How to choose a home espresso grinder

Grinding coffee for espresso. What type of grinder do you need?

Before we move on to the actual products, i.e. home espresso grinders, let's talk about what you actually need from your future partner. To make sure that the espresso is extracted properly and the coffee tastes good, you need:

Freshly ground coffee, i.e. coffee ground no more than 15 minutes before use,
aconsistent grind,
so that your coffeeis very finely ground, almost like semi-coarse flour,
and the fineness setting could be varied inreally small differences - degrees of coffee grind.

These points should be essential requirements for a good espresso grinder. They give you a direction to take and what products to look for on the market. In our "online shop" we try to make the challenge of choosing a good grinder easier. The first decision point is to know whether you want a manual or an electric grinder.

1. Choosing a coffee grinder: hand grinding for espresso

Are you leaning towards buying a manual grinder? Your financial costs for espresso will be significantly reduced by this decision. The price of a manual espresso grinder is no more than 10,000 CZK. The advantage is the storage of such a grinder, which you can hide in a drawer or on a shelf in the kitchen.

You do not need electricity, so it has zero power consumption. You can easily move the grinder, or you can take it in your backpackto prepare coffee wherever you want. That is, if you also have a travel coffee maker Flair Espresso or AeroPress, or aMoka pot will serve .

2. Choosing a coffee grinder: electric espresso grinder

What could be easier than throwing the beans into the hopper of the grinder, pressing the button and in a few seconds you're done grinding. Simple, fast and effortless. Electric grinders are bigger, which means they have bigger grinding stones. Which means more grinding power without sacrificing quality.

Above all, when setting the right grind for your espresso, you have an automatic tool at your fingertips that makesfinding the perfect grinder setting much easier. It also makes preparing several coffees at once much more enjoyable.

The grinding stones of the home coffee grinder

Why do the grinders in our portfolio have grinding stones? Whether they are home or professional, manual or electric. They allhave grinding stones as this is the only way to achieve the necessary grinding consistency. The quality of the design of these stones and their attachment then determine the accuracy of this grinding consistency.

Titanium and steel grinding stones of the coffee grinder

Since grinding espresso means grinding very finely, I recommend agrinder with durable steel stones. Even more durable are stones with a titanium surface. We also have titanium stones in some manual grinders like the 1Zpresso J-Max or the Timemor Slim Plus. In the wide stones of electric grinders, then, the titanium finish is used up to the more demanding operations of professional coffee grinder cafes.

Grinding coarseness adjustment for espresso coffee

Thecorrect grinding coarseness contributes significantly tothe great taste of the espresso in the cup . So in the case of espresso, it is better said to be fineness rather than coarseness. The principle of making a true espresso relies on a short extraction time of generally around 30 seconds and a resulting drink of around 40 grams (for a double espresso).

How to adjust the coarseness of the grind on the espresso grinder?

Theconcentration of coffee flavours within a short preparation time means that any (even seemingly slight) slight change in grind fineness will be reflected in the flavour profile of your cup of coffee. It follows thatthe ideal grinder offers the necessary range of grind grades that are only slightly apart. As far as the technology of the grinder is concerned, the degree of grinding reflects the shift of the grinding stone and the reduction or increase of the gap between the stones.

Flat vs. conical grinding stones in a coffee grinder

Thedistance between the grinding stoneschanges during the adjustment of the grinding degree of the coffee . Technologically, this works by one stone being fixed and remaining in its stable position and the other stone moving towards or away from it depending on the coarseness setting.There are two variants of grinding stone arrangement, namely flat or conical grinding stones.

Their practical significance is more or less similar. The onlydifference is that the conical stones are retractable and therefore require less space. That is why home grinders use conical stones and so the whole grinder takes up less space on the kitchen counter. However, especially in professional mills, the stones tend to be flat, because the priority here is not the size of the mill, but the possibility of maintenance. Flat steel stones can be reground.

How to choose a coffee grinder for home espresso?

So now you have an overview of everything your grinder needs to perform at its best. You get the perfect tool for making the perfect espresso. To recap:

You need a grinder with grinding stones with a range of grinding coarseness for espresso,
which can be adjusted in small increments for optimum coffee extraction.