How do I select the correct coffee grinder?

A coffee grinder may well be the single most important piece of equipment you are going to buy in your endeavours to making great coffee. An excellent grinder can often compensate for a lesser espresso machine but even the best espresso machine cannot compensate adequately for a poor quality grinder. 

It is always important to have a good grinder but is absolutely essential when making espresso. Due to the fact that an espresso is such a concentrated beverage any faults in the process are magnified and are significantly more noticeable than for example in filter or plunger coffee.

So which grinder do I buy? It is a generally accepted standard that you should buy the very best grinder that you can just not afford. I guess what we are saying stretch yourself as far as you can when buying a grinder for espresso.

Different types of grinders:

The two most common and significantly different types of grinders are Conical Burr (LH Image) grinders and flat burr(RH Image) grinders. (Blade grinders also known as spice grinders is not considered to be an option)

Conical Burr Grinders.

Conical burr grinders tend be quieter, grind cooler and have less grind retention that flat burr grinders. They are often more compact than flat burr grinders.

Conical burr grinders are often used in automatic coffee machines(due to their compact size) and also in lower to mid-range home grinders. This not always true but is generally the case. The Baratza Sette grinder is one of the exceptions being a fairly expensive home grinder with conical burrs.

Good quality shop grinders with conical burr sets tend to be much more expensive than comparative flat burr grinders. 

Flat Burr grinders.

These grinders tend to be more noisy than their conical counterparts, often have more grind retention and heat up quicker. They do normally have better grind uniformity than conical burrs. Large flat burr grinders tend to be less pricey than the equivalent conical burr models. Flat burr grinders are by far the most common type found in coffee shops.

Flat burr grinders can range from very cheap (and fairly nasty) to very expensive high end shop grinders. You can buy flat burr home grinders from as little as R1300 to R15 000 and maybe even more. Shop grinders can be in excess of R40 000 depending on size and features(grind by time, grind by weight, built in cooling fans, temperature control , motor power, burr size etc) all play a big roll in the final price of the grinder.

Doser vs. On-demand grinders.

A doser grinder typically has a fairly large chamber mounted to the front of the grinder into which the ground coffee is dispensed as it exists the grinding chamber. The coffee will then typically stay in the dosing chamber until it is required. The coffee is dispensed by pulling on the dosing lever which will the dispense a fixed(but normally adjustable) volume of coffee.

On-demand grinders does not have a dosing chamber and the coffee is dispensed directly into the portafilter (or other container) as it exists the grinding chamber.

 

 On demand grinders are increasing in popularity due to the better accuracy and the “always freshly ground” benefit. High end On-demand grinders are now very fast which also helps to improve  the speed delivery of beverages.

The latest improvement available from some manufacturers is the “grind by weight” function. Most electronic on-demand grinders use grind time to deliver the correct dose of coffee. The disadvantage of this is that you have to reprogram the grinder every time the grind coarseness is adjusted. Grind retention can also affect the accuracy of the dose. The “grind by weight” function eliminates these problems(at a cost!).

 

See the table below for some grinders to consider when shopping for a grinder.

Doser Grinders
Brand & Model	Comments	Application
Rancilio Rocky Doser	Solid, reliable but slow, No Stepless adjustment	Home
Rancilio Kryo ST	Fast, Heavy duty, strong motor, aluminium cooling fins	Commercial
Mazzer Mini	On the slow side, stepless adjustment, will last forever	Light Commercial/Home
Mazzer Super Jolly	Built like a tank, been around for ever, found in thousands of coffee shops around the world	Commercial
On-Demand Grinders
Rancilio Rocky No Doser	Solid, reliable but slow, No Stepless adjustment. Coffee grounds tend to be clumpy	Home
Eureka Mignon Manuale	Solid reliable, small burrs (50mm), stepless adjustment, plastic portafilter fork(removable)	Home
Eureka Mignon Specialita	Quiet, faster, programmable, touch screen, metal removable portafilter fork. Color options	Home
Rancilo Kryo 65	Fast, Heavy duty, strong motor, aluminium cooling fins, programmable dosage, burr replacement warning, dosage counter etc	Commercial
Mazzer Mini Electronic	On the slow side, stepless adjustment, will last forever. Lots of static causing coffee grounds to be all over.	Light Commercial(Backup or decaf)/Home
Mazzer Super Jolly electronic	Built like a tank, been around for ever, found in thousands of coffee shops around the world. Lots of static causing coffee grounds to be all over.	Commercial
Hey Café 600 OD	Great value for money. (Chinese but owned by same company that makes Ditting & Mahlkonig) Works very well	Commercial
Mahlkonig	Mahlkonig has large range of On-Demand grinders including some with “grind by weight functionality. These are awesome grinders ut they come at a price.	High end commercial, Speciality
Nuova Simonelli/Victoria Arduino Mythos	The Mythos is also considered to be on of the top grinders on the market and also has the clima-pro function to control bean temperature.	High end commercial, Speciality
Eureka	Eureka is a well respected manufacturer of grinders and has a vast range of grinders available	Commercial