Technique: Hand Ground Coffee

I recently decided to replace our beloved coffee grinder - Tom Servo.  Actually, I'm the only one that ever showed any love for Tom Servo, everyone else radiated frustration and despise in his general direction.  Tom Servo is based on an old school coffee maker design.  According to KitchenAid, that model was originally designed in 1937 and was the world's first electric coffee grinder.  Our Tom Servo isn't 70+ years old though, at some point KitchenAid resurrected the model and I was attracted to his retro design.

I know he had his problems.  Most people seem to want their freshly ground coffee collected in some sort of container and presented to them.  Tom Servo doesn't play that way.  He has a spout on his side.  I suspect that his designers imagined coffee would issue forth from this spout and the force of gravity would then collect ground coffee in a waiting glass jar beneath.  Perhaps modern 200 watt motors are more powerful than back in 1937, because in practice Tom Servo ejects a beam of ground coffee out of his side at a surprising velocity and it takes awhile for gravity to catch up.  The unsuspecting and uninitiated operator typically flips his switch and is surprised to find they are standing point blank in front of a geyser of ground coffee that will deflect off of them in to the kitchen at large.  

Over the years I've devised some tools and techniques to help tame Tom Servo.  Primary of which is a flexible plastic wall I set up around his spout when I grind to help direct most of the grounds downwards.  But he has never been fully civilized and domesticated.  In his solid cast iron frame still whirls a feral motor that would just as soon turn gravel into flour as operate on something so dainty as coffee.  

The chances are that given that task of replacing a belligerent coffee grinder designed in 1937 most people would look for something a bit more modern.  Perhaps even a grinder designed in the current century.  Bah! You disgust me most people.  Instead of looking forward I decided to look even further back - and I opted to replace Tom Servo with a hand crank manual coffee maker.  

You see, in our household coffee is either about convenience or luxury.  I brew our weekday morning coffee at the office, so the home coffee makers or called into service when we really need a cup of coffee in the evening or on the weekends.  When convenience is the primary motivator we have a single cup Keurig brewer that quickly and efficiently serves up a decent cup of coffee with minimal effort.  When time and effort or not limiting factors we opt for luxury and we brew via a French press. 

 (I really like that French press in the link. It's a replaceable glass beaker the fits into a rubber and polycarbonate sleeve.  The sleeve does a good job insulating the beaker while the glass beaker is replaceable if we ever drop it.  Most importantly, the plunger is all metal construction so the whole thing is pretty rugged.) 

One of the things that drew me towards a manual grinder is the ability to control the coarseness of the grind.  Most electric grinders give you some latitude when comes to coarseness, but I think they generally expect you to brew using a drip coffee maker and most of them don't grind coffee as coarse as I would like it for our French Press.

The new manual coffee grinder has a huge range of coarseness values that need expiration with.  Instead of a number setting, the coarseness of the grind is controlled via a threaded washer.  To try and record and replicate grinds I've decided to measure how far the inner section of the grinding mechanism protrudes from the outer section on the bottom on the grinder.  I first started with a measurement of about 1/4".  This proved to actually a bit too coarse.  I reduced it to ~3/16" and that seems to be a pretty good setting.  The resulting coffee is robust and favorable without being bitter.

The other nice thing about the manual grinder is its ability to handle oily beans.  Different roasting methods can produce oily beans.  I used to avoid oil beans because after awhile they tended to gunk up Tom Servo and require more frequent cleaning.  The manual grinder seems to handle the oily beans with greater ease.  I suspect this may be a good thing, being that oil on freshly roasted beans may well carry flavors I usually opt out of (or so I hope).  Did I mention that there is now a coffee shop that roasts beans on the premises not a mile from my house?

Current coffee recipe:
Grind beans with ~3/16" setting.
Steep in hot water for 5 minutes in French press.