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The only magic in a good bur grinder is its consistency. You can look at what you're getting out and bump the pressure up or down slightly compared to your last

The only magic in a good bur grinder is its consistency. You can look at what you're getting out and bump the pressure up or down slightly compared to your last shot. It's not just consistency. It's grind size distribution. The cost of a high end burr grinder is crazy and I don't understand what's going on but you can do simple comparative tests. I have a 2 different burr sets for my grinder with different cutter geometries and the mechanical properties of the grinds and the puck are different. Never mind the taste. The way the water pours through the puck and what's happening inside the basket as you pull the shot is different. You can easily tell by the amount of channeling I get and the integrity of the puck after the shot. The espresso also tastes different BTW. I've also done blind taste testing with my grinder pitted against 3 other grinders. Having only tasted the coffee from 1 of these, I matched the coffee to the grinders only based on the theoretical properties of the burr sets.

Lio 5y ago
Ah well that all sounds beyond me mate. I'm a simple soul, if I can't measure it really easily I don't worry about it. It's not like any two beans are the same and I'm tamping them by hand anyway. Worrying about the shape of the blades in the grinder is like worrying about the type of power cable on your hifi amp. It's too much connoisseurship for me personally but more power to you if that's your bag.
- iramiller 5y ago
  A good burr grinder is all about consistent grind size and is very easy to observe. Spread a small amount of ground coffee out on a piece of paper. Observe the varying sizes and shapes within the grounds. Better grinders produce more even grinds which produce more even extraction during brewing. It’s an exceedingly simple concept. As an extreme example try and brew an espresso using a simple blade style ‘grinder’. It will be impossible. The refinement of a good grinder is simply optimizing along this axis.
- 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
  Worrying about the shape of the blades in the grinder is like worrying about the type of power cable on your hifi amp. You like what you like. I'm just saying that your dismissal of the effects of your grinder are very wrong. And the differences are easy see and measure.
ValentineC 5y ago
> The cost of a high end burr grinder is crazy and I don't understand what's going on but you can do simple comparative tests. Some Taiwanese folks crowdsourced a bunch of manual grinders in this forum thread to measure and compare grind size distribution [1]. It's usually my go-to thread whenever someone asks me for grinder recommendations, and care mostly about the end result. [1] (link in Chinese) https://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=640&t=5747652 https://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=640&t=5747652

Lio 5y ago

Ah well that all sounds beyond me mate. I'm a simple soul, if I can't measure it really easily I don't worry about it. It's not like any two beans are the same and I'm tamping them by hand anyway. Worrying about the shape of the blades in the grinder is like worrying about the type of power cable on your hifi amp. It's too much connoisseurship for me personally but more power to you if that's your bag.

iramiller 5y ago
A good burr grinder is all about consistent grind size and is very easy to observe. Spread a small amount of ground coffee out on a piece of paper. Observe the varying sizes and shapes within the grounds. Better grinders produce more even grinds which produce more even extraction during brewing. It’s an exceedingly simple concept. As an extreme example try and brew an espresso using a simple blade style ‘grinder’. It will be impossible. The refinement of a good grinder is simply optimizing along this axis.
2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
Worrying about the shape of the blades in the grinder is like worrying about the type of power cable on your hifi amp. You like what you like. I'm just saying that your dismissal of the effects of your grinder are very wrong. And the differences are easy see and measure.

ValentineC 5y ago

> The cost of a high end burr grinder is crazy and I don't understand what's going on but you can do simple comparative tests. Some Taiwanese folks crowdsourced a bunch of manual grinders in this forum thread to measure and compare grind size distribution [1]. It's usually my go-to thread whenever someone asks me for grinder recommendations, and care mostly about the end result. [1] (link in Chinese) https://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=640&t=5747652 https://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=640&t=5747652