Almost all of us need a wake up drink in the morning before we begin our day, for some of us its tea but for most of us it a good cup of our favorite coffee. So how does one go about obtaining that perfect cup of coffee? How many of us know how that perfect cup of coffee comes into being? Here is how it is done-The process to achieve that perfect cup of coffee begins with the sorting and grading of the coffee beans. The second step is the roasting of the beans then the grinding and finally the brewing.
There are different methods to brew coffee and each method requires a different coffee grind and vice versa. Hence before one buys a coffee grinder one must decide on what kind of brew one wants. If one wants coffee with a short brewing time such as an espresso one needs a finer grind however if one wants a coffee that requires brewing for a long time such as French press one would need to use a coarser grind. But the most important point to remember is that the flavor and aroma of the coffee is lost if the coffee beans are not freshly grind.
Grinding one's own coffee beans are actually quite easy provided one happens to own a coffee mill or coffee grinder. Coffee mills or coffee grinders are also called burr grinder. The burr grinder produces a uniform and even grind. There are a variety of coffee grinders available today; some are manual while some are electronic. But with today's fast paced lifestyle the use of the manual coffee grinders is running in low numbers while the electronic versions are on the rise because of their obvious advantages. They are quick with easy grinding and are also easy to maintain and keep clean. However the most important feature and advantage is the lesser heat the burr grinding generates thus preserving the authenticity of the flavor of the roasted beans.
There are also coffee grinders known as blade grinders. As the name implies the grinder is made up of two metal blades spinning at a high speed. The blades do three different things to the beans at the same time; namely cutting, chopping and crushing. However due to these three motions the heat generated by the blades tends to alter and change the original roasted flavor of the coffee beans. On the other hand cost wise such a coffee mill is quite cheap. But due to the similarity this coffee grinder has to our everyday blenders people tend to multi-purpose use it, this however is not recommended as coffee takes on other flavors quite easily and who wants to drink coffee that smell and tastes like ginger/garlic.
The manual coffee mills also known as box grinders or antique or hand grinder. These kinds of coffee mills have a propeller type of blades fixed in a wooden box hence the name. These coffee mills have a small door on the top into which the coffee beans are added and once it passes through the blades the ground coffee gets deposited into a tiny drawer at the base of the coffee mill. The box grinder is suitable for only coarse grinds and not fine ones.
