Those who have requirements for coffee flavor will definitely choose freshly ground coffee. If you want to brew it yourself, a grinder is essential.
Open an online shopping platform and search for "coffee grinder," and you'll see prices ranging from 22 yuan to 71,271 yuan. This price difference of 3,239.6 times may seem insignificant compared to the numbers in the "hundred million" units we've been dealing with recently, but the price gap between products is absolutely outrageous. So Front Street plans to publish an article on how to choose a coffee grinder for everyone's reference.
Front Street is not a gearhead, so professional horizontal reviews of coffee grinders are not Front Street's forte. But Front Street has been open for 8 years, has used seven or eight electric grinders, and has basically used all the popular hand grinders on the market. Below, I'll share some of Front Street's views on having used so many coffee grinders.
Hand grinder or electric grinder?
Electric grinders comprehensively outperform hand grinders in terms of precision, durability, and the upper limit of price, while the advantages of hand grinders are being lightweight, not requiring electricity, and being able to adapt to such occasions. When comparing hand grinders and electric grinders at the same price, hand grinders are better. (A 1000-yuan hand grinder has a huge advantage over a 1000-yuan electric grinder.)
Front Street has listed some groups of people suitable for choosing hand grinders or electric grinders, which you can refer to.
If you are a student (and still living in a school dormitory)
Your budget won't be too high (under 1000)
You are just getting into pour-over coffee and want to explore slowly
You usually go to chain coffee shops and want to improve coffee quality
Fitness enthusiasts
Hiking enthusiasts, frequent business travelers
Then it is recommended that you choose a hand grinder first, and consider an electric grinder later.
If you want to get it done in one step
Your home is 200 square metersYou brew coffee at a fixed location
You pursue speed and accuracy
Your budget is sufficient (no upper limit)
You might as well go directly for an electric grinder.
Then it is recommended to get them all.
How to choose a hand grinder?
Now domestic hand grinders are rising. Foreign hand grinders costing over a thousand yuan can be pushed below 500 yuan domestically, so how should you choose? Basically, hand grinders under 200 yuan are out of the question, hand grinders with ceramic burrs are out of the question, and vintage-style hand grinders are out of the question.
The rest can be roughly divided into the 200-499 yuan range, the 500-799 yuan range, the 800-999 yuan range, and the range above 1000 yuan.
The 200-499 yuan range counts as entry-level hand grinders. You can pay attention to the coffee grind particle size. When purchasing, you only need to check whether it is dual-axis. In terms of lifespan, precision, and mechanics, they are basically all similar. Suitable for beginners and office workers to buy.The 500-799 yuan range counts as advanced hand grinders. Basically, every brand will use a slightly better burr, and there will also be slight improvements in the bearings, greatly improving durability. It is recommended to choose one with a larger burr diameter, as grinding will be more effortless and uniform. If you buy a hand grinder in this price range, basically, as long as you pay attention to cleaning it regularly, using it for two years is no problem.The 800-999 yuan range counts as high-end hand grinders. Basically, there are only about 3 models to choose from, and they mainly improve the user experience as well as innovations in appearance (they look better). Of course, you can see improvements in the data charts provided by the sellers (phone manufacturers would call this an insider move), but based on Front Street's actual experience, when brewing coffee, you won't feel an obvious difference from the advanced range.
The range above 1000 yuan can be considered expert level for now. If you ask Front Street why not divide it into 1000-2000 and 2000-3000 tiers? Because above 2000, Front Street would suggest you go directly for an electric grinder, to save trouble. Indeed, hand grinders above 1000 yuan include 1000-yuan ones, 2000-yuan ones, 4000-yuan ones, and a famous German hand grinder that rose from 1500 to 2500 yuan. Overall, the quality and experience will definitely show visible improvements compared with those under a thousand yuan.How to choose an electric grinder?
Front Street especially does not recommend buying that kind of portable electric grinder. You can take note: those grinders that determine grind degree by time, commonly known as "bean choppers," have a structure similar to a food processor, with two blades that randomly chop and crush.
One thing to note when buying an electric grinder is whether your need is for a very fine espresso grind or a pour-over grind for drip filtration. The appearance and grinding range of the two are very different, and basically they cannot serve both purposes (except for a few all-purpose grinders).
If you have a budget of 20,000 yuan, choose freely between the Mazzer zm filter and the Mahlkonig EK 43. Aside from the rather beautiful price and relatively large footprint, there is basically no reason not to buy them.
Of course, most friends' budgets won't be too high, probably within 4000 yuan, so what options are there? Front Street thinks the Royal Fuji and Fellow ODE are good choices. The Royal Fuji's main selling point is its ghost tooth burr, and in terms of grind degree it is also quite suitable for drip-style grinding, mainly for pour-over. The Fellow ODE is compact, pure black in color, known as the little black box, with full marks for appearance. Both grinders are small electric grinders, so they share a common problem: grinding takes a relatively long time.
Some friends also asked Front Street whether the Fuji grinders priced at 300-600 yuan on online shopping platforms are trustworthy. Front Street quickly took a look. Inside, there were various Fuji designs, with wording such as "little steel cannon," "complete defeat edition," and "domestic Fuji." On a certain overseas online shopping platform, a Fuji grinder was equivalent to more than 3300 yuan, which is obviously an imitation of the Royal Fuji.
Front Street has not used these coffee grinders, but Front Street has used the Little Feima 610N, priced at around 800-900 yuan. Through grinding comparisons with the Fuji, the Little Feima lost to the Fuji in precision, especially in the amount of fine powder, which was terrible to see. The experience of a certain barista at Front Street: when only using the Little Feima, you won't notice any problems, but once you make a comparison, the gap is immediately obvious. As for how the 300-600 yuan "Fuji" performs, Front Street cannot make an assessment.
There are also many electric grinders that are relatively inexpensive and of good quality, but because Front Street has not used them, I won't mention them. The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
