How to choose a coffee grinder for a coffee shop

WHY YOU NEED A COFFEE GRINDER

Some of you may be wondering if you can do without a grinder. You can't. At home, maybe. Not in a coffee shop. Consider that these days you can't impress anyone with anything but quality.

If you buy pre-ground coffee, expect all the flavour to have evaporated long before you buy it. In addition, there is a good chance that it will be inappropriately ground; either too finely or too coarsely. Today, let's take a look together at other reasons why it's worth investing in a coffee grinder.

1. YOU NEED THE RIGHT SIZE

You probably know that youneed your coffee ground differently for espresso and differently for filter coffee. Most grinders today can offer you a really wide range of options for how to grind your coffee. Let's say your café offers several ways to make coffee: V60, chemex, aeropress and classic espresso. Why would you buy several packs of differently ground coffee for different brewing methods when you can buy one pack that you can grind as needed?

2. YOU WANT CONSISTENT RESULTS

If you do decide to invest in a coffee grinder, choose one that can grind your coffee evenly. If you choose a lower quality grinder, you'll find a wide range of resulting grind coarseness. Coarsely ground coffee will not be extracted and, on the contrary, finely ground beans will achieve over-extraction, which will subsequently affect the resulting taste.

3. YOU WANT TO HAVE MORE CONTROL OVER YOUR ESPRESSO

Temperature, humidity, time of day, even the age of the beans can affect the ideal grind size. A quality grinder will allow you greater precision when grinding your beans - meaning you can always have thesame great coffee despite all the different variables.

GRINDING STONES OR BLADES?

Now we know why the grinder matters so much. So let's now take a look at the different options that grinder manufacturers offer you. The first criterion you should consider is whether you want a grinder with chipping blades or grinding stones.

GRINDERS WITH CHIPPING BLADES

Grinders with chipped blades cannot adjust the coarseness of the coffee grind. With such a grinder, you can't grind coffee for a French press, a mocha pot, and certainly not for espresso.

With this type of grinder, you get finer ground coffee by simply leaving the grinder running longer. But here comes one big disadvantage. By spinning the blades quickly, the grinder can start to burn the coffee. As the beans start to heat up, they start to release their aromas and flavour. This results in thecoffee then becoming bitter or even smelling of burnt wood.

For us, this type of grinder is a big NO for coffee shops.

Advantages: affordability

Disadvantages: uneven grinding

GRINDER WITH GRINDING STONES

Compared to a three-blade grinder , a grinder with grinding stones is perfectly accurate. It contains two grinding stones that fit together precisely. This is the only way the grinder can grind each coffee bean into equally sized pieces. The grinding of the coffee is much more consistent and precise.

Benefits: precision, better consistency and control.

Cons: Price. Some stone grinders are also larger and heavier than knife grinders and may also use more energy.

FLAT AND CONICAL GRINDING STONES

Let's say you've decided on a type of grinder with grinding stones. But the decision is far from over! Now you have to choose the type of grinding stones.

FLAT GRINDING STONES

You adjust the grinding size of the grinding stones by moving the discs either closer together (for finer ground coffee) or further apart (for coarser ground coffee). Theground coffee is pushed into the lever by the newly ground coffee. This means that you always have some residual ground coffee left in thegrinder. For this reason, flat stones are more suited to coffee shops where one coffee after another is prepared and the residual coffee in the grinder does not have time to age. When choosing, however, note that flat grinding stones are more demanding in cleaning andgeneral maintenance .

CONICAL GRINDING STONES

In a grinder with conical st ones,the coffee falls straight into the lever, meaning that noresidual ground coffee remains in the grinder. Grinders with conical st ones alsogrind more evenly.

On the other hand, they have their drawbacks:

• the inability to sharpen the stones
• higher purchase price
• the need for a more powerful motor

Flat stones are cheaper than conical ones, but after about 250 to 600 kilos of coffee they will need to be replaced. Conical stones need replacing after about 750 to 1,000 kilos of coffee.

GRINDING STONE MATERIAL: STEEL VS TITANIUM

Today , you will mostly seesteel and titanium grinding stones. There are also ceramic stones. However, these are hardly found in professional grinders today. So which material to choose?

Steel is a good thermal conductor, which means that thegrinding stones heat up faster. However, according to some experts, this heat can subsequently affect the taste of the coffee, as the grinding process burns off some of the oils present in the coffee.

Titanium grinding stones coated with a layer of titanium, ensuring upto 6 times longer life. They are very efficient and reliable. They are suitable for grinding light and medium roast coffees.Why? Because the lighter the beans are roasted, the harder they are and therefore need a higher quality grinder. Plus, using lighter roast coffee will dull the grinding stonesfaster . Therefore, ask yourself in advance what it takes to replace the stones, whether you can do it yourself or whether the grinder will have to be serviced and how much it will cost.