As with most coffee-related products in today’s market, there are quite a few different burr grinders out there. There are, some would say, too many burr grinders out there. So many different choices and options, each one with its own appealing features and attributes, and its own litany of different specifications and qualities.
Due to this wide variety of choices, and this abundance of different burr grinders to choose from, each one with all kinds of different features and options, we’ve put together this buying guide. In this buying guide, you’re going to learn all about burr grinders. You’re going to learn all about the best burr grinders that you can use for making espresso, as well as a French press.
But, here’s the thing, you’re not going to learn about any specific burr grinders that are “the best”, instead, you’re going to learn about the specific qualities and features that comprise a good burr grinder. A burr grinder that can make espresso and french press in an efficient, convenient, and delicious manner, ensuring that when you’re drinking that cup of coffee, it tastes absolutely wonderful!
However, before we can dive into these specific qualities, attributes, and considerations, we’re going to need to define what a burr grinder is.
There are many definitions that people have given burr grinders, and while all of these have some truth to them, we need to put together a definition that is a bit more concrete and specific.
Once we’ve done that, we’re going to talk a little bit about the benefits that owning a burr grinder gives you, and then once we’ve gone over those aspects of owning a burr grinder, we’ll dive straight into the considerations and attributes that you must be aware of, when searching for the best burr grinder for making espresso, and french press.
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What Is A Burr Grinder?
Let’s get this out of the way. A burr grinder is a coffee grinder. More specifically, it is one particular type of coffee grinder, and burr grinders are often compared to blade grinders because they have a couple of key similarities.
Burr grinders consist of two plates – and these are the “burrs” of the grinder – and these plates move back and forth. When you put your coffee beans into the burr grinder, the burrs of the grinder begin to oscillate, and since they are serrated, they begin to grind the coffee beans that are in the burr grinder. Rather than cutting them, burr grinders, as the name would suggest, grind the coffee beans, which has a couple of notable advantages that we’re going to talk about soon enough.
When you use a burr grinder, every single coffee bean that you grind up will be in the same exact size as the bean you grind up earlier. This is a basic fact that is one of the main reasons why burr grinders are so notable.
Now, with a blade grinder, you have a similar experience, and the general idea that underlines the concept of both a burr grinder and a blade grinder is mostly the same, but there is one very distinct difference.
Blade grinders don’t cut the coffee beans at the same size. Instead, the grinding process is a lot more chaotic, and this leads to a taste that is far more inconsistent than the taste that is produced by a burr grinder. For this reason, many people believe that burr grinders are the superior coffee grinder, due to the fact that the coffee they produce tastes significantly better.
What Are the Benefits Of Owning A Burr Grinder?
When it comes to making espresso and french press, in order to create the ideal taste, you will need to have coffee beans that are the exact same size, and grinded in a specific way, that allows for this taste to be present, and for the coffee that you are making to taste fantastic.
With a regular blade grinder, you can still make espresso and french press, naturally, but it’s not going to taste as good as the coffee that you can make with a burr grinder, because the beans that you are grinding up won’t be as consistent in size, which leads to a weaker taste.
Many people enjoy having their coffee a certain way, and with a blade grinder, since you don’t have that much control over how the coffee beans are grinded, the taste is a lot more open-ended, and you have significantly less control over how the coffee will actually taste. But, with a burr grinder, you have control over how the coffee beans are grinded, and this allows you to control and direct the coffee that you are making, with immense precision. This type of feature is exceptionally useful if you have very particular tastes in coffee, and no other coffee grinder gives you this level of precision and control.
What Do I Need To Consider And Look For?
Burr grinders aren’t particularly complex machines. In many ways, they are actually very simple and very easy machines to figure out and understand. But, as we mentioned at the beginning of this buying guide, there are a lot of different burr grinders out there. If you go online and try to search for a burr grinder, just any burr grinder, you’ll get quite a few different results.
In this portion of the guide, you are going to learn all about the key features that will directly affect the entirety of your experience using the burr grinder, and you are also going to learn all about the questions to ask yourself, and the things you need to consider, when you’re searching for a good burr grinder that can make good espresso and french press.
What Kinds Of Grind Settings Does The Burr Grinder Offer
For many people, this is actually the most important consideration of all, because the grind settings that the burr grinder offers – or doesn’t, for that matter – tremendously affect your overall experience with the burr grinder, and the kinds of coffee that you make, how you grind your coffee beans, and how the coffee actually tastes.
When you are looking at burr grinders, make sure you consider the types of coffee you will be making. Make sure you aware of, at the very least, the basic grind settings that the burr grinder offers, and how those settings actually work. By reading the reviews of the burr grinder itself, you will be able to get a pretty decent idea of how the different burr grinder settings work, and whether or not they are actually effective when it comes to a good cup of coffee that tastes good.
However, burr grinder settings are, for the most part, something that you’ll find on electric burr grinders. There are other burr grinders that are manual, and these usually don’t have specific grind settings, due to the nature of how these burr grinders work. For some people, if they have a very specific way they want to grind their coffee beans, then a manual burr grinder might be a better choice.
Keep in mind, too, that different burr grinder settings may not always produce the most evenly-cut coffee beans. This is due to the nature of the settings themselves, and the ways in which the burrs are actually being used, in order to properly cut all of the coffee beans. So, because of this, it really is important to make sure that the grinding settings you need and will be using often, are good and well-made, and that they actually produce good coffee grounds and not something that is uneven and not particularly tasty.
Some burr grinders have hundreds of different grinder settings, and others only have thirty or forty. In the end, it’s important to find a burr grinder that can fulfill the coffee-making needs that you have, even if that means you don’t have as many grinding settings.
How Big Is The Grind Chamber
Here’s the thing about this, sometimes, producing a lot of coffee within a single grinding cycle isn’t, actually, that great of a feature. When you purchase a burr grinder that can produce a lot of coffee in a relatively short period of time, this sometimes means that the burr grinding process isn’t actually that great and that the coffee beans are cut somewhat unevenly, and in a manner that is less than ideal.
Is this always the case? Definitely not. It really does vary between burr grinders. There are some burr grinders that produce a lot of coffee in a shorter period of time, and they have really nice blades and an effective burr grinding process. Others produce less coffee in a smaller amount of time, and their burr grinding isn’t that great.
Make sure you know how big the grind chamber is, but more importantly, make sure you know the length of a single grinding cycle, and how many cups of coffee and produced, within that single grinding cycle. Then, consider your own coffee-making needs, and what the length of that grinding cycle, and its overall coffee output, actually mean to you, and whether or not that is a good choice for you, and your needs.
How Big Is The Burr Grinder, And Can It Fit Well On Your Countertop?
One of the most important considerations of them all is whether or not the burr grinder can actually fit on your countertop, and how well it will actually do so.
More specifically, burr grinders tend to vary in size. Some burr grinders are actually quite large, while others are rather small. With a small burr grinder, less coffee is produced within a single grinding cycle, due to the limited size of both the grind chamber and the burrs themselves. But, if you have a smaller countertop, and need to maximize space, then a small burr grinder is definitely the ideal choice.
Other burr grinders are very large. They have large burrs and big grind chambers, and this means that they make a lot of coffee in a relatively short period of time. If you have the countertop space, then a bigger burr grinder is actually a really great choice, when it comes to efficiency.
You need to consider where you are going to place this burr grinder. Most people choose to put their burr grinder on the countertop, for obvious reasons, and if you are going to do that, make sure that you have dedicated space for that burr grinder so that it looks nice and so that you have adequate room to make the coffee.
How Much Does The Burr Grinder Cost, And What Is Your Budget?
In the end, it does come down to this. If you are looking at a burr grinder that you like, but it’s too expensive, then, unfortunately, you won’t be able to buy it.
Most people are under the impression that most burr grinders are like that: too expensive. Fortunately, though, this isn’t the case. Burr grinders vary quite a bit when it comes to price, and that’s one of the great things about burr grinders, because, no matter your budget and needs, you’ll always be able to find a good one for yourself.
You can find burr grinders that are as low as twenty or 30 dollars. And, you can also find burr grinders that are as much as four-hundred or five-hundred-dollars. Make sure you know your budget, and what you need, and finding a good burr grinder will be very easy.
Conclusion
If you enjoy making good cups of espresso and french press – as well as a myriad of other types of coffee, for that matter – then a burr grinder is one of the best tools that you can buy! By using the information found in this guide, and considering the features and aspects we’ve discussed, you won’t have any problems finding the perfect burr grinder for yourself!