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Bought a $30 hand grinder and a $300 burr grinder on the same day
I kept seeing posts about how the grinder matters more than the machine itself, so I got curious. Picked up the cheapest ceramic burr grinder at Target and also ordered a nicer hand grinder online just to see if there was a real difference. Made two cups back to back using the same beans from a local roaster downtown, same water temp, same pour method. The cheap one gave me a bunch of fines and the coffee turned out kinda muddy and bitter. The $300 one made a cleaner cup with way more sweetness and clarity. Has anyone else done a side by side test like this and been surprised at how big the gap is?
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margaretc421d ago
Did you see that James Hoffmann video comparing cheap vs expensive grinders?
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matthewking1d ago
Did you watch the part where he tested the cheap one on espresso? Painful but SO TRUE.
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That $300 grinder is way more consistent than a budget one for sure but I'm wondering did you try adjusting the grind size on the cheap one to see if you could dial out some of that bitterness? I messed with a similar test a few months back and found that going way coarser on the cheap grinder helped a little but it still left this weird dusty texture no matter what. Also did you sift out the fines from the cheap grind before brewing? I tried that once with a cheap sieve and it made the cup cleaner but still nowhere near the quality of the expensive grinder so the uniformity of particle size seems like the real game changer.
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