How to choose a professional grinder for drip coffee
FOR WHOM HE WILL GRIND
If you already have a drip coffee grinder and are looking for advice on choosing a better version, you already have all the information you need. You know how filter coffee is sold in your area and you know theshortcomings of your current grinder. If you are looking for your first professionaldrip coffee grinder , you need to find out this information by guesswork. Think abouthow many of these coffees you sell per day, i.e. how much coffee on average the grinder will need to grind.
WHAT IT WILL GRIND
Now,we're not so much thinking aboutwhat coffee you'll put in it, but rather how much coffee there will be. Calculate how much coffee your grinder will need to grind at any one time. This will give you an idea of not only what the grinder' smotor will need to handle, but also how big thehopper should be . Also take into account future plans, other possible uses for the grinder or unexpected events .
Imagine:
You have a small café with its own confectionery in a village in a tourist area. During the week you use your new grinder for your morning batch and during the afternoon you keep it busy with a few more grams of coffee. You'll invite your guests for a hand-poured V60, because you want to offer your customers the sweetest coffee in the world from a unique microlot that your roaster managed to get directly from a Gomez farmer in Peru. He was incredibly lucky last year to have the most ideal conditions for growing his unique pink bourbon. They only sent you a few packages of this coffeefrom your "mother" roastery.
In these situations, your grinder can easily cope, but can it handle the onslaught of tourists from a passing bus who have decided to refresh themselves in your café? The filtered coffee you prepared for them absolutely charmed them. That is why three of them decided to buy a packet of this coffee from you for home preparation and as a pleasant memory of this stop in your cosy café. Unfortunately, none of them has a grinder at home and they ask you to grind the coffee for them. Despite the tears in their eyes at the amount of aromas and flavours that the ground coffee has been awarded for, with a score of up to 93 on the cupping assessment, you decide to oblige and grind the coffee for them.
However, this onslaught is not what your grinder was expecting and is not built for. That's why it overheats the motor when grinding the last packet until it stops grinding altogether. You put the grinder in for repairs, grind coffee on your home hand grinderfor a month , so you consider taking the filter coffee off the menu due to cramps in your right hand, and wait for the repaired grinder to come back to you after a month. Your repaired grinder will be delivered not only with a new motor, but also an invoice for an amount close to the cost of a new grinder. You set your re-functioning grinder on the bar, replenish the shelf with packets of irresistible coffee novelties from Brazil and prepare a fresh batch. From the window of your café, you watch the bus park and the tourists heading for their coffee.
WHO'S GONNA GRIND IT?
If you're not like the coffee drinker in this story, and perhaps you have a larger café and therefore more employees, consider user-friendliness when choosing a grinder. Your new grinder needs to be easy to set up and easy to maintain.
If you have a small café that you run yourself and only have two local students helping out on weekends, be sure to make them aware of the features of your new grinder. In case one of your temporary workers gets talked into grinding the coffee by a persuasive customer when you are not there (despite the agreement not to grind coffee packets for customers).
WHICH IS THE RIGHT ONE?
There are lots of coffee grinders. The market offers all different types, sizes and designs. As a professional, I'm sure you know the basic specifics. You know that you need a quality electric grinder with grinding stones (the difference between flat and conical stones does not affect the quality of the ground coffee, it's just a matter of manufacturer preference). So this first thought will eliminate any cheap home grinders from our selection. The segment of household grinders is really intended for households. It is made of cheap materials to make it affordable. This is then reflected in its performance and durability.
The important factor is of course the price. You can buy a grinder for 35 or even 70 thousand. Determine how much money you are able to invest in buying a grinder. With a grinder, it really is an investment for several years ahead. Even if you have a smaller coffee shop, don't be afraid to put your money into a quality grinder. It's also a more financially beneficial decision in the long run . A cheap grinder is more likely to break down and you'll be forced to buy a new one. If you take good care of a quality grinder, it willlast you forever.
FOR THE MORNING ONLY
TheBaratza Forte BGis an exception among domestic grinders . It's such a semi-professional for home baristas. What Baratza really prides itself on is quality workmanship. They stand behind their products. Although at first glance we can see that certain parts are plastic and thereforelook cheap, it is only those parts where the cheaper material does not completely determine the grinding quality that can make theprice of the grinder so favourable. The important parts are already made of very high quality materials.
Baratza designs its products so thatmaintenance is simple and any defective parts can be easily replaced. Don't throw it away, fix it! They proclaim on their website where they publish instructions for repair and proper maintenance. If you have a really small operation where filter coffee is a complementary product and you won't be offering a grind-at-home service to your customers, this grinder will work for you. Its flat grinding stones are made of hardened 54 mm steel. The size of the stones is a very important parameter when choosing a grinder. With a larger volume of coffee, these small stones will grind fora longer time than a professional grinder that has larger stones.
Longer grinding time also means more time for friction to build up. And friction creates heat, which heats our coffee beans. We want to grind our coffee before brewing, not pre-bake it. The heat causes the oils in the coffee to rise to the surface of the bean and the coffee deteriorates. Are you sure that in your coffee shop the grinding requirement on this grinder will be as small, basically, as in a larger household? Will this change in the future, won 't you want to incorporate more filter coffee based drinks, like the popular cold brew in the summer? In the future, won't you want to include selling coffee packages to your customers? If so, take a look at theEureka Drogheria 85 grinder .
TRADITION AND QUALITY FROM ITALY
You've probably already metthe grinders from the Italian company Eureka . Maybe it's their Zenith that you have next to your coffee machine and grind espresso coffee on it every day. This grinder is very popular for itsreliability, speed anduser-friendliness. TheirDrogheria-typegrinder has the same qualities .
You pour up to 1.4kg of coffee into it and this nearly 15kg all-metal workhorse grinds it in no time with its up to 85mm large grinding stones. It doesn't even break a sweat, and should you try to really heat it up, it has thermal overload and damage protection. Maintenance is absolutely simple, you just unscrew the top and you have access to the grinding stones, so you can clean them without having to readjust the coarseness. On top of the grinder you will find the grind coarseness adjustment control, where the grinder itself recommends you which coarseness range to go for a given filter coffee preparation. For a price of less than 35k, you can't ask for much more.
THE CELEBRATED GRINDER KING FROM HAMBURG
What would an article about professional coffee grinders be without mentioning the famous EK43 from Mahlkönig. This robust grinder dominates the shelves of coffee shops around the world. Despite the fact that Mahlkönig did not originally intend to profile its products for use in coffee shops and for grinding coffee in general, it is now aphenomenon in the barista world. TheMahlkönig - EK43 is a grinder that can grind anything, whether you want espresso or filter.
The noise level of this grinder is unexpectedly low considering its size. Mahlkönig sponsors barista competitions around the world and it is on this grinder that the best of the best grind the beans that makecoffee with the perfect taste. If you know your way around coffee, enjoy making coffee and want a truly precise and professional quality machine to guide you on your journey to the perfect cup of coffee, you'll want to choose this grinder. It has giant 98 mm flat grinding stones in cast steel. Its hopper can hold up to 1.5kg of coffee, which it can grind at a speed of about 25g per second. Its most important feature, which has earned it worldwide fame, is its consistent grind. No other grinder grinds with such a small dispersion of microparticles as the Mahlkönig - EK43 .
Mahlkönig began to gain experience in the manufacture of grinders in1924. It was only about ten years ago that the company became famous among baristas. The Australian barista Matt Perger, who is today a renowned personality and expert in the world of fine coffee , brought them great popularity .
A Romanian company wanted to get close to Mahlkönig's fame and tried to copy Mahlkönig grinders. Although the Romanian products seemed very similar to the German originals, they were no match for Mahlkönig. The Germans are very particular about the quality of the material and the precision of the workmanship. They produce their steel stones using a special technique, which is the secret of their success. Itis not only the resulting shape that matters, but also thematerialused and itscomposition. The mix of steelused to make the grinding stones, how it ishardened andtempered will affect the resulting taste of the coffee.
TAKE OUR ADVICE
Already know which grinder is best for you, but still hesitant to buy? Don't be afraid to contact us and we'll help you decide. We are familiar with professional coffee equipment, so depending on your requirements, what your new grinder should be able to do, we will advise you not only on the specific type of grinder, but also on itsexact specifications. Some people are happy with conventional steel grinding stones, others may require titanium ones. You may have requirements for thedesign andspecific color ofthe grinder. Together, we will consider which option is best for your business and agree on individual price and financingarrangements.