New Manual Coffee Grinder

Posted by fitheach on Sat 15 February 2020

I was without my vintage wooden Zassenhaus, so I rushed out and bought a new manual coffee grinder. The one I got is from Maison & White, and it is amazingly good. It is adjustable from very fine to coarse. Grinding is done with ceramic burrs, and the rest of the construction is made from solid glass, stainless steel, galvanised metal and silicon. They even provided an extra jar for bean storage. The best part is it only cost £10, including delivery.

The Maison & White manual coffee grinder sitting beside my venerable AeroPress coffee brewer, and my container of roasted coffee beans.

As far as I can tell, this manual coffee grinder from Maison & White is identical to the Hario Skerton Plus. The one big difference is the Hario is often sold at £50, plus delivery. That is more than five times the price I paid for my grinder. The construction is so robust that I can easily see this grinder lasting a lifetime. It really is that good.

The only conceivable downside to the Maison & White is the slightly fiddly nature of changing the grind setting. If you frequently need to grind at different settings it would become a chore. As I only use one setting, this doesn't bother me. That said, these grinders are so cheap you could buy another one, and keep it just for use at the other setting. You would still be quids in.

I've been using the grinder for a couple of weeks now, and there is one other slight downside that I have discovered. The threaded nut that holds the grind handle in place has a tendency to come loose. This is surprising as the nut tightens in a clockwise direction, which is also the direction I turn the handle to grind the beans. Nonetheless, that is what happens. It is not a big issue, and could probably be solved by adding a rubber or spring washer underneath the nut.

Update: Adding a spring washer does indeed solve the problem.


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