"Better have a good coffee grinder than a good espresso machine"

Unless it is not all that crucial (?)

The Grinder Issue

Some people, especially in the coffee connoisseur community, it seems, may become obsessed with the uniformity of the ground coffee powder.

Granted, it makes a difference, and especially when paying attention to everything else (or rather being obsessive about everything), it could make a difference.

But when the setting is not everything-exactly-by-the-book, it could feel like a gigantic overkill.
The versatility, the flavor variety of coffee, makes it possible to have a certain variance of uniformity in the ground coffee, especially when brewed in an aeropress, or with just poured over boiled water.
It really depends on what beans are used (variety, origin), how they are roasted (evenly?) and when (fresh?). When everything is controlled, grinding uniformity might make a difference, but what difference? Would you like more or less acidity, fruity flavorness, chocolate like, strong or mild… ?

When/if you don’t feel like investing all your energy, and money and effort, into a perfect setting, where the cup characteristics is consistent, you can still have a great cup of coffee without all the hassle, and with some moderate changes.
It doesn't taste bad just because it tastes a little different than another time. Especially when the beans are freshly roasted, in my opinion. The beans hold their promise.

So a hand grinder like the Knock grinder, is really fantastic in terms of grind quality and evenness, but all the grinders I have (almost… except for the Hario grinder):

a no-name Chinese made, ceramic burr grinder
a Sözen Turkish steel and brass grinder
the fabulous Knock Aergrind
an aggressive and fast, ceramic burr Colombia Crushgrind

all are good enough, even if Knock is a giant leap in quality (and price) upwards.

The Hario Skerton grinder is my first manual grinder and it has just failed to deliver. Miserably even.
The ground coffee particle size is all over the scale - boulders and sand, with all other sizes in between. It wouldn’t be that bad, but. Grinding takes an eternity. Ok. No, thanks.

Surely, Hario never meant the brand to lose face in that way but hey, try a little bit harder.

Knock Aergrind

Colombia CrushGrind

Sözen Turkish grinder

Electric Grinders

As much as I am fond of the small size of a manual grinder, and as pointed, most of my manual coffee grinders perform decently, there are times when even a “back-to-basics” fan like myself want to just push a button and get things done, at least in the comfort of home.

For work, I got myself a USB-rechargeable, battery driven grinder with ceramic burrs that does a decent job but grinds quite slowly. It made me more than once revert to some kind of a B-plan, like ground coffee from the baggie (i.e. NOT fresh) or grinding by hand (with the quick Colombia CrushGrind) or one of my Chinese Porlex Mini imitations.

So again, what about a decent electric grinder then?

The experts say (at least those I’ve heard) that you'd rather invest in a grinder than in an espresso machine.

This rings very true, since both my machine and my grinder are mediocre, really nothing fancy, and I feel the slight annoyance of having a less-than-optimal home setting.

But a good grinder for espresso is an expensive toy, most of them are quite bulky and are not necessarily a home appliance (rather a barista machine) and most of them are very good for espresso but regarded as “not the best” for other purposes. While I tend to believe the grinder issue can be overdone and some people are just a little off balance in their quest for the perfect grinder, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for, because no grinder has been shown to be a good, decent, all-purpose home grinder.

Even though I am more into the thin grind (for espresso and mocha) than the coarser varieties (for the pour-over specialties), which might help me choose a good, not too expensive grinder (since ground coffee at home should be on the thinner side of the scale).

My Wilfa is not that bad but it is not the kind of grinder that fits this thinner ground category, and it is a time question until I outgrow this one.

The Wilfa Black has a compact build that fits nicely in our small kitchen, it has a dark tainted hopper that holds enough beans for a few days, and it keeps the beans sealed and dark.

But the ground coffee container is an annoyance and I hold a small 1 dl dosing cup just on the microswitch in order to grind into the metal dosing cup. Doing it saves me the mess of the static electricity of the annoying plastic container. It is just not a very bright design, and I am on my way to create a basket holder that fits in there instead of the plastic catastrophe.