Hand Coffee Grinders I Recommend

Coffee is a big part of my mornings up here, and the single biggest upgrade I’ve made to it wasn’t a new brewer or fancier beans. It was grinding my own beans right before I brew.

Ground coffee starts going stale fast. Most of the aroma and flavor you smell when you open a fresh bag is gone within a day or so of grinding. Whole beans hold onto it much longer, so grinding right before you brew gets you a noticeably better cup from the same beans.

There’s a nice bonus for blood sugar, too. Black coffee has essentially no carbs. When the coffee tastes good on its own, I’m a lot less tempted to load it up with sugar or sweetened creamer.

Why a hand grinder?

You can get a great grind from an electric grinder, but a hand grinder has a few things going for it:

• Better grind for the money. A good hand grinder costs a lot less than an electric grinder with the same burr quality.
• Quiet. No loud motor at 6am while everyone else is asleep.
• No power needed. It works at camp, in the car or when the power goes out, which happens more than I’d like in the mountains.
• Small. It takes up about as much counter space as a pepper mill.

The trade-off is a little work. Grinding a single cup takes anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute of cranking, depending on the grinder and how fine you go. For one or two cups, I don’t mind it. If you’re brewing a full pot for a crowd every morning, an electric grinder is probably the better call.

Burrs, not blades

Whatever you buy, get a burr grinder. Blade grinders chop beans unevenly, leaving a mix of dust and big chunks. The dust over-extracts and tastes bitter, and the chunks under-extract and taste sour. A burr grinder crushes beans between two burrs set a fixed distance apart, so the grounds come out much more even.

Every grinder on this list uses a conical burr.

The grinders I’d pick

A first grinder

If you’ve never owned a burr grinder, start here.

• TIMEMORE Chestnut C2: My go-to recommendation for a first hand grinder. It holds about 25g of beans and grinds consistently for the price.
• wonplug Dual Cutter: The budget pick. A big step up from pre-ground or a blade grinder without spending much.
• KINGrinder K5: A full-size grinder with an external adjustment dial that gives you a lot for the money.

For travel and camping

• TIMEMORE Nano: The handle folds down, so it packs small.
• 1Zpresso Q2: Slim and light, and it fits inside an AeroPress.

Everyday filter coffee

For pour over, French press and drip-style brewing every morning.

• 1Zpresso JX: Full-size with a bigger burr, so it gets through a dose quickly.
• Normcore V2: A 38mm conical burr and a good all-rounder across brew methods.

If you make espresso, or switch methods a lot

Espresso needs a very fine, very precise grind, and small changes make a big difference in the cup. These grinders have finer adjustment steps and an external adjustment ring that makes it easy to get back to a setting.

• 1Zpresso J-Max: Built for espresso first.
• 1Zpresso K-Plus: Easy to switch between espresso and pour over.
• 1Zpresso K-Max: Near the top of the 1Zpresso lineup, and one you won’t outgrow.

The splurge

• Comandante C60 Nitro Blade: Nitrogen-hardened steel burrs and a build that lasts for years. A lot of coffee people end up here eventually.

Getting started

A few tips once you have a grinder:

• Weigh your beans. A cheap kitchen scale makes your coffee a lot more consistent. A good starting point is about 1g of coffee for every 15-17g of water.
• Grind right before you brew. That’s the whole point.
• Start in the middle and adjust. If the coffee tastes sour or weak, grind finer. If it tastes bitter or harsh, grind coarser.
• Keep it clean. Brush out the burrs every so often. Old coffee oils go rancid and can make fresh coffee taste stale.

You can find all of these, along with the rest of the gear I use, in coffee products. For grinder walkthroughs and other coffee videos worth watching, see coffee videos.