This one is wrapped and under the tree.151 favorable reviews and its manual. No motor to burn out. We’ll use it a couple mornings a week. Some mornings there’s barely time to grab the Folgers and get out the door.
We’ve bought beans many times and ground the entire bag using the grocery store’s machine. Will only grinding enough for a couple pots at a time noticably improve the flavor? We use a standard auto drip pot. Buy a medium roast breakfast blend coffee.
I’ve noticed there’s a mixture of beans in the bag. I guess to give it a specific blend. Grinding the whole bag gets it all nicely ground together. If we’re just scooping out a few beans to grind for a pot will the blend be about the same from one day to another? Is it just random? Some days it tastes different because the proportion of beans changes? I’m curious how this works out.
Any tips or things we need to do?
We’ll grind our first pot Christmas morning after she unwraps it. I got a bag of Westrock coffee beans to use. Its the breakfast blend we’ve been buying and grinding at the store. Nice change from Folgers or Yuban.
Are the beans of obviously different type, or are they all pretty much the same in size & shape and only differ in color? If the latter, and it’s a medium roast, it may just be inconsistently roasted, which will cause an inconsistent result. I roast my own coffee and if I don’t let it go long enough, it ends up a mixed bag and doesn’t taste as nice.
That said, overall, if you’re just grinding the coffee for the day, you’ll probably see an improvement in flavor, just like using fresh-cracked pepper on your salad.
I’ll look closer after we open this new bag of coffee beans on Christmas.
I know when I’ve dumped the bag into the store’s grinder some beans were different shades of brown. Some big, some small. I thought they were a blend of different coffees. Westrock uses beans directly from Kenya or Tanzania. Westrock owns mills over there for processing and grading.
Really looking forward to that first cup of my own hand grind coffee. Fresh grind smells so good.
It may take some experimenting to get the grinder set right. Auto drip is a medium to course grind. This grinder has a wheel that gets turned to adjust it. It Factory ships grinding very fine.
I read through the reviews. People grinding very fine said it took quite awhile by hand. Other reviewers that wanted medium or course said it went pretty fast. We use an Autodrip and that coffee seems ground pretty course to me.
Yes, only grind as much beans as you’ll be using. And since you’ve bought the grinder, I suggest you go all the way and ditch the automatic drip. It may be convenient, but it’s the worst way to brew coffee in terms of getting the best aroma and flavour out of your coffee beans. It seems to be kind of a waste to grind fresh and then to put that in an auto-drip coffee maker.
I’m not writing this to champion one brewing method over another; just to make sure you get the most out of your fresh coffee grinds.
I have this hand grinder.I love it. I would not love it if I had to grind for a 10-12 cup drip brew (60oz). I use a French press, which uses pretty much the coarsest grind, and makes 2 mugs (30oz) of coffee, tops. I put the water on to boil and am usually done grinding when the pot whistles.
A drip grind is a medium, right between espresso (finest - well, Turkish is finest, but not a good reference) and French press (coarsest). It will take I would think at least 10 minutes or so to grind enough out for a pot of drip coffee. If your grind is too coarse, you’ll end up with a pot of dark water since the pass-through doesn’t hold it long enough to get enough extraction if the grounds are too coarse. You may end up making a half a pot on your days with time to hand grind.
Definitely have some already ground stuff around as a reference to start, you’ll want to get your hand-grind to the same size for sure. When I ground my coffee for a drip maker (Capresso gold filter) I went slightly finer than what you get from the store. I used an electric burr back then, though! I would not have the patience to hand grind a whole pot of drip coffee. Maybe you will feel differently.
I hope your wife loves it! The one you found is a pretty piece. On the days you have time to hand-grind, though, you might want to take a stab at French pressing it, too. Less grinding, and a richer cup IMO.
I agree; It’s a bit of a waste to grind fresh and then put things in a drip brewer. There are lots of quick, easy methods (Aeropress and French press are both pretty straightforward and not overly pricey, though both require a good way to boil water) that produce much better coffee. Unless you are literally drinking it by the pot, brewing by the cup is usually a better plan.
I got a Mr Coffee Burr Grinder and so far have been pleased with it
The best part is it’s automated, press and it grinds for a certain amount of time set by a dial. It does sometimes require some refinement, but overall makes it very easy especially in the AM before the first cup of coffee
I do find that fresh grinding right before makes a big difference, never tried grinding the night before, but also the freshness of the beans, the time they spent oxidizing seems to make all the difference. For this reason I open the bag of beans (always buy the vac sealed bag, never open beans) and repackage it into smaller bags when I refill my grinder. Even still there is a world of difference between the 1st cup of a bag and the last one.
As for brewing methods I have used the auto drip, and have (with fresh beans) fantastic results. Due to this thread I am breaking out my french press and will give it a go tomorrow (yes it adjust for different grinds) to see if it really makes a difference.
I fill a thermos every morning and take to work. Even at home, I don’t leave coffee sitting on the hot plate. We make a full 10 cup pot. There’s almost enough left to fill my thermos after my wife and I have a couple cups each. It keeps it hot and fresh for a few hours.
If it’s taking you all day, you’re not really drinking by the pot.
Basically, when the entire process start to finish takes like 2 minutes per large cup, you are better off making it fresh each time as long as you have access to the equipment.
Anyway, you can always just get a LARGE French press.
Fresh grind smells so good.
