October 2, 2009

Hand Coffee Mills

Finally, I found some time to write a post! This article is about hand coffee mills, as not only these mills are great to grind your own coffee but also I've received a number of questions about them.

I really enjoy using traditional hand coffee mills. There’re a lot of reasons behind this love. First of all, it’s really exciting to know people used similar devices ages ago to prepare their coffee! Second, you’re not dependent on electricity, so it’s really an environmentalist device. Third, a manual coffee mill is really compact and small. Furthermore, the coffee, which is ground with a quality hand coffee mill, is so good as if it’s ground with a professional grinder. Last, but not least, by grinding your own coffee, you can drink very fresh coffee!

Do I sound too nostalgic or sensitive? Okay if you think so, please just wait for another reason. I think it’s the cheapest way to grind you own coffee in your home! :-)  Just think about how much you should pay for a high-quality coffee grinder… Most probably, more than $300! But, I just paid less than $50 for my hand-made manual coffee mill that can be used to grind coffee beans for different brewing methods -from espresso to Turkish coffee!

If I need to summarize, benefits of having a hand coffee mill are as follows:

- No need for electricity
- Relatively cheap- Functionality of adjustable grind -from Turkish fine ground to coarser
- Nostalgic
- High grinding quality
- Easy to keep and to carry
- Freshness and taste

How about the bottom side? I think the main difficulty of the hand coffee mills is that they depend on your muscle. But, actually, using these manual grinders is not as hard as it sounds, if you don’t consume coffee in massive amounts.

As a summary, if you’re not a heavy coffee drinker, or you like taste of fresh coffee, or you just looking for some nostalgia, I highly recommend you to buy a traditional hand coffee mill.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Mahir,

What make/model is your Turkish mill please, & where did you buy it?
Thanks!
CraigA from the Coffeegeek forums. I also asked this on the CG forums also.
Cheers! {;-)

cbros said...

Hi CraigA,

The mill shown on the article is a HON, which is a Turkish brand. I bought it in Ankara, Turkey.

So far, I've used many brands as manual grinder. My first choice is always Sozen. However, as I moved a number of houses and three continents within last years, I couldn't carry all my lovely mills along with me. Now I use this HON at the `current` home :-)

I saw this brand for the first time in Ankara. I still prefer Sozen, but HON is also good.

robstrahan said...

Hi Mahir,

Thanks very much for your article I found it most helpful. I am definitely going to try and get one of the sozen mills, I feel my main difficulty will be sourcing one in Western Australia, but at least I know what I am looking for.
Regards,
Rob

cbros said...

Hi Rob,

It is great to hear you enjoy the article.

If you were in Europe or in the States, it could be relatively easier to find a Sozen mill. However, I am sure you will be able to find a Sozen in Australia too. As you said, at least you know what you are looking for! :) Please share your experience with me if you will use the mill. Cheers.