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
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).
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