Coffee Grinders

            For those obsessed with coffee, grinders are very important. They are used to turn the beans into grounds which is a vital step in making coffee, it is probably the most important piece for brewing coffee. Not many people may know, but poorly ground coffee can affect the taste of the grounds. Two of the big grinders used are burr and blade grinders. Blade grinders have a propeller in the middle like you would see in a blender with a blade at the bottom. It slices or chops the beans into grounds. A burr grinder is made of revolving burrs which are cutting surfaces that can only grind a few beans at a time. The beans are crushed between the moving grinder wheel and a surface that doesn’t move. There are a couple types of burr grinders, Conical and flat burr grinders, but they essentially all do the same thing. The only difference is flat burr grinders produce more symmetrical grounds due to the fact that the grounds stay between the burrs until they fall through. This means they will all roughly be the same size. The flat burrs are also louder. There are manual and electric burr grinders. Hand grinders can produce a more consistent grind than electric can.  Electric burr grinders allow you to choose a setting which determines whether the grounds are fine or course. When looking for an electric grinder normally customers look for one with larger grinding burrs, heavier overall weight, and a low speed grind. The burr grinder pulverizes the beans more evenly. To get uniform grounds with the blade grinder, the beans must be ground by doing small amounts many times, and it will need to be pulsed more than grounded all at once. The blade can produce grinds that are too fine which do not effectively get filtered, so grounds may end up in the coffee you’re about to drink. Blade grinders are typically more inexpensive though. Burr grinders are normally more small. Also a not to take into consideration is, for the freshest coffee, the beans should be grinded right before being brewed, opposed to a few days before. I own a manual burr grinder. It is perfect for me because I don’t need many grounds since I only make coffee for myself. It still depends on the person which is the biggest factor in determining what grinder to get. It has to be one that fits your day to day use the best and what costs fit in your budget. 



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