Posts Tagged ‘food & drink’
If you love to start your day with a cup of coffee, you should know you can make your coffee taste so much better and fresher if you use a coffee grinder to crush the beans yourself. This causes your coffee to taste better because the grounds haven’t had time to oxidize due to exposure to air.
With coffee grinders, you can create enough coffee for what you are going to drink right away. In that way you can ensure you will always have the freshest coffee available.
When you buy coffee already ground, it goes stale over time. But when you buy whole coffee beans, the outer shell on the bean protects it from oxidization so the insides stay fresh, delicious and will retain their full flavor until the time you are ready to use your coffee grinder and break the beans apart.
Coffee grinders come in three basic types, the burr, the crusher and the blade grinder. Of which our personal favorite has to be the Kitchenaid coffee grinder. Like anything, each type of grinder has its pros and cons, which will have an effect on the taste of the coffee you make from the grounds.
The Blade Grinder
Blade coffee grinders are the most common and the least expensive coffee grinder. The advantages to owning a blade grinder are: they are affordable, they are an improvement over buying coffee already ground, they are durable and they are easy to clean.
Blade coffee grinders do have disadvantages. Because of their inexpensive construction, they do not chop coffee beans into a uniform consistency. For this reason, a coffee grinder cannot be used to make espresso. In addition, the friction created while grinding produces heat that may affect the beans and give a bitter taste to your coffee.
The Burr Grinder
Burr coffee grinders come in two types, conical burr coffee grinders and flat wheel grinders. Of these the conical burr coffee grinder is the most popular because it spins at a slow rate and does not impart heat to the grounds. Flat wheel grinders spin at a rapid rate and heat up the grounds, which can negatively affect the flavor.
The conical burr grinder is a popular choice for coffee lovers although it is more expensive than a blade grinder. The advantages of a conical burr is that they spin at a relatively slow speed so the ground coffee does not heat up. One such example is the Capresso Infinity conical burr coffee grinder which is getting a lot of praise throughtout the coffee world. Conical burr’s also offer the most uniform ground size, and they can produce a very fine grind for making Turkish coffee.
Owning a conical coffee grinder does not have many disadvantages at all. It is somewhat noisy and more difficult to clean. It costs more than a blade coffee grinder but it produces a better tasting coffee.
The Crusher Grinder
The crusher type coffee grinders are not very popular because they create grounds that are not uniform in size. They work by crushing the beans in the same manner you would crush spices. The varying size of the grounds creates coffee that is inferior when compared to other types of coffee grinders.
Conclusion
When you are shopping for a particular type of coffee grinder, think about how easy it is to use and clean. Consider the amount of beans that can be processed and the consistency of the coffee grounds produced. Compare the price tags. almost all coffee grinders will produce coffee that is superior to coffee that is made from buying store bought grounds.