The truth about grinders…

On my previous post, I talked about the importance of grinder, and about my sadness caused by my sick cat that prevented us to buy THE grinder? We finally got mad about our Baratza. Really mad. Like too mad. My friend, the one who introduced me to good coffee, he ground me some fabulous Pilot Big Bro fresh beans in his manual HG One so I could really try my machine. Long story short – coffee was good (yet way too tamped) and this is when the madness came.

Not long after that, I met the GM of the company I work for, also known as the big boss, at the coffee machine (I was there for tea) and I asked him about coffee. I had heard he had some nice gear. I learned that he did not know how to tune his machine and that his grinder was useless. Not long after, he brought it to me, the grinder, so I could try it and tune it. This was my only chance on earth to try a Mazzer without spending 1000 $. 

In the meantime, knowing that he would not sell it to me, we decided to order one of our own. Still, we were very excited to try the Mazzer. On the other hand, I was scared... Not scared like scared to ground-meat a finger, but scared to be burnt. Scared to hate everything else that would not be a Mazzer. Scared to create some false needs... not that any of this is real anyway.

I knew tuning a “new” grinder would be a terrible coffee waste. To cover that, I bought some cheap and not-so-good-but-drinkable coffee and as soon as the kids were in their bed, we got started. Oh. My. Gosh. We got a “drinkable” coffee passed 9:00 PM. We seriously wasted more than half a pound of coffee trying to tune the Mazzer. Secretly, I was very disappointed. There were so many parameters... so many sources of disaster.

1. The coffee – oily, lightweight and not-so-fresh
2. Espresso machine group head gasket completely out of business
3. Excessive tampering force and no reference to get near 30 lb
4. Excessive clumping* in the grinder

*I did not know what clumping was, even if I had heard it several times in the grinder reviews I was watching. As soon as I touched the little ground coffee rocks towards the fine grounds in the portafilter, I knew that it was clumping.

This first troubleshooting session was terrible. We decided to drink the less worse cup of the less worse coffee and the countertop was a mess. Coffee everywhere. Brown dusty sink. Disappointed me. I had had the magic thought: The Mazzer is high end, it is going to work fantastically. Apparently, it didn’t. We had already watched many videos, but yet not enough. I thought : damn, if it is so hard with the Mazzer, what is it going to be with the lower end Macap?

The next session, we switched coffee (I had bought two bags) and we used the Weiss Distribution technique (WDT) to reduce clumping. We had now controlled three disturbing factors, the disgusting coffee was now less disgusting and the clumping was mostly gone, which means less coffee explosion while pulling shots. Plus, we had received our brand new gaskets. The only remaining issue was the tampering. We were not yet ready to buy a dynamometric tamper. The dynamometric tamper is not an absolute need to pull a good shot, but when you have been drilled to press a 100 lb to compensate for the bad grinder, going down to 30 lb is nearly impossible.

We then received our Macap M4T. The tuning took us approximately 4 shots. Strangely, it was easier than for the Mazzer. We had now some experience, I know, but it seemed more user-friendly. Even if we are very satisfied with the Macap, and we like it better than the Mazzer for many reasons, we learned that this amazing grinder does not guarantee amazing coffee. Yet.

I pulled my first very satisfying shot yesterday thanks to our brand new Espro dynamometric tamper  and amazing Pilot fresh coffee Brazil Zanetti. It was a 19 g (dry) pulled for 25 seconds for 38 g (wet). It did not taste aspirin like the days before so I guess we are getting closer from “perfection”...

Anyway, this post is already taking me too long. I’ll keep the real grinder comparison for the next one. If you have any comments, suggestion, just leave me a message!

The truth about grinders...

I am (still) in a mood to talk about coffee. Obsessed am I? Maybe a bit. But being obsessed by coffee is such a light crime that I’ll keep going. Thank you.

So, I talked about the Aeropress on my last post, but I realized afterwards that I had skipped the essential part. I need to “teach coffee” first. “Oh, obnoxious person, start over please”. “Will do”. I will try to tell you what I wish someone had told me when I first invested money in coffee gear of all kinds. I am not a pro, so not. But loving something is almost as helpful as being a connoisseur. I think.

Anyway, there are things that need to be said to anyone who is planning to spend time and money on coffee, so let’s just make a list of “Good to know” stuff, such as: grinder, coffee, extraction methods, scales, timers, spoons, mugs, sugar, milk...

One might think that to “live” the coffee experience, you need good coffee, and that’s about it. One is not completely wrong, but so far from the real truth. I come back about that.

These days, coffee is trendy. Seeing the amount of paper coffee mugs that slowing die everywhere is one proof of that. But you have to know that buying socially enjoyed coffee is not loving coffee. Like my cousin said to me yesterday “I don’t drink a coffee that I know will taste bad, it can ruin my day”. I am not there yet, because I happen to drink that horrible coffee because of some of its properties... someday I’ll stop, I swear. When a coffee is worth putting some alcoholic cream stuff in it, it is not good coffee...

Now that I see how many useless words I have already written down on this post, and I am not even close to being started, I may decide to separate it in multiple posts... For sure, I will introduce you to the most important part of a home barista : The coffee grinder. No, it is not a shiny espresso machine, nor a cup machine.

There are multiple ways to brew a good coffee. You have already been introduced to the Aeropress in a previous post. Whatever method you decide to choose, you just cannot buy ground coffee. I am not really a moderate person, but ground coffee is NO WAY. In fact, you can buy it, but it will just taste not good. Every method requires a different grind size, and a good coffee mug requires fresh coffee, and to stay fresh, coffee MUST be ground right before being brewed.

When I first started to buy coffee gear, my coffee mentor told me that the grinder was more important than anything else. I thought “pfffff”. So I decided to buy my Baratza Encore, which cost me something like 130 CAD three years ago. It is now 180 $ or so. Honestly, we were perfectly happy with it until with got our “new” espresso machine and our extended knowledge of this exciting field. This is when we realized that our Encore isn’t just fine enough, literally. I had read the reviews that said that the fine wasn’t fine enough, but with the Saeco Aroma, it was not a problem or we just did not know what espresso was supposed to taste. Now it is. For espresso. We just cannot pull a good shot. Honestly, who would not want to pull a perfect good shot?

When you finally decide to buy a grinder, and unless you have enough money to spend 1 000 $ without blinking, you have to plan it, and read about it... a lot. It has been more than a year since we have expressed our desire to upgrade our grinder, and we would not be ready yet, even if we had the money on the table. There are so many things to know first!

Before I really get started, I need to tell you that espresso is the one of the finest coffee, and not only in a pretentious way. Espresso is brewed using a fine grind, and most grinder just cannot do it. What I really want you to know is that if you have a budget of 1000 $ for coffee gear, you may not want to pay 800 $ for an espresso machine and 200 $ for a grinder. Actually, it would be the opposite... and you may also realize that 800 $ for a grinder is not the Klondike. Unless you are not an espresso maniac. In that case, the Baratza Encore will do just fine, and you can brew siphon, pourover, Aeropress, not so good French press and classic drip with it.  

Before you decide to go the store and buy or more realistically click “Buy Now”, you need to make a list of what you want need from your grinder. First of all, you want a BURR grinder and surely not a blade one. Blade grinders are bad, but not as bad as pre-ground coffee. In fact, blade grinders tend to smash coffee beans really fast, resulting in inconsistent particle sizes, which may cause clogging in espresso machines because of the powder created and they are able to do a lot of bad shit things. Burrs, on the other side, really grind coffee and give a size consistency that is a key in recipe repeatability. Then, you’ll have to choose between conical and flat burrs and their diameter is also a key element, as well as the material they are made of. I highly encourage you to read about it.

A flashy unit with LCD screen is very nice and has a rich high tech look, but it also has many small parts that just wait the “Die-Now” call to piss you off make you regret your “Hello Bob, how many grams for you this morning?” message. I don’t really think that grinders can say that, but who knows? Sky’s the limit in coffee grinders technology. Some units have an integrated scale, some others have dosers, memory of your best settings, while others have an open top and a big handle to make you the motor of the process.

When I started writing this article, a week ago or so, I did not know much about grinders. I spent my Christmas holiday looking for them and figuring out what was wrong with my three sick cats. We almost bought Breville Smart Grinder, and discovered its finest grind was as coarse as our Baratza’s. Then, we fell for the Rancilio Rocky, to change our mind because there is no fine adjustment setting (but it is still a very good and long lasting grinder). Later, we wanted a Macap MC4 doserless and were not convinced enough to make the move. Finally, we chose a manual ROK coffee grinder (Indiegogo funding project) and did not buy it because our oldest cat got really sick is going to cost the price of a high end grinder, like a Mazzer and may not even survive. 

We’ll buy something really soon, but we need to put the cats first. Meanwhile, just read some reviews and meet Gail from Seattle Coffee Gear. She knows her coffee! There are so many videos on their Youtube Channel, it is almost priceless!

Here is a site I enjoyed consulting regarding grinders: Whole Latte Love (for grinders general information).