The simplest coffee grinder is the traditional and primitive stone mortar and pestle system, still employed in many parts of the world where coffee is consumed. Roast beans are placed in the well of the mortar and ground to the desired fineness by the action of the pestle. This is a time consuming and labor intensive process, requiring several minutes of grinding to reach a fine powder state. In a commercial environment this approach should only be used if there is no other grinding equipment available.

The use of a hand powered mincer can increase the speed of the grinding process, but the quality of the grind is very coarse, and still requires manual operation. Again, only if there is not a more suitable option for grinding should the hand mincer be used.

A more common type of grinder is the blade grinder. This is a simple device with an electronic or mechanically driven blade, that whirls around in a cavity at a rapid rate, finely chopping the roast coffee beans to a fineness controlled by the length of time that the machine operates. These can provide a very fine grind, but often do not provide the uniform quality of grind required for the operation of a commercial espresso machine. Suited for the small scale coffee drinker with an appreciation of fresh ground coffee, the blade grinder is a very useful addition to the kitchen.

Care should be taken with blade grinders to avoid operation when the lid is off, as the rapidly rotating blade can endanger the fingers and other fleshy extremities. Always ensure the machine is switched off when loading, and if it begins to malfunction it may be time to find another.

If the small blade grinder does stop working, all is not lost, often they can be fixed. If it is just a matter of coffee grinds blocking the mechanism that controls the on off switch, or a screw becoming loose through continued vibration, then five minutes of careful attention with the correct tool will allow you to restore the grinder to operation. If it cannot be fixed easily, then a kitchen blender will also work to grind coffee beans to a fine powder, though the larger size of the cavity makes it more difficult to remove the ground coffee once a desired texture has been reached. Make sure the lid is on otherwise there will be coffee beans everywhere in the kitchen.

More sophisticated technologies do exist. The most ideal coffee grinder for most applications is the Burr Grinder. This is a device with rotating grinding teeth, set up in an arrangement to allow the distance between the teeth to be adjusted, and the particle size of the ground coffee to be increased or reduced as demand requires. Often found in a cafe, these grinders can grind coffee as fast as beans can fall through the rapidly whirring teeth. Being more resilient and sturdy in their construction, these grinders often carry a much higher price tag than a blade grinder. Careful hunting at a thrift sales and auctions can often result in picking up a commercial quality burr grinder for a low price.

Take care though, make sure that you are only grinding coffee in the grinder otherwise the teeth may clog and cease operating properly. Clean the mechanism regularly, in order to maintain functionality of your grinder and great tasting coffee. A top quality burr grinder will last several years of rigorous daily use if it is looked after properly.

Grinding coffee beans is an art. You just don’t throw in a handful of coffee beans in a grinder, hit automatic grind and hope that your grinds will come out fine. For the real coffee lovers, choosing the best grinder to go with their coffee makers takes a lot of time. They search the internet, ask friends, and window shop for grinders even. What are the choices for the most suitable coffee grinder for you?

There are technically two kinds of coffee grinders that are popular to coffee lovers. There is the blade coffee grinder and the burr coffee grinder. Under the burr kind, there is the regular wheel grinder and the conical burr grinder.

Conical Burr Grinders may be the best type of coffee grinder today. It preserves aroma at its highest and easily grinds to beans to a very fine consistent. The steel burr is cone-shaped where the large cone holds the beans while the smaller cone grinds the beans at a slow and sure pace. The lower the speed the less heat will be produced. The intricate design of the steel burrs allows a high gear reduction to slow down the grinding speed. The slower the speed the less heat is imparted to the ground coffee thus preserving maximum amount of aroma. The grinding speed is below 500 rpm (revolutions per minute) this burr grinder is perfect for espresso and Turkish coffee. As the burr grind can “grind” coffee beans at the desired fineness, it is also a great complement to drip, French press and percolators.

Burr grinders with disk or wheel type burrs grind at a faster speed of 10,000 to 20,000 rpm. At this speed more heat is produced but is not a cause for worry as it will not leave a bunt after taste on the beans. The conical burr grinders and create a bit more warmth in the coffee (10,000 to 20,000 rpm). This is type is less expensive than the conical burr but it is good enough to produce consistent grinds. This type could be a great partner for any coffee maker but it is best suited for espresso coffee maker. However fine the ground, the degree of fineness is cannot match the ones from a conical burr.

The blade coffee grinder does not actually grind the beans but it rather chops and hacks and rotates the coffee beans with a speed of up 30,000 rpm. The result is bigger and uneven coffee granules that might have a hint of burnt taste. Because of the inconsistency of the grind, coffee dust is created in the grinder and this dust can clog up dandy espresso and French press. The uneven-sized grounds are perfect for drip coffee makers and percolators. This gadget can also grind nuts and spices.

If there are wine connoisseurs who can tell the vintage and from what vineyard the wine came from just by tasting the wine, a coffee connoisseur can tell you if the coffee beans are blade or burr grounded. This is why coffee lovers grind their own coffee.

The manufacturers of Coffee grinders provide a host of features to entice the customers to try and buy their products. While many of these features provide benefits for easy usage of the equipment, some of these are safety features that make the use of the grinder very safe to handle and use.

Let us now look at some of these safety features that you need to look into while planning to buy a grinder so that you will know exactly what you have to look for.

Dangling cords are a huge nuisance to any device that needs to be carried around. This can even become a safety hazard the cord comes in contact with water and is then inserted into an electrical outlet. Also, dangling cords can cause you to get easily tripped over if you are not careful.

To avoid these problems, coffee grinders have a retractable cord wherein the cord can be retracted back into the device so that there is no dangling cord when you are moving around. This also prevents contact of the cord with water. But, one thing you need to check is whether or not the cord that is provided is of adequate length as sometimes the cord is too short which becomes cumbersome when the power source is situated slightly far away.

Grinders come with safety on and off buttons for easy functioning. While this is a common feature in almost all grinders, some grinders come with a depressible lever or switch for operation. This means that you need to keep the switch depressed for the grinder to function. This is also an excellent safety feature as you will avoid the use of the grinder accidentally.

The blade or the burr of the grinder should start and stop almost immediately once the switch is operated. This safety feature will help prevent accidental trauma to the person and prevents damage to the grinder due to improper usage. This will also help avoid any mess or spillage of the coffee powder while trying to check the grind quality following usage.

Another safety feature to look out for is the inability of the device to function until all the parts of the grinder come in place. This means that unless the hopper and the hopper lid is locked in place, the grinder will not be able to run. This safety feature prevents any mess or spillage due to accidental use of the grinder when the lid is still not placed properly. This safety feature makes it safe for a person of any age to use the grinder as long as they understand how the hopper and the lid need to be fitted.

A lot goes into research when a manufacturer makes any coffee grinder. But, for some reason or the other some of these safety features might not be included. It is best to have knowledge about these safety features and look for them while deciding on which grinder you would like to purchase.

One of the company’s best sellers today is the Krups 203-42 Fast Touch Coffee Grinder. Made of polypropylene and stainless the grinder is compact and light at 6 inches in height, with a width of 3 1/6 inches and weighing a mere 1 pound. It’s a blade grinder and has no timer which is alright so you can pulsate the grinder to avoid powdery grinds. The plastic see-through lid of the grinder allows you to see what is going on inside. The grinder does not take up much counter space and since it’s quite compact and cute, it’s easy to store it too. The long electrical cord is quite long that you won’t have a problem if the electrical outlet is way on the other side of kitchen.

Most Krups users find their grinders have very long “service” life as some have had their units for 10 to 15 years. The grinder could be used for grinding spices and nuts too. You just have to practice how much time you need to push or pulsate on the button for that desired grind. Cleaning might not be so easy to some especially if they grind spices. Some consumers say that the plastic is just about impossible to clean after grinding spices. For most, the cleaning part is not a problem because wiping the grinding chamber with dry towel is good enough. Remember, you cannot just soak the whole unit in the water as the motor is in the grinding section. For a blade grinder priced at $19.00 this is a steal. Consumer rating is 4.5 stars out of 5.

Check out Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder

There are two types of electric coffee grinders in the market today – the burr and the blade. Of the two the burr grinder, which could further be divided into flat wheel burr and conical burr, is the quieter machine. The blade grinder normally causes a lot of noise as its machine whirrs to chop and slice the coffee beans. On the other hand, the burrs works its way ever so slowly to grind coffee beans but no matter what, it still makes some noise. The decibel fluctuates for each brand though. The more expensive the machine, the less noise it will make.

Wouldn’t it be pleasant then to wake up to the whiff of a great cup of coffee sans the noise? Some “old world” coffee connoisseur still prefer hand coffee grinders for their personal use. They say there’s nothing to beat the sensation of “grinding” their own beans. The manual grinders have long been used for centuries. Today, there are companies that are producing quality hand coffee grinders that are “to-die” for in terms of looks. These hand-cranked coffee mills look like period pieced that would do well as a coffee grinder, a décor and a great topic for conversation.

Why would you want to use a hand-crank coffee grinder then? First, you would save precious energy and help in preserving mother earth. Go green! Second, the machine produces even and uniform grind as there is a knob you can set to control the fineness or coarseness of the grind. Third, the machine is almost noiseless. Fourth, you can take your mill everywhere – camping, office, boating or any off grid location and you can still enjoy freshly grounds! Fifth, the machine is beautiful and would definitely add an “old world” accent to any kitchen.

A regular hand coffee grinder has the capacity to grind beans good for about 6 cups of coffee. There are a lot of quality brands of hand-cranked coffee grinders in the market today. You have the option to buy either a blade or burr hand coffee grinder too. Don’t fall victim to buying decorative hand coffee mills. Make sure that you buy hand-cranked coffee mills with full functions.

If it takes your electric coffee grinder 30 seconds to produce your preferred grind, it would take you from 1 to 2 minutes to make enough ground for your morning cup using a drip coffee maker. The finer you prefer your grind, the longer you need to turn the crank. The hand coffee grinder can produce grinds for coffee makers such as the French press, drip coffee maker, and even stovetop espresso machine. If you want coffee ground for your Turkish coffee, grind even more!

Hand coffee grinders are built to last long. They are usually made of quality kiln-dried wood and metals. They are sturdy and can last longer than most cheap electric blade grinders if you would follow instructions on how to keep and maintain the hand grinder. Instructions are simple enough. First, don’t immerse the whole machine in water. Just wipe dry the wood bin.

If you are a novice at understanding about coffee grinders, you must realize that this price difference exists because although both are coffee grinders, they grind coffee using different methods.

The basic economical type of coffee grinders are the blade type of grinders that make use of blade that whirs at a high speed and reduces the coffee beans to powder while the high end models make use of a burr that rotates and crushes and the coffee beans against a stationary surface.

Now, let us understand which type among these two is better for you.

As we have seen, if pricing is a huge factor for you and nothing else matters, blade type of coffee grinders should be the grinder of choice for you. While this type of grinder is quite economical, you might not find some of the features available in the higher models in these grinders.

Grind quality is not uniform and consistent if you are using a blade type of grinder. Also, the high rate of spinning of the blades can alter the flavor of the coffee especially when the grinding is done for prolonged periods of time.

So, if you are looking for high grind quality and flavor of your coffee, then it is best to invest more money and get yourself a burr type of grinder.

Another issue with blade grinders is the high level of noise generated when the blades spin and the coffee is getting powdered. This is significantly lesser when burr type of grinders is used.

Most blade grinders are made out of plastic. The high rate of spinning of the blades combined with the body made of plastic causes the development of static. This static causes the fine coffee powder to stick to the surfaces and causes a mess while handling.

Static although not completely eliminated with burr type of grinders it is much lesser in comparison to what you will see if you are using the blade type. Also, some of the burr type of grinders uses glass and metal instead of using plastic and this has a significant effect in reducing the amount of static formed.

In addition, you will get added features like timer shutoff, different type of burrs, dishwasher safe, etc when you are buying a burr coffee grinder. Such features will usually not be available in a economical low end blade type of grinder.

If pricing is not a concern and you would not compromise in any way when it comes to quality coffee, it is best to go in for a burr coffee grinder that will not only give your better coffee, it will serve you for many long years to come.