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Pro tip: my $12 flea market burr grinder made better coffee than my $200 one and I'm still shook
So I hit the flea market over in Council Bluffs two Sundays back with my wife, mostly looking for old tools, and this older guy had a beat up hand grinder sitting on a folding table for $12. The box said Made in West Germany, the handle wobbled a bit, and the burrs looked worn but not chewed up, so I figured worst case it becomes a decoration on my shelf. Got it home, took the whole thing apart, brushed out about 40 years of stale coffee dust, and ran some cheap beans through it just to clean the path. Next morning I used it for my pour over, same beans I always buy, same kettle, same filter, and the cup came out sweeter and way more balanced than what my electric grinder gives me. Not even close either, the cheap beans I usually use for cold brew tasted almost like a different roast. I've been chasing that flavor for months with grind size tweaks and water temp changes on the electric one, and this rusty little thing nailed it on the first try. Now I'm sitting here wondering if I got lucky with one good grinder or if I've been overpaying this whole time, so what's your story, has a cheap random find ever beat your main setup?
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cameron72410d ago
Took me a while to figure out why, but it comes down to the burrs. Cheap old hand grinders usually have conical steel burrs that spin slow, so they slice the bean instead of smashing it, and that alone cuts down on the bitter dust you get from a fast electric blade or flat burr setup. My $200 grinder runs hot too, and heat kills the good stuff before it even hits the filter. So yeah, you probably got lucky that the burrs weren't shot, but the design itself was working in your favor the whole time. Run a few more pounds through that thing and see if the magic holds up once it's fully broken in.
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