UKC

I know that whenever questions get asked about coffee, lots of people come out of the woodwork sounding extremely knowledgeable.

I'm looking for a coffee grinder. I'd quite like one where you have a bit of control over grind size, as normally I use a caffetiere with a relatively fine mesh, but when camping, or when I just feel like it, I use an American style percolator (like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Coffee_Percolator_... ), which has much larger holes on the metal filter. It doesn't have to be the absolute best, but I will pay for reasonable quality. Electric or hand grinder are both fine.

So, coffee fans, what would you suggest?

Thanks!

In reply to Green Porridge: I'm not a coffee expert, but I noticed a significant improvement in taste when I got one of these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dualit-75015-Coffee-Grinder-Black/dp/B005VBNSJ8/ref...

Other grinders and retailers are available, of course.

T.

In reply to Green Porridge: really depends how much you want to spend. for a caffetiere any burr grinder will do the trick, a cheaper spice grinder chops with a blade so you get a very uneven grind. a quick look on fleas at bay and any of the top ones would be good. £40 ish cuisniart looks good . how ever you could go for a porlex hand grinder , £30 ish and a thing of beauty. made in japan and very nice quality. you could then take it camping along with some beans and be a really geek and grind fresh every time. the more expensive grinders , i ve got a mazzer, are only really any better for espresso machines.

In reply to Green Porridge: A burrer is what you need. But then you also.need to ensure that you are using water of the correct temperature!!!

In reply to Green Porridge:

http://www.happydonkey.co.uk/iberital-mc2-grinders/

These are very popular and for good reason as they are an excellent grinder for the money. They do take up a bit more space than many domestic grinders but if you have room and if it's within your budget it's probably the one to go for.

In reply to Unknown Climber:

I use a mc2 grinder at home. It's brilliant but its also stepless meaning its very difficult to change between grinds. I have it set for espresso grind for my espresso grind but I can't easily change the setting if i fancy a moka pot, aeropress, drip, pour over or French press etc.

If you only plan on making coffee with one grind size the mc2 is great otherwise you'll need to upgrade to a stepped grinder.

Espresso is the only grind which needs to be perfect. The other methods are much more forgiving so for them I use a hario mini mill (burr)

In reply to Milesy:

And the mc2 is useless for travelling unless you grind before you leave, buy your coffee will be stale by then.

In reply to Milesy:

Also I've been meaning to pick one of these up for myself. The god of hand grinders: orphan espresso lido. A hand grinder that grind consistently enough even very fine for espresso. It's a belter of a wee device.

http://www.orphanespresso.com/OE-Lido-Design-Study_ep_646-1.html

In reply to Green Porridge: another vote for Hario mini

In reply to Green Porridge:

You want to have a ceramic burr.

i own (and love) the Hario Skerton (Hario is already mentioned - a quality Japanese brand, with ceramic burrs and a simple mechanism to set size)

The Mini is suitable for smaller batches, the Skerton has a larger hopper and larger collection container (so you can grind sufficient quantity for 2 large cafetiere/frenchpress). Clearly - the more coffee you grind, the more you will drink - so i recommend the Skerton.

J

In reply to Milesy:
+1 to this. Great grinder for espresso, but very tedious to change to a cafetiere grind and back again. For this reason I wouldn't recommend it to the OP.

There is a couple of other good quality hand grinders coming to the market soon as well which are well engineered and do a really good grind consistency.

The first is a new project by "madebyknock" - An Edinburgh based machinist who is known for creating really good quality espresso tampers (I have one at home). He is in the process of engineering a high quality grinder similar to the Orphan Espresso Lido (which is only available to buy from the states)

http://www.madebyknock.com/
http://instagram.com/p/d4tKFOgypF/#

Another is the Comandante Grinder being made in germany and will be on the market soon as well.

http://comandantegrinder.com/

These two along side the Lido blow any Hario or Porlex grinder away.

In reply to all:

Thanks everyone for the advice! I didn't realise there were so many opportunities to spend bucket loads of money on grinders I was looking at spending up to about £50, so a couple of them might be out, but it's good to see what's possible! I suspect any of the suggested ones will be a vast improvement on what I'm doing at the moment though.

In reply to Green Porridge:

Come join us on http://www.coffeeforums.co.uk if you want to get into more depth on it

and are just a "tad" more money than the £30 you ll pay for a porlex. and would the op, or for that matter anybody notice the difference in his cafetiere or percolator ? nope. high end espresso machine maybe.

In reply to mike123:

I did say the other methods are more forgiving.

I use a hario mini for mostly aeropress and I can taste the result of the fines in the cup. I live with it though. Ill be getting the madebyknock one later in the year though.