The Coffee Grinder

For many people who love coffee the taste has to be perfect and they cannot tolerate anything spoiling the rich aroma and flavor of coffee. For this reason many do not like to use packeted coffee powder as the coffee starts to lose its flavor after it has been ground and exposed to air. There is nothing more satisfying than brewing freshly ground coffee. The aroma and flavor are truly unique and once you have tasted such a brew it is very difficult to switch back to packeted coffee. Therefore many people like to have a coffee grinder at home.

The coffee grinder was initially a hand operated device and quite a few people still like to use it, as it provides better control over the grinding process. This coffee grinder was based on the mill principle where you feed the beans into a hopper and then turn the handle to grind the coffee which was collected in a box. A few minutes of turning the handle will produce a reasonably fine powder for the usual coffee.

After that came the automatic machines running on electricity. These coffee grinders are very convenient, occupy less space and are much faster. The coffee grinder is basically divided into two types depending on its grinding mechanism. One type uses blades and the other has burrs. A blade type coffee grinder is somewhat like your food processor and the fast spinning blades will cut the coffee beans into minute pieces resulting in a powder. There are quite a few drawbacks in this type of coffee grinder. The flakes are not of uniform shape or size which causes an inconsistency in the taste. Also these models do not have any settings to control the coarseness of the powder. And lastly the major disadvantage is that the spinning causes high friction and heats up the powder which will make it lose its taste.

A much better alternative is the burr type of coffee grinder which uses conical or flat burrs. These have an abrasive surface and the beans get crushed under them. Since the space in the jar remains same the beans are crushed uniformly. Also there is a setting by which you can get different levels of coarseness. You can also make a very smooth powder which is necessary for espresso. There is not much friction and therefore the device does not get heated up thus preserving the flavor and aroma.

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