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Comment by sva_ | Hacker News Reader

I often hear the priority list being

  1. Quality of beans
  2. Quality of the grinder
  3. Quality of the espresso machine

I'm not exactly sure what sets apart some grinder from another. Some say they more evenly grind the beans (similar particle sizes) but I am not sure if that is all there is to it.

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> I'm not exactly sure what sets apart some grinder from another. Some say they more evenly grind the beans (similar particle sizes) but I am not sure if that is all there is to it.

Definitely not all there is to it. There are people who are in to swapping burrs on a grinder to experiment with different flavor profiles, or to make espresso vs filter coffee. Some grinders even cater to us, such as the Niche Duo: https://www.nichecoffee.co.uk/products/niche-duo?variant=431...

Also, some people who like more traditional, chocolaty espressos prefer grinders/burrs that produce more varied particle size. People who like cleaner, "modern" espresso prefer grinders that produce the more similar particle sizes.

It's a rabbit hole.

Random: is the Niche Duo made by a US company?

Asking, as I noticed the power switch on the side: the "|" symbol was at the top, which doesn't jive with the UK's "up is off, down is on" typical switch.

Interesting, that never occurred to me. Niche are a UK company, the grinders are designed in the UK, but as I understand, made in China.

I'd put the quality of the grinder above the quality of the beans, but that's assuming a certain minimum standard (e.g. whole beans from a supermarket brand).

If someone's using a blade grinder, then the particle size are going to be all over the place and you end up with a brew that's both over-extracted and under-extracted at the same time.

I'm not especially fussed about the espresso machine quality as I usually drink AeroPress coffee and as long as people aren't using boiling water, then it turns out fine (full immersion is a lot easier to get right than dialing in the specific grind for Espresso).

A high quality grinder also minimally heats the beans as they grind - heat can change the volatility of the oils, resulting in changed flavor (and usually not for the better)

Correct, this is why people prefer burr mill grinders made of ceramic instead of metal since ceramic is more thermally insulating.

This isn't true in the high-end coffee community. No one uses ceramic burrs, and they are generally considered to produce worse coffee than other burrs.

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