GRIPIT AND RIP IT!

Get your grind on with the new era of handheld grinders as we appreciate how far this gadget has come in recent years.

- Melanie Winter

If you're looking for a little bit of an upper arm workout, particularly the triceps I find, during your morning coffee routine, then look no further than getting yourself a hand grinder. But jokes aside, the real reason for acquiring one of these gadgets, apart from being able to take your coffee routine with you on the road, is that it is no understatement to say that a good grinder can completely change your coffee drinking life and help you achieve a small, but significant brewing success every day.

While the hand grinder may have in the past been seen as a cheaper alternative to an electric grinder and stayed mostly in place as a travel option for peak coffee enthusiasts, the really good ones are now considered indispensable to any home coffee set up and they're (mostly) still cheaper than the electric kind. They have definitely become somewhat of a badge of honour, with coffee professionals always admiring and comparing the different options.

The mechanism is a pretty simple crank system. The hand crank is connected to a shaft which in turn moves the burr against the other burr. You can adjust how far apart the burrs sit to determine the grind size of your coffee. But the details of hand grinders have come a long way in the last 10 years. The best have the capability to consistently make fantastic coffee for all styles of brewing from filter to espressos.