When you’re brewing whole beans at home, one of the biggest variables you control is the grind of your coffee beans. Odds are good you’ve got one of two options: a burr or a blade coffee grinder that’ll make your beans brew-ready. But what are the differences? Is one better than the other when it comes to using a burr vs blade grinder for your coffee?
Burr vs. Blade Grinders
Burr grinders are generally considered more consistent and ideal for people who are serious about coffee. Their design allows you incredible precision and consistency in your ground coffee.
A blade grinder is designed like a blender. They are typically cheaper but they don’t allow you the same sort of control when it comes to grind size. Blade grinders often produce less consistent grinds. This can have a negative impact on coffee you make and lead to inconsistent experiences with the same beans, water, etc.
Burr Grinders
A burr grinder is sometimes also called a burr mill. Among options coffee lovers will consider, you’ll likely have the option of either a manual (hand turned, like a pepper mill) or electric where you simply press a button to start grinding the beans.
The earliest burr grinders are believed to be used on both spices and coffee in Turkey and Persia. From there, our lives (and our coffee) became more specialized and burr grinders made specifically for grinding coffee beans were born in London sometime in the 1660’s.
Types of Burr Grinders
Conical vs. Flat Burr
There are two different styles of burr grinders that you’ll find for sale today, conical burr grinders and flat burr grinders.
Factories manufacture the conical burrs with a cone-shaped ring that sits within another cone-shaped ring. One of the rings moves and grinds the bean against the other stationary ring.
Flat burr grinders are just like they sound – they have two flat rings that grind horizontally. Some baristas and coffee aficionados believe more coffee gets trapped in the grinder when you use a flat burr but unless you’re grinding several pots worth of coffee daily, it’s hard to imagine this would accumulate to something worth worrying about.
Steel vs. Ceramic
For most home baristas, there’s really no difference between a steel burr grinder and a ceramic burr grinder. While you might consider ceramic weaker than steel, most manufacturers claim both materials are quite sturdy and can last generations.
Blade Grinders
Blade grinders are like tiny lawn mowers for your coffee beans.
Blade grinders are a relatively recent innovation, by coffee standards. The blade design came about as a result of mankind’s adaptation of propellers to motorboats. For all practical purposes, a blade grinder you might use for coffee is just a blender without the special considerations for wet contents.
Which Makes Better Cofffee?
You can get away with a blade grinder but you’re going to need a little bit of luck. Burr grinders are much more consistent in the size of coffee grounds they produce. Whether you pulse or even shake a blade grinder while you’re grinding coffee, you’re likely going to have a pretty inconsistent batch. Inconsistency can wreak havoc on extraction levels when you start brewing.
This can lead to coffee that’s weak or way too strong. The photo above may not be large enough to give you a great sense of the difference. If so, take a look at this close-up shot:
You can now more easily see the more consistent grind came from our burr grinder (on the left.)
So, if you’re a “true connoisseur” consider a burr grinder a worthwhile investment.
Advantage: Burr Grinder
Burr vs. Blade Grinders on Price
You’re typically going to have to spend more on a burr grinder than a blade grinder.
It’s not too difficult to find a manual burr grinder that’s priced like a cheap electrical blade grinder. But if you want to save yourself the effort, expect to spend anywhere from 3-4x more on a quality electric burr grinder than a basic blade grinder.
Convenience Comparison
Typically, a blade coffee grinder is going to save you a little bit of time. You can grind enough beans for a pot of drip coffee in 20 to 30 seconds with ease. The burr grinder may take a minute or two, depending upon the model you have. For most of us, it’s not a major factor. However, at 7 a.m. when you need that first pot of coffee brewed and you’re battling withdrawal symptoms, a minute can be an eternity!
Advantage: Blade Grinder
Availability & Selection
You likely won’t have a problem finding either a burr or a blade coffee grinder if you have an internet connection. Most brick and mortar stores have a decent selection of each as well, though you might see more blade grinders in-stock simply because of their price point pushing demand slightly higher for them.
Advantage: Push
Burr vs Blade Grinder – The Takeaway
How serious are you about your coffee? If you’re just making the transition from a mass produced ground coffee (think Folgers), a blade grinder may be all the investment you need to make to take your coffee game to the next level. If you’re already deep into the coffee world and looking for something that’ll help you deliver impeccable espresso, you have our permission to splurge on a quality burr grinder that should deliver consistent grounds for years to come.
