The Best Coffee Grinder Is The Conical Burr Coffee Grinders

Coffee beans, like any other food product, will oxidize when exposed to air for any given period. The coffee grounds, since having a much greater relative surface area than the bean, and no outer protection, suffer this effect even more so. Therefore, being able to grind coffee beans at home will produce the least amount of exposure to air, and therefore will the produce the freshest grounds.  Also, another advantage to grinding your own coffee beans is you only grind what you immediately need.

But nothing is without its price. Grinding is time consuming and can be messy too, so if you choose to invest the effort to reap the reward, pick the best coffee grinder you can afford.

Coffee grinders fall into three broad categories - Burr, Blade and Crusher.

The Crusher Coffee Grinder

The third type is some kind of mashing device, often an ancient-style mortar and pestle. These crush the coffee beans, which is difficult and produces a very uneven sized granule. Not really recommended where you have a choice.

The Blade Coffee Grinder

The blade grinders don't actually grind at all, they chop the coffee beans. A whirling blade slices the beans into smaller and smaller chunks, until they approach something like a small grain of sand. Again and unfortunately, the coffee grains are invariably too large and normally produce inconsistent sizes.

As a consequence the surface areas of the granules vary, releasing varying amountsof flavour oils when brewed. Another effect of slicing is often the production of excess heat, as a result of the high speed of the blades. The consequence of which is friction is prone to warm the coffee grounds and partially dissipate the aroma and spoil the taste.

The Burr Coffee Grinder

The first type is by far the best coffee grinder. Burr coffee grinders have a pair of motor driven plates with pyramid-shaped teeth that grind the coffee beans to a consistent, small-but-not-too-small granule. The better models also allow adjustment of  the size of the grain and the speed of the grinding too.

Adjusting the size is important in order to further 'fine tune' the coffee grounds to allow just the desired brew of coffee.  Being able to control the speed keeps the warming effect mentioned early to an absolute minimum.

The Conical Burr Grinders

Even burr grinders fall into two classes - the conical burr grinder is preferred by real coffee aficionados. Though these grinders tend to be noisier, they allow the most control of grain size and speed and arguably will produce the best coffee.

Good conical burr grinders can rotate their plates as slowly as 500rpm. By contrast other burr grinders spin at 10,000rpm or higher, blades between 20-30,000rpm.   This obviously allows very tight control and little heat to no heat passed through to the coffee grounds.  The fine grind is especially important for Turkish-style coffee brews.

Conclusion

In our opinion the best coffee grinder are the conical burr grinders.  You will want to look for a model will construction, ease of cleaning and low noise output. A cleaning brush and removable upper burrs is also essential. Different materials used by various manufactures can also affect how much static electricity is produced - that causes the grains to stick to the burrs and container, less than ideal in making the perfect cup of coffee.

A timer switch and auto-shutoff is a nice addition too, and being able to see the beans as well as the grounds is helpful for judging the end product in the coffee grinder. Dark plastic or glass may be aesthetically appealing, but it may obscure your view.

Our advice is to read some reviews and be prepared to spend a little more, and you'll be rewarded with the freshest, most flavourful cup of coffee you’ve ever experienced.