Why is a good bean grinder so important?
Firstly, because you cannot buy ground coffee from us, as a standard! You can read the reason why we only grind on demand here.
But your grind settings (how coarse or fine coffee is ground) is really very important. A barista will adjust the grind settings of his bean grinder(s) every morning, or whenever a new type of beans is used. Grind settings determine the flowtime of an espresso machine, and an ideal adjustment is required.
If the processing time is too short, you will get underextraction and a sour taste. If it takes too long, you will get a bitter taste due to over-extraction.
But not only baristas play with this: with a Hario V60 filter setup there is almost no resistance due to the design of the dripper with the large hole, only a little bit of the filter paper. So if you want to influence the flow-time, you will have to grind coarser or finer. This means you, yourself, can have a major impact on the final taste.
The difference between a manual or electric grinder is clear, but where do the price differences come from? Apart from additional options (auto-dosing, zero-retention, etc), an important difference between cheap and expensive options is the consistency of the result.
Many ultra-fine particles can clog the (porta) filter or block the water for too long, while larger chunks (the so-called 'boulders') cause under-extraction (sour taste). Ideally, all coffee particles are exposed to contact with water for the same amount of time, without the acidic and bitter effects that are inevitable with under- and over-extraction due to inconsistent grinding.
Check out our different coffee grinders here, or contact us for personal advice.