Yes, probably.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
But for real, this is something you need to consider, right? With few exceptions, I guess, no one starts a journey in any hobby with all the knowledge and all the kit. And while I see coffee as a staple part of my daily life right now, it is a luxury and as big of a rabbit hole as any other hobby I’ve ever invested in.
So the question still remains, do you need a coffee grinder in your brew kit? Well, technically no, you can buy pre-ground coffee from most coffee roasters and supermarkets, so you can certainly make coffee without one. You can buy coffee ground to different levels too, from ibrik to cold brew, so if you're new to making coffee at home, you can experiment with different brew methods with relative ease.
But hold up, I said you probably should get one right? So what then are the perks of owning a coffee grinder?
I'm glad you asked, pull up a seat.
Fresh. Tasty. Coffee. That's the main perk in reality. Coffee beans are full of volatile compounds, which sounds scary, but those compounds contribute to flavour and aroma and they're not all super stable. I’m not going to pretend that I’m a chemist and I understand the ins and outs of the super sciency stuff, however, I know enough to know that oxygen is not your friend when it comes to storing coffee (link storage blog).
The more surface area those little coffee beans have, the more oxygen works its devilish magic and extracts the tasty stuff, so once it's ground it starts to taste old pretty quickly. If you want to see this in action, there is a pretty simple way to do it. Brew it. The simplest way is filter, all you have to do is wet the grounds as you normally would, or ‘bloom’ the coffee. In freshly ground coffee, you’ll see the degassing, it'll look like it is swelling - that’s some of those volatile compounds escaping. Try again with some older ground coffee and you will certainly notice the difference.
So, is there anything else?
Well, there is one more real advantage of having a coffee grinder, as if simply having fresh and tasty coffee wasn’t enough. That advantage is versatility. As you fall into the tasty rabbit hole that is speciality coffee, you’ll likely want to experiment with brew methods. Because let me tell you, the same coffee beans can taste so different when brewed in different ways, even different kinds of filters can make such a difference! And here's the thing, different brew methods require different grind sizes to really shine. Espresso is a different ball game altogether too, as soon as you move into the world of non-pressurised baskets, there are no two ways about it, you absolutely do need a grinder. Espresso can be such a finicky beast, sometimes you can even have to adjust grind size to account for the humidity in the room, that’s a whole other topic though.
Well, what kind of grinder should I buy?
That depends. What are you going to be brewing? There is one main thing I would suggest regardless of what you’re intending on brewing, and that’s a burr grinder over blades. There are a host of cheap grinders on the market and they come in all sorts of quality levels, so it can be a minefield to navigate. Manual hand grinders are a really solid option for keeping costs down but also getting the job done well. There are of course levels to this shit too. You can start out with a pretty budget-friendly Hario option, right through to the likes of the Commandante C60.
Pricier grinders tend to give you a much better burr set, that's the bit that actually does the grinding. Bigger burrs are generally better, they make lighter work of the beans, and they tend to give you a more consistent grind size too which is super important, as after all, you want all the coffee to extract evenly. You can then start to find more exotic materials too and even different-shaped burrs, but let's not get too bogged down right now.
The bottom line for me then, is that you don't have to spend a crazy amount of cash on getting a coffee grinder, but you will sure as hell benefit from owning one, just do your research before you pull the trigger as not all grinders are capable of espresso.
