I don’t find the iberital difficult to adjust for grind and quantity. I have mine set to one third of a double basket. So its 2 grinds, tamp then a final grind and tamp so I don’t get spillage. If somebody wants a weaker shot it’s just 2 grinds.
Actually we gave 2 iberitals. Mrs bigjohn likes Taylors beans so they’re in one and the happy donkey in the other. She’s not a coffee fanatic but once you grind your own you can’t go back to ready ground.

But you have just bought two to get around the problem with the Iberital! I use mine mainly for my espresso drinking from my La Pavoni. You have to adjust a bit between batches of beans (and as they get older) but that’s all good. However I also drink a gallon or so of french press coffee a week. If I put the beans for that through the same grinder I have to turn the adjuster knob 18 full turns to get the course ground required and 18 full turns back to return to the espresso grind. It’s a faff too far so the french press gets tesco pre-ground coffee!

No, we’ve got two because we fill the hoppers of both with the bean of choice.

convert – Member
However I also drink a gallon or so of french press coffee a week. If I put the beans for that through the same grinder I have to turn the adjuster knob 18 full turns to get the course ground required and 18 full turns back to return to the espresso grind. It’s a faff too far so the french press gets tesco pre-ground coffee!

I do a big batch of it grinding into a sealed container I stick in the fridge which will last a couple of weeks. Good enough for the press and still better than stale supermarket pre-ground.

But it is still a right faff to adjust the knob between the grinds.

No, we’ve got two because we fill the hoppers of both with the bean of choice.

A lot of coffee geeks would find this poor form as the hopper is not air tight so unless you are going to use everything in the hopper up in a matter of hours you are trashing your beans.

If I fill a hopper (mahlkonig vario) it’s gone in 5-6 days, just long enough for the beans to de-gas 🙄 the only concession to preserving the beans is the empty bag laid on the hopper to stop the direct sunlight baking them.
It’s only once ground that the ageing process is accelerated, fresh roasted beans are good for a couple of weeks before they noticeably change.

I keep the beans in air tight containers in the freezer and just take out what I need. I know that’s a coffee sin also as supposedly they’ll spontaneously disintegrate the second any condensation gets on them when taking them out, but I can’t tell a blind bit of difference compared to when I first get them fresh.

The only real difference I notice is between a good fresh roast and supermarket packs of beans, with the latter being horrid for espresso, though tolerable for a french press.

Bought, and happy with, Eureka Mignon for same reason as above.

well i ended up going for teh hario manual grinder – the one up from teh mini

its pretty good. the kids like arguing over who grinds and the coffee is definately smoother/less bitter.

you can grind really fine (which clogs the machine) i`m one or 2 up from from the finest setting which seems to work nicely.

all really rather good.

although my caffine intake has risen sharply.

although my caffine intake has risen sharply.

Are you getting the DT’s? is that why you have trouble hitting the’H’ key? maybe try decaf?

I’ve got a Dualit 75015. Off the shelf its quite good for most coffees, though its just a bit too coarse for expressos. I had to do a mod to get a finer grind. I can only compare it to my previous blade grinder and the pre-ground stuff you get in the shops, but its definitely better.

Yeah I’ve done exactly this and I’m definitely happier post-modification. However I still can’t get a really fine grind – if I set the burrs any closer then the machine just grinds metal-on-metal. I don’t think the tolerances are there to create a truly espresso-grade grind. So I wouldn’t recommend this.

Hand grinders sounds inconvenient enough that I probably wouldn’t use them every day.

Ignore anyone who suggests blade grinders. You’ll get better results with months-old pre-ground stuff, especially if you buy decent beans with an appropriately fine grind.

Brewing coffee is one of those things where the naive beginner often thinks they know better than the advice being doled out. E.g. when you’re buying a snowboard, you should spend the most on the boots (yeah right, I just want the cool board with the sick graphics), and with an SLR camera you should spend more on lenses than the body, or a decent hardtail is far better than a cheap Argos BSO full sus.
AND it’s far more important to put money into a grinder than spending on a shiny pretty espresso machine.