Menu
Rank: | Photo: | Model: | Rating: | More Info: |
#1 |  | BEST OVERALL JavaPresse Manual Coffee Grinder | ||
#2 |  | Porlex Stainless Steel Coffee Grinder | ||
#3 |  | Triple Tree Manual Coffee Grinder | ||
#4 |  | LHS Manual Coffee Grinder | ||
#5 |  | Akirakoki Manual Coffee Bean Grinder |
Grinding your own coffee beans is a great way to have a fresher, tastier brew. It allows all the aroma and flavor in the beans to be enjoyed immediately.
A manual coffee grinder can therefore help you to make your coffee much tastier.
But, what’s a manual coffee grinder, exactly?
This is a device that you hold with one hand and crank with the other to grind up your coffee beans. It’s really simple and affordable.
Maybe your friend has an electric coffee grinder and raves about how easy it is, or you’re worried that a manual grinder will be a lot of work.
Well, there are actually many good reasons why you should choose a manual coffee grinder over an electric one. To discover them, here’s the best manual coffee grinder: make a perfect blend of coffee in your own way.
Contents
- 1 Best Manual Coffee Grinder – Reviews & Buying guide for 2020
- 2 Manual Coffee Grinder FAQ
- 3 Conclusion
Best Manual Coffee Grinder – Reviews & Buying guide for 2020
Best Overall: JavaPresse Manual Coffee Grinder
This JavaPresse manual coffee grinder can be used to make a variety of different coffee brews, such as espresso, Turkish coffee, Aeropress, and more. Here’s why it’s the best manual coffee grinder.
Featured specs
- Ceramic burrs
- Stainless steel construction
- 18 grind settings
Benefits
- One of the best things about manual grinders is that you can customize your beans to ensure that you achieve the taste you want. This one has a built-in grind selector that’s adjustable so you can choose from 18 settings.
- Electric grinders can be noisy, but this one has a removable hand-crank mechanism to reduce noise – it’s up to 90 percent quieter than if you had to use an electric grinder, which means your mornings can be much more peaceful.
- It’s the best portable coffee grinder. You don’t need to worry about power cords or batteries in order to use it. This also makes it perfect to take with you when you travel.
- It contains ceramic burrs that are durable and strong. These ones have been tested by professional-grade inspectors and are said to last up to five times longer than steel blades.
Drawbacks
- Although it’s made of stainless steel, the grinder does have a few plastic parts that are prone to breakage.
Extra Features
- This manual grinder is made with stainless steel that is durable as well as stylish.
- It comes with a built-in window so you can see inside.
- People who have purchased this product have reported that it’s easy to grind beans with it and it cuts up their coffee beans consistently.
- The company’s customer service is excellent, so should you have any queries or problems you’ll feel like you’re in good hands.
Buying Advice
This JavaPresse manual grinder is an easy and very convenient way to grind your coffee beans whenever you feel like a hot cup of delicious coffee.
Runner Up: Porlex Stainless Steel Coffee Grinder
This Porlex coffee grinder is made in Japan and has a range of features that will show you grinders don’t come standard. Let’s check them out.
Featured specs
- 12 grind settings
- Locking system
- Removable handle
Benefits
- This Porlex grinder is made with ceramic burrs that make it very easy to chop up beans for a variety of coffee brews you want to drink.
- It produces minimal heat during the coffee-grinding process, which means that the taste of your coffee won’t be negatively affected by heat.
- One of the best features about this grinder is that it has a locking system. This ensures that once you’ve chosen the setting you want for your coffee grounds, you can lock it down so it won’t change during use.
Drawbacks
- Some people have reported that the handle keeps slipping off during the grinding process.
- Others have said that it would be better if it had a rubber grip in place to make using it easier.
Extra Features
- This product has a stainless steel body that’s both strong and modern.
- It’s slim and compact, which makes it really easy to hold, use, and store.
- You can remove its handle when it’s not in use, which makes it easier to store.
Buying Advice
This Porlex grinder is quite a bit expensive, but it’s such a solid and reliable grinder that you’ll be able to use it for many years.
Alternative: Triple Tree Manual Coffee Grinder
This charming coffee grinder is built to be durable and convenient, plus it comes with some nice extra perks. Let’s check it out.
Featured specs
- Stainless steel handle
- Silicone lid
- Anti-slip
Benefits
- This best hand coffee grinder has a stainless steel handle so that you can save time when grinding your coffee beans.
- It has a strong silicone lid that makes it easy for you to add beans to the grinder.
- Since it can be disassembled into two parts, its coffee mill can be washed easily.
- It’s fitted with ceramic burrs, which seem to be common when it comes to manual coffee grinders. This is because ceramic burrs are said to last longer than stainless steel burrs, and they also have thermal conductivity which means it takes them longer to warm up, thus they won’t overheat which would affect the taste of your coffee.
- It has an anti-slip silicone pad. This prevents your hand from slipping when you’re grinding coffee beans, thus making it very comfortable to use.
Drawbacks
- There’s not much information provided about the different grind settings of this machine. People who have purchased this grinder have reported that you have to find the best grind setting for your beans by trial and error.
- It’s a bit heavier, which means you might have to spend a bit longer grinding your beans.
Extra Features
- It comes with two glass jars, which is great because if one breaks you’ll have a spare. You can also use these to store your coffee beans.
- This manual grinder comes with a brush and scoop included.
Buying Advice
This Triple Tree coffee grinder is a cost-effective way to start grinding your own coffee beans at home. Plus, for that price you get many extra features to make the coffee-grinding process even more convenient.
Alternative: LHS Manual Coffee Grinder
What you’ll love about this LHS coffee grinder is that it has more capacity than other products we’ve featured on our list so far – you can grind up enough coffee for up to four cups in one go. Here’s what else you should know about this grinder.
Featured specs
- 4 settings
- Stainless steel hand crank
- Easy to use and clean
Benefits
- This hand crank coffee grinder has four levels so you can choose the best grind setting for your coffee.
- It has a stainless steel hand crank that’s easy to use and durable.
- It’s user-friendly because of how it has a lid that allows you to easily fill the grinder with your beans. It can be assembled and disassembled quickly.
- This also makes it very easy to clean.
Drawbacks
- Some people have stated that it works very slowly when you want to make enough coffee for more than one cup.
- Others have reported that the grinder sometimes squeaks.
Extra Features
- People have reported that they like that this coffee grinder has a dual-bowl design. This makes it convenient for you to grind up enough coffee for what you need instead of too much.
Buying Advice
This manual burr grinder is easy to use, won’t break the bank, and does what it’s supposed to. You really can’t ask for more from a coffee grinder.
Alternative: Akirakoki Manual Coffee Bean Grinder
Looking for something a bit different?
This Akirakoki coffee grinder is made out of wood and has some interesting features to offer you if you’re serious about coffee.
Featured specs
- Ergonomic handle
- Cast-iron burrs
- Solid wood construction
Benefits
- This coffee hand grinder is made out of solid wood, so it looks classy and rustic while still being durable. It’s been made from one piece of wood, which means that it will never crack or break.
- It contains cast-iron conical burrs. These don’t create too much heat that can affect the taste of your coffee, don’t produce odors, and are resistant to rust.
- This coffee grinder has a screw that’s underneath the coffee grinder which is used to easily control how fine you want your coffee to be ground.
- For extra comfort during use, this grinder comes with an ergonomic crank handle. This makes it much easier to grind your coffee beans and it makes it free of noise, too.
Drawbacks
- Some people have reported that they didn’t like how turning the handle can cause the sliding clap at the top of the grinder to open. You have to ensure you hold it.
- It can be a bit tricky to find the right grind size at first. This is because when you use the adjustment screw you have to disassemble the top screws, washer, and handle.
Extra Features
- This coffee grinder is said to have a consistent grind quality.
- Its rustic design is a showstopper!
Buying Advice
This manual coffee grinder is a beautifully-designed grinder that will make you enjoy going back to a simpler, more charming way of grinding coffee beans. It’s also an efficient and quiet coffee grinder that you’ll love using when making delicious brews.
Manual Coffee Grinder FAQ
Why should you purchase a manual, instead of electric, coffee grinder? Is it really worth your time and money?
To answer those questions, let’s look at these common coffee grinder FAQs.
Are manual coffee grinders any good?
While you might think that purchasing a manual coffee grinder means that you’re missing out on what you could get from an electric grinder, the truth is that you can get many benefits from purchasing a manual device. These include the following:
- Manual grinders are super-convenient. If you’re on a road or camping trip and you don’t want to miss out on your daily coffee fix, having your own manual grinder is a total game-changer. But even if you’re not going on a trip, just being able to take your grinder with you wherever you go will feel so convenient.
- They save energy. Unlike an electric coffee grinder, a manual one doesn’t make use of any electricity. This means you don’t have to fuss with power cords, and the bonus is that if you find yourself in a place where there’s no electricity you can still use your coffee grinder without first having to find a power source.
- They’re much quieter. Electric coffee grinders can be very noisy, so manual grinders are better for your household when you get a coffee craving early in the morning.
- They generate less heat. Unlike with electric coffee grinders, manual ones produce less heat. This means that you don’t have to worry about the taste of your coffee being altered during the grinding process.
- You can make use of lots of grind settings. You can achieve a range of different coffee grind settings on your manual grinder – some of which have up to 18, as in the case of the JavaPresse grinder that we featured in our manual coffee grinder reviews.
- They’re more affordable. As we’ve seen in our reviews, manual coffee grinders are very affordable. If you want to buy an electric coffee grinder, you’d need to shell out hundreds of dollars for it, but for around $20 to $80 you can get a good quality manual coffee grinder.
- They make you feel good. Let me explain. When you use an electric coffee grinder that does all the work for you, you might feel like you’re missing out on the process or that making coffee has become too automatic. By using a manual coffee grinder instead, you can feel like you’re playing a bigger role in the process of making delicious coffee. It’s sort of like making your own homemade pasta instead of purchasing it.
Despite the above, there are some things to consider when you want to purchase a manual coffee grinder. For example, you will have to use elbow grease in order to manually grind your coffee.
Unlike with an electric coffee grinder, which has much more power, you need to use your own strength. That said, the process shouldn’t take too long or be too difficult!
What is the best type of manual coffee grinder?
To ensure that you buy the best manual coffee grinder you can, you want to ensure that it has some important features. Here’s a rundown of them.
- Choose a grinder that’s small and compact. Not only will a mini coffee grinder ensure that you can take it with you when you travel, but it will also make the grinder easier to hold when you grind your coffee beans.
- Choose a versatile grinder. You might find that many coffee grinders on the market are focused on giving you one type of coffee grind size. Make sure that you choose one that offers different settings so that you can achieve different brews. This is important if you don’t only drink one type of coffee because different types of coffee will require different granule sizes, such as extra fine, fine, or coarse.
- Choose the best capacity. As we’ve seen in these reviews, a manual coffee grinder will usually give you a capacity of between one and four cups. If you only need to make one cup of coffee at a time, then a manual grinder with less capacity won’t be a problem, but if you want to make more than that, then opt for the highest capacity you can find because it will make your life much easier.
- Choose a grinder that’s well built. Quality matters, so pay close attention to the materials that have been used to construct the coffee grinder. Some durable choices include wood and stainless steel. While it’s common for many manual coffee grinders on the market to have some pieces that are made of plastic, this shouldn’t get in the way of the functioning of the machine provided that most of it is made with more durable materials.
- Choose convenience. You don’t want to spend a lot of time looking after the coffee grinder. After all, grinding your coffee beans is only one step in the coffee-brewing process! Therefore, try to choose a manual coffee grinder that is easy to use and clean. You should be able to maintain it without that becoming a stressful chore.
How long does it take to manually grind coffee?
This is one of the biggest questions you’d want to know the answer to before purchasing a manual coffee grinder. After all, you don’t want to waste lots of time grinding your own beans when you have tons of other things to do.
Generally speaking, manual coffee grinders will take approximately one minute for you to be able to grind up enough coffee to make yourself a cup. While that isn’t a very long amount of time, it’s worth bearing in mind that you will need to put in some effort.
That said, you can find manual coffee grinders that take the sweat out of the process and make it more comfortable so it doesn’t feel like you’re doing a powerful workout at the gym!
For example, some manual coffee grinders will come with anti-slip pads on them to make it more comfortable to use them to grind beans.
This is an excellent feature that we’ve seen in the Triple Tree coffee grinder that we reviewed earlier. Another feature to look out for is an ergonomic handle, which you’ll find on the Akirakoki manual grinder
These are just two examples of features that will make your coffee-grinding experience so much more convenient and comfortable. You really don’t have to suffer with sore hands from grinding your coffee beans
You can also make grinding your coffee with a manual coffee grinder much easier by following some clever techniques. These include the following:
- Shake the grinder while you use it. This ensures that the coffee grounds all move through the burrs or blades, and prevents you from having to work hard on some stubborn beans. It’s sort of the same principle as when you use a blender and want to mix the contents around a bit so that they can reach the machine’s blades.
- Turn the handle and spin the body. You probably know this trick and if not, then it’s time to learn it because it will help you grind your coffee beans much faster. While turning the handle of your manual grinder with one hand, make sure you use the other hand to turn the grinder’s body in the opposite direction to the handle.
- Secure it to a table or counter. The problem with the above tip is that it can cause you to end up with coffee everywhere. To prevent that from happening, make sure you secure your grinder to a table or counter as this will ensure the grinder remains in a vertical position while you grind the coffee beans.
Do coffee grinders’ blades wear out?
If you want to choose a coffee grinder that makes use of blades to grind your coffee beans instead of burr grinders, you might wonder if the blades can wear out over time.
Indeed they can. This is something to expect from blades because they do become dull over time, and this will happen at a faster rate if you use your coffee grinder regularly.
You’ll notice that the blades aren’t grinding the coffee beans as well as they used to, and you might also notice a change in the taste of your coffee since the coffee beans won’t be the right size for the type of coffee you wish to brew.
When your blades start to wear out, you can sharpen them with the use of rice. Yes, really!
This tip (via SFGate) requires you to fill your coffee grinder with a cup of rice and then grind the rice for a minute in the same way you would grind up your coffee beans. Then simply empty the coffee grinder and wipe down the blades with a dry cloth.
Now, if you have a manual coffee grinder that makes use of a burr instead of blades, you’ll want to ensure that you clean it regularly to keep it in great condition so it can grind your coffee effectively.
To do this, you’ll need to disassemble your coffee grinder and wipe down the burrs with a bit of soapy water. You can use a Q-tip to remove any debris or coffee oils. Then, wipe it with a dry, clean cloth, before you reassemble it.
On the subject of ceramic burrs, it’s also wise to replace your ceramic burrs every two years because even though they’re strong and durable (and become duller at a slower rate than steel burrs), they won’t last forever.
Conclusion
Fact: coffee tastes better when you grind the beans before you brew a cup!
If you want a simple and affordable way to grind your own coffee beans at home, look no further than a manual coffee grinder. But which one is best for you and will it really work to give you tasty coffee?
In this buying guide, we’ve featured five of the best manual coffee grinders on the market that will make your life easier and your coffee more delicious as well as convenient.
Whether you want to have a coffee at home, at work, or during a camping trip, manual coffee grinders help you to enjoy freshly-brewed coffee wherever you go. They’re definitely worth it and can often be a better choice than electric coffee grinders.
Last Updated on November 16, 2022