on commercially certified portion control burr grinder. This, admittedly, is probably overkill but to his credit, my friend is already on a very slippery slope to full coffee-geekdom so this venture comes as no surprise.

All of this grinder talk, however, got my brain churning and I revisited my thoughts and opinions on coffee grinders and coffee grinding in general. Before diving in though, I need to make clear the fact that in this instance I am speaking strictly about home-use applications. Coffee houses, in general, need a minimum of one commercial bulk grinder and one commercial espresso grinder. A second espresso grinder and a portion control grinder are highly recommended. With that said, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I think my stance on coffee grinding at home has taken a 180 degree about-face in the past few years. I began my career in coffee almost ten years ago and based on my education related to the good bean, I was a staunch advocate of every single home owning a coffee grinder of some type. I stood firmly behind the idea that even if your grinder didn't do a particularly good job, it was still best to grind moments before brewing. Ask me today and I'll tell you very much the opposite but there are some nuances with the subject that create caveats so the topic bears some exploration.

There are two major types of coffee grinders, blade grinders and burr grinders. Blade grinders (what most of us have in our cabinets) use a rotating blade to dispatch coffee. Notice I did not say "grind" coffee; blade grinders crush coffee, they do not grind it. Burr grinders use two circular plates with burred edges, one stationary and one spinning to grind, or more aptly, to "shave" coffee. Without getting to arduous on the subject, the shaved coffee looks like long flat slivers of coffee under the microscope whereas the crushed coffee looks like chunks and nuggets. To illustrate which is more desirable lets imagine you've spilled your coffee on the kitchen counter. You pull down some paper towels to wipe it up and you have to decide whether to ball the paper towels up into tight balls or leave them flat and put them over the spill. Which method soakes up the most liquid the quickest? The same notion applies to extraction of coffee oils (flavor) from the bean. So, everyone should go out and buy a burr grinder for their home right? Well it is not that simple. Home use burr grinders are usually in the $100-$200 range which is a lot for most coffee equipment budgets and, unfortunately, they are of a very low quality and will not produce the results necessary to justify the investment. Furthermore, there is no viable step between home use burr grinders and commercial grade units.

This is where my philosophy has split. I used to advocate sacrificing grind quality for grind freshness. Experience, experimentation and the prevalence of places to buy great coffee have changed that view. I hate to sound like I'm on a band wagon, but the answer is this; buy local and buy often. Buy local coffee because you really should know your producer/dealer. Coffee is a social product and you can't get more social than chatting with your roaster about what you're getting ready to put in your body. There are so many great roasters and coffee houses in Richmond now you should be within walking or biking distance to at least one. Heck, I live in the suburbs and I can walk or bike to three independently owned local coffee houses, two of which feature roasters! Buying often is the most important point here. Know how much coffee you use in a week and buy no more than that. For most people a single pound is ideal. Have your coffee house or coffee roaster grind the entire bag of coffee for you at the time of purchase because they have invested thousands of dollars into grinding equipment that produces the best ground coffee possible. This is one of the many reasons coffee house coffee always tastes better than the same coffee brewed at home. I guarantee that the flavor of properly ground coffee trumps the flavor of recently ground coffee when all other factors are equal. I can make this guarantee because I've tested this hundreds of times. If, for some reason, you aren't buying your coffee at a local shop you can usually take your whole bean to a shop and they'll grind it for you anyway, just be nice and throw a dollar or two in their tip jar or buy a cup while you're there. Do NOT, however, trust coffee grinders at the grocery store. Yes, they are free for anyone's use, but equate that convenience to free, public-use dental surgery stations at Wal-Mart (not a good idea). Grocery store grinders are rarely maintained, usually stink of stale flavored coffee and have been touched and handled by thousands of people before you.