Grind makes a difference

Only in the past 2 years have I jumped into the world of grinding my own coffee, previously I preferred to either buy pre ground coffee or just go to a local coffee shop. I found grinding your own beans gave quite a different taste in the coffee, it was always fresher.

My first grinder was a compact blade grinder and I used it up until about a month ago when I got my Breville. The reason I decided to spring for the Breville was because I was looking for a grinder that would give a consistent grind, more specifically a burr grinder. Blade grinders tend to give a very inconsistent grind to the coffee, which results in poor flavour extraction for whatever method of brew you are using, drip, french press, espresso etc.

After researching various burr grinders in various price categories I settled on the Breville, a few things caught my eye on this model. First off the styling is excellent, stainless steel exterior with a few black plastic pieces to offset. Price, this was by far one of the cheaper burr grinders out there. The next closest price category I could find was in the $180 dollar range and some even went up to 300 dollars. I like my coffee but not to that extent to spend that much on a grinder.

My impressions of the Breville after removing it from the box was quite exciting. The plug is designed with a hole in it which makes it very easy to remove from an outlet. Although if your outlet is behind something this plug requires a bit more room due to the size. The hopper is very well marked with the different grind settings and can hold a lot of beans. I personally keep my beans in an airtight container until I am ready to grind. The button, switch and dial are really easy to operate and all have a rubber coating on them to provide positive engagement.

As per the instructions I ran some beans I had sitting around through the grinder on the Turkish setting which is the finest, what this does is it gets rid of any oil that may be on the burrs (put on at the factory to prevent rusting) and also slightly breaks in the machine. On my first use I could instantly see the difference this grinder has made. The grind was very consistent and the coffee tasted much better, with more flavour.

Operation of the machine is very simple. Flip the switch to the on setting, turn the dial to the desired time and push the start button. Keeping in mind to turn the hopper before hand to the preferred grind setting, and dropping in some beans. The machine will not operate unless the catch container is inserted, this is a great feature as it will prevent messes from people forgetting to insert the catch container. The dial has time settin for how long you want the machine to operate once you push the start button. It goes all the way up to 30 seconds. It will take some testing to determine what is the optimal time to grind the correct amount of beans for your purpose on a given grind setting. I generally measure my beans before putting them into the hopper and run the machine until all the beans are grinded. Keep in mind if you need to stop the process mid way you can just push the start button again and it will stop the grinding.

There are 5 settings for grind consistency coarse, medium, fine, extra fine and super fine. They all have names associated with each one such as Espresso, Turkish, Percolator, Plunger etc. Although there are 5 settings this machine is not limited to those grinds, there are different grind possibilities in between each category. As you turn the hopper to get different settings it makes the burrs come closer or farther apart thus creating the grind setting you choose. I primarily use the Fine and Plunger settings and they seem to do me well.

One of the primary benefits of a burr grinder is that it does not burn the beans by creating a lot of friction, compared to a blade grinder that spins and a very fast rate a burr grinder is much slower and crushes the beans with torque as opposed to speed. This also enhances the flavour of the final product. Grind consistency is also a big benefit as this will aid in flavour extraction.

A complaint with burr grinders is that they create static from the grinding process. I have yet to notice a significant amount of static build up in the final grind and have no problems removing it from the plastic container that it ends up in.

Cleaning is relatively easy, the stationary burr can be removed and cleaned while the rotating burr can cleaned out by tilting the machine upside down. I also sometimes run the machine without any beans and it seems to rotate out any loose coffee grinds. As far as grinders go, I find this to be relatively quiet. I don't expect it to be silent by any means but it is not loud enough to be obnoxious.

Overall I recommend this product. The Breville provides a small footprint when sitting on your counter top. It grinds very well and for the price paid it is probably comparable to some upper end models, although I have yet to try the higher end models. The big thing is if you are coming from a blade grinder this will be a significant improvement and from what a lot of coffee lovers have told me, one of the most important things is to get a good grinder.