This is the amateurish part of my home setup: A Bodum Antigua burr grinder, and Zojirushi auto-drip brewer. Both are needles in the rough of bad consumer coffee equipment, and the pairing does a great job of keeping my non-obsessed wife happily caffeinated (while retaining the level of quality I demand for myself).
A lot of us in the coffee biz, myself included, get worked up about brewing devices and methods — v60 or Chemex? Stir or no stir? Is it a Clever or an Abid? — and tend to focus a ton of our energy on the subtleties of a great coffee. (For example, a recent Twitter conversation in which I decried the lack of “buttery”-ness of a fancy Yirgacheffe I brewed on a Chemex, and an acquaintance’s agreement with note that this same Yirg, brewed on v60, was “way buttery”.) And this is all well and good; I’m sure master violinists have their debates on which brand of rosin brings out the most character in a high B. But on a slow and steady mission to convert so-called “coffee snobs” of the Starbucks variety into certified coffee connoisseurs, there is no step more important than this: Buy fresh beans from a good roaster, and grind them yourself.
Lately, however, I’m feeling guilty… Like a preacher who urges a congregation of illiterates to read their Bibles more often. Because while my customers have a good selection of fresh roasted, fairly traded coffees to choose from, and a good number of devices (presses, AeroPresses, Clevers and more) to brew them in, I don’t have a single grinder to sell them. In fact, I don’t even have one I can wholeheartedly recommend.
Regurlur 