If you take a look over the previous coffee blogs you will see that I really do favour the ritual of making coffee at home. Yes, the pod system is very convenient and really takes the pressure off having to have any coffee knowledge. But we just cannot help loving the idea of taking a little time and patience to honour the ritual of making great coffee at home.

So why would you even have a home coffee grinder and what kind, how much do they cost? Well, a good and reasonably priced home coffee grinder allows you to buy beans instead of pre-ground. Being able to grind your own holds two massive advantages, freshness and versatility. The freshness is just so easy to appreciate you can smell it, I would also say that you can achieve at least 10% more taste than with pre-ground. The technical term for this is oxidation, fresh roasted coffee will degrade quickly in the open air so fresh ground means less time for oxygen to degrade your coffee.

Next is versatility, having your own grinder will allow you to refine grind to your own taste. It also means that you can use one bean for all of coffee making methods, cafetiere, moka pot, filter even re-usable pods! A good grinder is so important to any respectable coffee shop and a good home grinder will pay dividends over the course of its life.

Which one and how much to they cost? Well, the only home grinder you should use a burr grinder. These have a grinding wheel with notches and this wheel breaks up the beans to your desired setting. Fine grind for a moka pot, medium for a cafetiere and in-between fine and medium for filter. At the end of the day, you are your own expert and you know what you like, the beauty is with your own grinder is that you have a choice.

Blade grinders are not very good, they have propeller type blade and I have found them to be less than perfect and inefficient.

Cost? Well from £20 to £40 more if you want designer curves just make sure it’s a burr grinder. A great gift for a coffee lover watch this space we will be stocking our own soon.