Coffee grinder and coffee beans...suggestions plz

RufusA

blueflyingtonight wrote: »

If you are serious about your coffee it must be a burr grinder. I'm afraid the cheapest grinder that gives consistent results is the Iberital MC2 which can be purchased here: http://www.happydonkey.co.uk/iberital-mc2-grinders.html for £99.

Great grinder - I have one, as I mentioned earlier, BUT it's nearer £120 by the time you add VAT and delivery. Also not a good choice if you need to switch between two different grind levels! Twiddle twiddle twiddle....twiddle twiddle..... twiddle twiddle..... grind .... twiddle twiddle..... twiddle twiddle.....twiddle twiddle.... grind - you get the idea!

I think a blade grinder may be a false economy. They are noisy, and it's difficult to get any consistency on "grind" levels. For french press (aka cafetieres), you may end up with too much sludge at the bottom of your cup, and for moka you'll struggle to get a repeatable result.

The cheapest basic burr grinder is "La Cafetiere" one - available for around £30 (amazon) and most cook shops. No good for espresso, but probably will be okay for a moka pot at its finest setting. Also small and stylish!

If on a budget, scour eBay or similar. You can usually find a second hand cheap burr grinder (starbucks / bodum) for a handful of notes, though check use/age as the burrs wear quickly on these! Or a respectable grinder for £50ish, particularly if you are not too worried about size or asthetics!

HTH - Rufus.

verbyl.belch

Thanks again for the replies.

Wow, tbh at those prices I'm definately not that serious about coffee

I think i'll be starting my coffee journey with the Krups grinder (or chopper) for £20 and then depending on how my drinking habit changes consider buying a proper burr grinder. I really could not justify the outlay for anything more expensive...remember i'm only drinking out of the humble moka pot and cafetiere (and i'm the only one that drinks it). I'm sure these combined with the grinder and good quality beans will give me a far better coffee experience than compared to the instant at work and my old pod machine.

If you guys ever want to sell your grinder, send me a PM

Thanks again

squibbs25

Another recommendaion for coffee beans is Algerian Coffee Stores, they are a speciality tea and coffee shop in London http://www.algcoffee.co.uk/scripts/default.asp

They will grind the coffee for you at no extra charge.

bitsandpieces

I think blade grinders get an unfairly bad press. To grind fairly coarse for french press, they're fine - a bit of a fiddle, and you won't get perfectly consistent results, but much better than preground. You could try a manual burr grinder, or shop around for an electric burr grinder on e-bay - but a blade grinder will be much better than no grinder.

The Iberital won't be much good for the two grind sizes needed. The amount of time it takes to adjust, you could almost as well use a manual grinder :eek:

Enjoy the new toys

verbyl.belch

Just an update. My 'moka' pot arrived and I bought a Russell Hobbs 10934 coffee grinder for £20. Granted it is very cheap, but it is a burr grinder and I've managed to tweak it (as suggested in amazon reviews) to get a nice fine grind.

I ended up ordering the hasbean premium expresso blend and the perfieto brazillian blend - i definately prefer the latter.

Cheers for all the input - i'll post again when i'm in the market for a gaggia