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, although insignificant compared to the numbers in the hundreds of millions we've been dealing with recently, is absolutely outrageous when it comes to price gaps between products. 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, we'll share some of Front Street's views from using so many coffee grinders.

Hand grinder or electric grinder?

Electric grinders completely dominate hand grinders in terms of precision, durability, and upper price limits. The advantages of hand grinders are that they are lightweight, don't need electricity, and can adapt to such occasions. When comparing hand grinders and electric grinders at the same price, hand grinders are better. (A 1,000-yuan hand grinder has a huge advantage over a 1,000-yuan electric grinder.)

Front Street has listed some groups of people suitable for choosing a hand grinder or an electric grinder, which everyone can refer to.

If you are a student (and still live in a school dormitory)

Your budget won't be too much (under 1,000)

You are just starting with 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 meters

You brew coffee at a fixed location

You pursue speed and precision

Your budget is sufficient (no upper limit)

You might as well go directly for an electric grinder.

If you are a gearhead

A collector

A coffee enthusiast

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? Let's not talk about hand grinders under 200 yuan, hand grinders with ceramic burrs, or retro-style hand grinders.

The rest can be roughly divided into the 200-499 yuan tier, the 500-799 yuan tier, the 800-999 yuan tier, and the 1,000 yuan and above tier.

The 200-499 yuan tier can be considered 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 white-collar workers to buy.

The 500-799 yuan tier can be considered advanced hand grinders. Basically, every brand will use a slightly better burr, and there will be subtle 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 at this price, as long as you pay attention to cleaning it regularly, using it for two years is no problem.

The 800-999 yuan tier can be considered high-end hand grinders. Basically, there are only about 3 models to choose from. They mainly improve the user experience and innovate in appearance (they look better). Of course, you can see improvements in the data charts provided by the sellers (phone manufacturers would call this impressive), but based on Front Street's actual experience, when brewing coffee, you won't feel an obvious difference from the advanced tier.

The 1,000 yuan and above tier can be regarded as expert level for now. If you ask Front Street why not divide it into 1,000-2,000 and 2,000-3,000 tiers, it's because above 2,000, Front Street would suggest you go directly for an electric grinder to save trouble. Indeed, for hand grinders above 1,000 yuan, there are 1,000-yuan ones, 2,000-yuan ones, 4,000-yuan ones, and a famous German hand grinder that rose from 1,500 to 2,500 yuan. Overall, the quality and experience will definitely show visible improvements over 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 that grinders that determine grind size by time, commonly known as "bean choppers," have a structure similar to a food processor, with two blade leaves 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 coffee. The appearance and grinding range of the two are very different, and basically they cannot be used for both purposes (except for a few all-purpose grinders).

If you have a budget of 20,000, you can pick either the Mazzer zm filter or the Mahlkonig EK 43. Apart from the relatively beautiful price and large footprint, there is basically no reason not to buy it.

Of course, most friends' budgets won't be too high, probably within 4,000 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 burr, and its grind size is also quite suitable for drip-style grinding mainly for pour-over. The Fellow ODE is compact and pure black, 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 were various Fuji-like designs, with wording such as "little cannon," "complete defeat edition," and "domestic Fuji." On a certain overseas online shopping platform, the Fuji was equivalent to more than 3,300 yuan. This is obviously an imitator of the Royal Fuji.

Front Street has not used these grinders, but Front Street has used the Feima 610N, priced at around 800-900 yuan. Through grinding comparisons with the Fuji, the Feima loses to the Fuji in precision, especially in the amount of fines, which is terrible. The experience of a certain barista at Front Street: when only using the Feima, you won't notice any problems, but once you compare, the gap is immediately obvious. As for how the 300-600 yuan "Fuji" performs, Front Street cannot evaluate it.

There are also many electric grinders with relatively low prices and very good quality, but because Front Street has not used them, they are not mentioned.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.