How can you make your coffee taste better?
Scratch that. How can you make it taste closer to a premium drink from a cafe, without investing in a lot of fancy equipment and cluttering your counter?
The answer to that is much simpler than you may realize. With one small equipment upgrade, you can turn your morning brew from “meh” to “mind-blowing.”
By the end of this post, you will have everything you need to know in order to make the best coffee you’ve ever brewed.
Let’s get started.
NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that if you follow the links in this post and make a purchase, I may receive a commission. This commission doesn’t impact the products I link to. I only recommend products that I would purchase, or products that I already use and love.
It’s all about the grounds
Most pre-ground coffee you can buy at the supermarket has a remarkably low shelf life once you break the vacuum seal on the bag or tin. Maybe a week. Maybe two. This is especially a problem if you like to alternate between different bags of flavored coffee, but even if you only use unflavored grounds, you’ll start to notice the grounds losing their signature aroma as their fragrance-rich oils dry up.
You could freeze the opened bag of grounds to try to keep them fresh. I don’t know about you, but the idea of going into the freezer first thing on a winter morning and trying to fumble with an icy container of coffee makes me cringe. Plus, space is already at a premium in my freezer. I don’t need more clutter, especially if there’s a better solution.
Rather than wasting space in your freezer for your coffee and hoping you don’t accidentally drop the slippery container and spill grounds everywhere (yes this happened!), you can make the switch to grinding your own coffee.
At first, it seems like this would be as complicated as freezing your grounds. Especially since you will likely grind your beans first thing in the morning – before you’ve had your coffee!
But once you try it, you’ll have a hard time going back to the pre-ground stuff that goes stale before you have a chance to enjoy it all.
Start with good coffee beans in your preferred roast
First things first: you need to buy whole coffee beans.
Not every brand sells pre-roasted whole coffee beans, and some grocery stores don’t carry much of a selection to begin with. And if you are a bit picky when it comes to your roast, you might have a hard time finding a blend that you like, unless you live in a big city.
I don’t live in a big city, and it’s certainly not a haven for coffee snobs. But thanks to the magic of The Internet, we can simply order whole coffee beans online and have them shipped directly to us! Here are a few to consider:
If you’re a true fan of dark roast coffee, you can’t go wrong with “Major Dickason’s Blend” from Peet’s Coffee. While this brand has other dark roasts available, this blend has been a customer favorite for decades.
One of the magical things about ordering whole coffee beans online is that you can get fantastic deals on bulk orders. Eight O’Clock Coffee is my go-to brand for medium-roast whole bean coffee (you can often find them in grocery stores), so I don’t hesitate to buy in bulk.
I like to mix “The Original” (pictured here) with the “100% Columbian Peaks” variety to get an even more rich, medium-roast blend. They also have flavored whole coffee beans, so if you’re a sucker for a good hazelnut or french vanilla, you should definitely give them a try.
Starbucks may be known for their dark roast (more like “burnt roast,” am I right?), but their Veranda Blend blonde roast coffee is a favorite for a reason. It’s well-balanced and has more chocolatey notes than most other light roasts on the market, which tend to have more citrus notes.
The link above is for a bulk purchase of six bags, which was all they had in stock at the time this article was written, but definitely check to see if they have the individual bags of whole beans in stock if you’re unsure whether a light roast is really your jam.
Now you need a grinder
Once you’ve secured the whole coffee beans you want to brew with, it’s time to get a coffee grinder.
There are two main choices you have: an all-purpose coffee and spice grinder, and a burr grinder.
All-purpose grinders tend to be less expensive overall, and while some offer some control over the size of the grounds, you’re not going to get as even of a grind as you will with a burr grinder.
What do you mean, the size of the grounds?
If you use a regular drip coffee machine or a similar method that uses a filter, having even grounds doesn’t matter as much. But for almost every other method of brewing coffee, having evenly-ground coffee makes a big difference. Espresso machines require a fine grind, while French Press coffee needs to be ground coarse.
It’s not a deal-breaker, though. Even if you can’t manage a burr grinder right now, there are some great options for all-purpose coffee grinders, and you’ll still have a better cup of coffee than just buying coffee that’s already been ground.
All-Purpose Grinders
As the name suggests, you can use these grinders for a variety of purposes. This type of grinder is often marketed as a “spice and coffee grinder” because you can grind whole spices as well as coffee beans.
Be aware that if you do this, you will need to be extra vigilant about cleaning your grinder between uses. Unless you want coffee dust in your curry. Or vice versa.
I have an all-purpose grinder that I only use for coffee, partly because I have a mortar and pestle that I use for grinding spices, and partly because I don’t want to be bothered with deep cleaning my coffee grinder multiple times a day. (My mortar and pestle is way easier to clean.)
Yes, I know it’s kind of lazy. It’s fine. Recognizing your own limitations is healthy.
Anyway…
Coffee-and-spice grinders can do the trick when you’re dipping your toes into grinding your own coffee, even if you don’t end up with uniform grounds.
Here are my top picks:
For a good basic budget coffee grinder, you can’t go wrong with this model from Hamilton Beach. It doesn’t have any adjustable settings, so it’s not going to give you a uniform grind. But it is super easy to use, pretty easy to clean (a common problem with all-purpose grinders), and the cord tucks away at the base of the unit, so it’s incredibly easy to store. For folks who have limited counter space and just need the most simple grinder possible, this is a good option.
If you want something with basic functionality but a striking appearance, this Bodum Bistro grinder is a real knockout. It has all the features you want of an electric coffee grinder, but its unique color and shape make it stand out so you can’t miss it.
And if you think that’s not important, just wait until you dump your whole beans directly into your coffee maker instead of the grinder. Because you need to make coffee, but you haven’t had your coffee yet.
I know I can’t be the only person who’s done that…
The SHARDOR Adjustable Electric Coffee Grinder is a good mid-to-upper-range option for an all-purpose adjustable grinder. It’s available in black or white, and compared to others of its type, seems to make grinds that are closer to uniform. There aren’t many good-quality adjustable non-burr grinders out there, but this seems to be your best bet if a burr grinder is out of your reach for now.
Burr Grinders
The best way to go when grinding coffee yourself is to use a burr grinder. They allow you to control the size of the grounds as well as have a consistent grind, which is crucial for most brewing methods (I’ll get into that with each of the kinds of coffee makers, so don’t worry).
Here are a few that I’ve found:
The JavaPresse manual burr coffee grinder is a best-seller for a reason. It’s relatively small and lightweight, making it easy to bring it with you if you like to brew on the go. It also has all the settings you’ll probably need to get the grounds basically as coarse or as fine as you want them.
Keep in mind that it is a manual grinder, so you either need a bit of strength to use it, or you need to be okay with developing that strength as you use it over time.
Not everyone is physically capable of using a manual burr grinder, and that’s fine. There are some great options for electric burr grinders as well:
The Cuisinart DBM-8 Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill is a great option for uniform-ground coffee with the convenience of an electric motor. It has a “bean hopper” for you to load up to 8 oz. of whole coffee beans, and a chamber below the grinder that can store plenty of grounds, so you don’t have to grind your beans every time you want to make more coffee.
(I would personally only grind the amount I’d need for the day, but that extra convenience might matter to some folks.)
This model is available in three different colors so you can more easily coordinate it to your kitchen. I’ve linked the “cream” one because I think it’s the prettiest, but it is also available in black-and-steel (which was a little less expensive as of the time this post was first published) as well as white-and-steel, so you can find the color scheme that you like the best!
If you want to get even more fancy with your burr grinder, I’m really impressed by the Baratza Encore Conical Burr Grinder. This grinder features 40 different grind settings, so you can be as picky about your grind as you want to be.
The Baratza model is only available in white or black, but I think it more than makes up for the lack of aesthetic options by being a powerhouse for the budding at-home barista.
Final thoughts
Honestly, grinding your own coffee is slightly more complex than just buying grounds at the store. But once you try it, you’ll probably find it hard to go back to the pre-ground stuff.
The self-care ritual of grinding delicious coffee beans quickly becomes part of your regular routine, and you get to enjoy a remarkable, rich, fragrant cup of coffee every single time you brew.
And what coffee drinker wouldn’t want to start their day that way?
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~Beatrix