Coffee scoops and coffee makers

[WinterDeere]

Cool. Which manual grinder?

I picked up a KINGrinder K2 awhile back, when my Sette 270 espresso grinder broke down, as I knew repair parts would take a few weeks. It was fun to use it for a few days, but then became a bit of a grind (sorry... pun), after the novelty wore off. If I were only using it on weekends, it'd be fine, my recommendation for a good burr grinder was more about the daily grind.

Most of these older burr grinder designs have a hopper and a timer, so you can just adjust the time to produce the amount of ground coffee you require. But because they're always horribly inaccurate (grind rate changes with coarseness, with bean type, with bean roast level, and even with number of days since roasting), most stopped using the hopper and timer. Just measure out the amount of beans you want to grind, put it all in the hopper, and run it thru.

Many newer grinder designs seem to be following this "single dosing" mentality, and have eliminated the hopper and timer altogether. But there's something to be said for trusting the durability of older designs that have been battle tested over many years. If I'm spending money on a good burr grinder, I want the damn thing to last me 20 years.

One other note, look at coffee forums about warranty service. The reason all of my grinders have been from Baratza, is their warranty service is historically second to none. My Sette 270 has failed twice, using it 3-4x per day for something like 6 years. Both times, Baratza sent me the repair parts totally free of charge, no questions asked, even though the machine is many years past the warranty period. In one case, that was a whole new gear box and burr assembly, after 5.5 years of daily use, now basically all the moving parts in the grinder are new. Now that Baratza has been bought by Breville, I worry that could change a bit, but so far it has not.

 

[Darth_DMack]

I have a KINGrinder K6 that I bought a while ago from Amazon. It works very well, for small batches. I have a small Black and Decker burr grinder that I use when feeling lazy, and a large Cuisinart electric grinder that has a hopper and a grind chamber. That is a very recent purchase.

 

[WinterDeere]

Nice. No familiarity with the Cuisinart, but I believe I know the B&D you use, a guy on another forum I used to watch had a 20 year old B&D burr grinder he used to swear by.

The K6 is a pretty serious hand grinder, if I recall. It can do everything right down to Turkish coffee, if your elbows are young and strong enough.

Really, I don't think my palate is refined enough to tell the difference between one burr grinder and the next in pour-over or French press coffee. So, other than durability and warranty, there's probably no need to go nuts on expensive Italian hardware. The only real trouble comes in when people buy those stupid whirly grinder things, and think that's a real coffee grinder. They just pulverize the beans into random shards, they don't produce any sort of consistent grind.

I haven't made drip coffee in maybe 20+ years, since my 1990's Krupps broke, forcing me to take a deep dive on coffee hardware. Once I switched from drip to pour-over, there was never any chance of going back. Same with going from coffee to espresso, about six years ago... now I only make pour-over when we have company. I do still use the French press for after dinner decaf, a few nights each week.

Oh, one other thing to look at. If you have a decent grinder, and aren't happy with the all-in-one brewer, maybe just get a Chemex (or clone) funnel? Heat water in microwave, pour over Chemex funnel. If you postpone cleanup until you get home from work, you'd have great daily coffee in a few seconds. Bodum makes their variant for something like $20, and there are many other clones. Good "clean" alternative to the high-solids French press. You could have a pretty good setup with just those two devices.

https://www.amazon.com/Coffee-High-Heat-Borosilicate-Reusable-Stainless/dp/B07KQVW6RR/ref=sr_1_14?adgrpid=1330409634506352&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PZh4CKKcILWzvSVUfJAi_ptGhwn2OgJwTeXWkSkeXCxfy8_WZDAsO5l6qEsHwI11UAjutY4h0NVNgHCs7NM8Q4F5u-oqsSmhpo4D9tRr2In4LgoVxP3NaznCmD8b4tunsstjFymmYYOzHCUQ3beRqNgOXAYdMT4blMsxg-c3lPty6MPqQlbfKZj_PX5OCNK-EePkO6VWobNB8mGCRC6rM21Yf_EAlywj6GP1zxIYpkqdt4wukzFeR1k5zn13ivEf9Nkm0LgCJ2oi8KvtVav9Y3bXOspDQfOfFfZ7U-69YeM.0ZCo6QjxNZWNYIVBPCoxtC1NbbE8Mjiwvwh3heMZ_W0&dib_tag=se&hvadid=83150946004662&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=95586&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83150948686718%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=4888_13275461&keywords=pour%2Bover%2Bchemex&msclkid=f72a0a6084f61f5d5c4c6cf9a3ab5603&qid=1721313127&sr=8-14&th=1

 

[Darth_DMack]

@WinterDeere

I've seen those Bodum units and have been interested in them. My daughter uses one almost exclusively (She's 26 and WAY ahead of me). I may just pick one up!

I have a nice water heater (kettle style, electric) that brings the water to boil, but I add a thermometer and grab the water at 205-207 degrees. Works very well for me.

 

[WinterDeere]

Yeah, they’ve always interested me, too. Sort of a manual version of my Bunn A10 automatic pour-over machine, but with a cone (rather than flat) basket, and mesh instead of paper filter. In fact I think many do use paper filters in their Chemex, if they don’t like the solids pass-thru of the mesh.

Never tried one myself, but many people have sworn by the Chemex for 20 years or more. They’re a pretty simple design, so I can’t imagine Bodum’s version isn’t as good as the original, at half the price.

 

[oosik]

My old hand crank coffee mill. My greatgrand kids liked to grind coffee for me when they visited. Now it sits on the counter, as an antique, collecting dust.

 

[WinterDeere]

We had one of those sitting in our kitchen, when I was growing up, maybe even the very same brand and model. We never used it, but the drawer was a great place to store spare keys.

 

[ponytug]

We had one of those sitting in our kitchen, when I was growing up, maybe even the very same brand and model. We never used it, but the drawer was a great place to store spare keys.

We had one, too. There must be some trick to using it. I could never get the thing to make a uniform grind. I decided it was basically designed to crack the beans so the coffee could be boiled "cowboy style".

All the best,

Peter

 

[oosik]

I know the grinder is old - but not an antique. Took it apart to dust it - before the picture. Underneath the top wing nut - a Bakelite washer.

I looked high/low - no brand name on the grinder. Perhaps inside on the cast iron grinding cone.

I know it's, at least 75 years old. I remember unpacking it when the family moved into our new house in 1949.

 

[goeduck]

We had one, too. There must be some trick to using it. I could never get the thing to make a uniform grind. I decided it was basically designed to crack the beans so the coffee could be boiled "cowboy style".

All the best,

Peter

I used to make my version of coffee cowboy in the office. I'd bring water in a pot to a boil in the kitchenette, then I'd dump coffee grounds straight into the water and roll boil it for a few minutes. The surface area of the ground coffee made for a good initial steam plume. When the steam/aroma hit the return air grille and distributed throughout the office, everyone knew I was in the office. Certainly, got everyone's attention. I'd filter the grounds to my thermos and be on my way.