My aero press arrives tomorrow. Any advice on a suitable grinder, ideally non electric?
Also any tips found through experience will be appreciated.

Ta.

I use a Porlex Mini Mill Hand Grinder with my aeropress at work

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Porlex-Mini-Hand-Coffee-Grinder/dp/B01B77O8FM/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1487198149&sr=1-1&keywords=Porlex+Mini+Mill+Hand+Grinder

Wood burner?

APF

I buy ready ground saves a lot of pissing about.

Advice on where to buy ready ground in a suitable grind would be appreciated. I live in Didcot and visit Walling ford so have access to Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose and Starbucks and Costa….

I realise this is heresy, but is an aero-press really so very amazing?

It produces coffee which tastes a lot like, well, regular filter coffee. Perhaps slightly nicer, but nothing to shout about.

fresh ground ethiopian yirgacheffe is much better than nescafe/douwe egberts shit that is at work,so its something to shout about and its worth the “pissing about”

Advice on where to buy ready ground in a suitable grind would be appreciated. I live in Didcot and visit Walling ford so have access to Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose and Starbucks and Costa….

Aldi for me.

It’s much better than nescafe or douwe Egbert’s without the pissing about of grinding your own

Ta. I cycle to Aldi every morning and pick up my OJ on the way to work.

Drac – Moderator 
I buy ready ground saves a lot of pissing about.

Stale coffee! 😛

Though I’m not that obsessed that I have to fresh roast myself and grind the same day else they’re stale. I do get fresh roast ordered online but I freeze the unused beans in a pack which some say is a no-no (or rather you supposedly have to avoid condensation on grinding as it “ruins” the beans, or some bollox like that yet I’ve never noticed any difference).

More seriously though, supermarket coffee I’ve found terrible after getting decent stuff. More so beans though. Supermarket beans have been sitting around for way too long and are really hard to make decent coffee out of.

MonsoonEstates.co.uk

Rhinowares mini hand grinder. Brilliant. Proper ceramic burr thing going on. pricey, £35-40, but worth it. Also, it fits inside the plunger of the AeroPress for travel compactness.

I’ve not gone further than looking at the pics, put that Rhinowares grinder looks the same as the Porlex one I have?

Not used my Aeropress in some time, but seem to remember it makes a much stronger coffee (similar to an Espresso shot) than a filter.

but seem to remember it makes a much stronger coffee (similar to an Espresso shot) than a filter.

Yes, I’d agree with this. Much stronger for same amount of coffee you’d put in a cafetaire.

I just use a bag of Italian roast preground, from whichever supermarket I’m passing at the time! I keep it in an airtight box in my office. I use 1.5 scoops, though I like it strong and have a large mug which I top up with hot water.

For me, it’s about convenience. We aren’t allowed to put coffee grounds down the sink, so I watch people fighting with a spoon and their cafetiere over the compost bin. Where as I just pop out the plug of coffee, rinse the end and walk away! Does mean there are A LOT of Aeropress in our place.

That monnsoonestates has caught my eye.

@Drac – I’ve had 5 or 6 different coffees from them and really liked each one. The Bloke is very good.

Cheers. Might try a bag.

Yes to Monsoon Estates….just got 3 lovely coffees from them

+1 for Aeropress! 😀

Check out http://www.hasbean.co.uk
We usually go for their starter pack once a month. That way you get whatever is in season. There’s also a few vlog’s that are interesting whereby you can see the farmer that has grown the coffee and learn a few things about where your coffee actually comes from. Or you could just drink it.

I use the ‘tall’ prolex which has the added advantage at work of fitting inside the plunger when inside the base meaning it all takes up less room, grinder works well, all comes apart to clean and all the bits are replaceable.

I have used one at work for years for the combo of space, faff and quality. I can have a decent coffee in 5 mins with a nice routine and needing only a kettle and a bin!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Coffee-Tea-Espresso/Porlex-Tall-Hand-Coffee-Grinder/B01B77O8LG/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1487237685&sr=1-2&keywords=Porlex+Hand+Grinder

Whichever coffee grinder you end up buying, make sure it has an integral pineapple-pusher and you may also want to get one with the optional tree-shaking attachment.

How does the handle attach to that Porlex above? On mine (also Porlex), it just fits over a hex spindle, and annoyingly pops off if your grinding gets a bit animated. Hard to make out from the pics but it seems to have a lock nut or something.

My porlex hand grinder lives in the van for the occasional coffee at times when I have the time and inclination to bother doing it by hand.

Anyone with a ‘healthy’ coffee habit will look like this if they resort to a hand job for every mug.

If your show great restraint and enjoy limiting your pleasure to a daily dose it might be for you.

Iberital MC2 grinder and now a Mahlkonig Vario for me. Iberital is fully functioning and in a cupboard if anyone fancies making a cheeky offer. If you only have one grind you need and don’t mind pressing the button a few times if you need more than a small quantity it’s a great machine.

I like my Iberital. Only niggle is if you vary the grind for different things, as it takes a while to wind the knob to different grinds.

I have a DeLohngi (or however you spell it) electric grinder. It was 20 quid, has a decent variation in grinds, holds 250g of beans at a time and just keeps working. I think it has ceramic internals so is pretty tough.

Iberital MC2 grinder and now a Mahlkonig Vario for me

Quite tempted to swap my MC2 for something like that. I only ever espresso grind, but changing settings when going between different beans can be a faff.

realise this is heresy, but is an aero-press really so very amazing?

No, they make acceptable coffee, but nothing more, I use mine for hotels when away but wouldn’t dream of using it as a main source of making coffee

Monsoon are very good on the other hand

perchypanther – Member
Whichever coffee grinder you end up buying, make sure it has an integral pineapple-pusher and you may also want to get one with the optional tree-shaking attachment.

Perchy (and man-friend) in his hey-day

Business at the front, party at the back 🙂

I got a simple one from amazon for about £12 when I got my aeropress for christmas.
One bag of beans and hand-grinding and I’ve gone back to ready ground ethiopian stuff from aldi. I really couldn’t tell any difference for it to be worth the time, effort and faff.
By the time I’d made one coffee Mrs PP was lining up her second cup of Yorkshire’s finest tea.

OT: How do you lot post links to Amazon?? Whenever I try and do it it breaks the post where the ampersand symbol is in the URL then doesn’t show anything after that.

I’ve not gone further than looking at the pics, put that Rhinowares grinder looks the same as the Porlex one I have?

nope. the way the handle fits to the stud is much better than the porlex and doesn’t slip and round off (like a square taper BB/crank)
i have both, wouldn’t buy the porlex again.

the only supermarket coffee worth buying is Modern Standard sold in some sainsburys. but if you like burnt ashy tasting over roasted commodity coffee stick with whatever else is on the shelf next to it.

beans only, pre-ground is stale.

Why are supermarket beans so dark and shiny? And so bitter too. How do they get them so shiny? We have a bean to cup in the office and there is an ad-hoc arrangement to buy the bags of coffee (I’m the head of department and there is some unspoken rule that means I get to buy 8 or 9 out of 10 bags whilst the others chip in once in a blue moon – my current coffee bill runs to about what I’m paid to manage the rabble!) and I buy 1kg bags of a Rave coffee blend. The day you go to the machine and it’s full of shiny black bullets my heart sinks.

realise this is heresy, but is an aero-press really so very amazing?

It just a handy portable means of making a strong coffee, nothing particularly amazing about it. Arguably makes a better strong coffee than a stove top.

Obviously won’t make you an espresso.

Why are supermarket beans so dark and shiny? And so bitter too. How do they get them so shiny?

over roasted so oils leech out to the surface of the bean. the roasting also increases bitterness. bulk roasters also spray them with water immediately post roast which bumps the weight back up.

the pissing about of grinding your own

Turn grinder on.
Turn grinder off.
😕

Turn grinder on.
Turn grinder off.

Doesn’t do much if it’s empty, so maybe add filling it as a step. And it’s added to all the other faff of making a half assed attempt at proper coffee.

The most faffy thing about drinking pre-ground coffee from a cafetiere on the other hand is having to go for a poo between the first and second cups.

maybe add filling it as a step.

You need a bigger hopper if you’re filling your grinder up every time you have a coffee. Mine takes a kilo o’ beans easy. 🙂

Turn grinder on.
Turn grinder off.

How does that work with non electric? How do the beans get in the blender then into the aeropress,? how does it clean itself?

Anyway 4 bags of ground coffee orderd for Monsoon Estates.

My Moonsoon package arrived this am.

A wonderful smell as I opened the postage bag greeted me, then I made a cup. Damn that’s good stuff loads of flavour that lasts an age, that’s me ordering from them from now on.