Hand Grinder

We just stocked our shelves with a new product: the Hario Slim Hand Grinder. This my first-ever coffee grinder, and I’ve been recommending it ever since.

If you’ve been around specialty coffee awhile, you may have heard the importance of using a conical burr grinder, over the commonly used blade grinders. The importance of burr grinding your coffee even made it in to the once-popular show New Girl. These are probably the truest words Schmidt speaks in all seven season of the show to be honest.

Joking aside, burr grinders are important because they grind the beans at a uniform size, ensuring an even extraction while brewing. The one down side to burr grinders is their price point, often much more expensive than their blade-grinder counterparts. In the long run, they’re an awesome purchase because of their performance and longevity, but I understand when people don’t feel like they can spring for an electric burr grinder like the Encore we offer.

When I first began drinking specialty coffee, I was excited about the idea of having great coffee at home, but honestly wasn’t sure if I would follow-through with what seemed like such a complicated process every morning or just swing by the local shop to drink theirs instead. Of course, both are great options, but I was concerned about buying an expensive grinder for it just to sit around. For me, the hand grinder was the perfect solution. It was cheaper than an electric burr grinder, but a huge upgrade from my blade grinder at home.

Making coffee for myself each morning with the hand grinder was awesome. I enjoyed the process all through early adulthood—in the dorms, in apartments or wherever I found myself crashing. Once we got married, Stefan and I bought an Encore, which we couldn’t speak more highly of, and we now use it in lieu of our hand grinder each morning.

The hand grinder, although not used daily, is still an essential part of our coffee setup, because we take it with us any time we travel or camp. Unlike Schmidt suggests in his enthusiastic rant, these aren’t dainty grinders. Stuff them in a backpack and climb a mountain, put them in your Spirit Airlines carry-on totally overflowing with stuff (not speaking from experience, of course), or throw them in the trunk for a long road trip. My grinder has literally been all over the country with me, and in almost ten years it’s as good as new.

So if you think you want to make coffee at home, I suggest buying the Hario Slim. If you become a total coffee snob and want to upgrade, or if you’re making big batches of coffee, you can always upgrade to the Encore. But your old Hario Slim won’t be useless because by the time you need an upgrade you’ll also be the kind of person that brings your own coffee everywhere—and you’ll need a portable grinder for that, anyway. For us, it’s a staple piece. I think will be for you too.

For the record, never use it to make homemade crayons. It absolutely will show up in your flavor profile.