Those who have ventured into the business of coffee drinking long enough, know the best kind of coffee is made with freshly ground beans just before you brew it. Grinding your beans fresh can greatly influence the taste and aroma of your coffee, and consequently setting your mood right for the day too!
If, by any unfortunate chance, you don’t know why you need to be grinding your coffee fresh, at home, let us get you on to it.
Contents
Benefits Of Grinding Your Own Coffee
Prevents Oxidation
The chemicals and compounds that contribute to your coffee’s taste and aroma tend to be quite unstable. So the longer they get exposed to the environment, the more they tend to oxidize.
During the process of oxidation, the compounds present within your coffee react with the air, creating molecules that are different and unoriginal to the coffee. This causes your coffee to lose its original taste and aroma, often becoming weak and weird-tasting.
Grinding your coffee fresh preserves its freshness and slows down the process of oxidation since the exposed surface area of whole beans is a lot less than pre-ground coffee.
Protects From Moisture
Coffee gets a lot of its flavor from the oils present within the beans. Unfortunately, these oils tend to be water-soluble. So when exposed to moisture in the environment, the oils get dissipated into the air, diluting your coffee.
When you’re grinding your coffee just before you brew it, you’re preserving a lot more of those coffee oils, so you get all the flavors into your cup instead of them wasting into the air.
Avoids Contamination
Pre-ground coffee is more prone to getting contaminated than whole coffee beans. It is a known fact that coffee is quick to absorb odors and smells from its surroundings.
So anything from the smell of the curry you made for lunch to the cheese dish you baked yesterday can contaminate your coffee, making it, well, not nice. Who wants coffee that smells like curry?!
Gives You More Control
Finally, you don’t have to stick to a certain type of grind for all your coffees. When you’re grinding your own beans, you can switch up the grind size for different types of brews.
If you’re nearly convinced into buying your own coffee grinder, here’s a great one; the Mr. Coffee Automatic Burr Mill Coffee Grinder.
Product Features
18 Grind Settings
The Mr. Coffee Burr Mill Coffee Grinder has 18 different grind settings from coarse to medium to medium-fine and extra fine. You can use it for pretty much any brew type including espresso to french press. This grinder can do it all!
Setting it to your preferred grind size is easier than ever with the rotational control dial. Simply set it to where you want, and let the machine do the rest.
Removable Bean Hopper
The bean hopper on this grinder can hold up to half a pound of coffee beans at once! Which is a pretty impressive capacity.
Plus the hopper easily detaches from the machine, making cleaning easy and fuss-free for you.
Removable Grinding Chamber
There is a coffee grind catcher at the bottom of the grinder where all the ground goes to get stored. This is pretty convenient since grinders that hold grounds within the unit can clog up more easily.
Besides, this grind chamber detaches from the rest of the machine, so you can empty it and clean it with ease.
Fully Automatic
This grinder is totally hands-free! You simply set the grind size, pour your beans into the hopper, press a button, and then have your freshly ground beans ready to brew!
Burr Grinder
Burr grinders are considered superior to blade grinders or other types of manual grinders because they yield more consistently ground coffee while still preserving the freshness and oils.
Pros
- It’s affordable! It’s only a few bucks pricier than those hand blenders that are nowhere as good
- The hopper can hold up to half a pound of beans, which is pretty impressive and is a good indicator of when you need to restock your bean supply
- The control is easy to set, you need simply set the dial and push the button, that’s it!
- The grind is pretty consistent and precise to what you set it as
- Grinding chamber and the hopper are removable, which makes cleaning a breeze
- It comes with a measuring spoon and cleaning brush built-in
Cons
- It makes quite a bit of noise
- There are a few nooks and crannies where the dust accumulates
- The ground chamber sadly isn’t anti-static which means a lot of the dust clings to the container
- The finest espresso grind might not be as fine as you would like
- The included brush with the unit does a poor job of cleaning it
Conclusion
Anyone who has been making their own coffee at home for a while knows that grinding your own coffee beans is the rite of passage when it comes to making the best tasting coffee! But that being said, it can be difficult to figure out which type of grinder to get and what features you need to be looking at.
To put it concisely, you need your coffee grinder to be easy to use, easy to clean and be efficient at what it’s supposed to do. Lastly, you need to be able to afford it.
The Mr. Coffee Automatic Burr Mill Coffee Grinder ticks all of those boxes and comes at a pretty affordable price! It is especially great for folks who are new to coffee grinding and want something simple yet foolproof to start with.
