It’s just going to take a little work on your part. Grinding or “milling” coffee is a little tougher on an old-fashioned hand grinder.
A box grinder is just that—a box with a crank and handle sticking out of the top. Once you drop the beans in, get cranking.

Maybe you’ll appreciate the coffee even more. There are also manual grinders that work sort of like a pepper mill. However, if you live in the United States, you may have a little trouble finding a manual grinder at all.
You’re not going to walk into a Target or a Wal-Mart and find a Krips or Cuisinart manual grinder.

In a high-end store you may bump into a Melitta Grind and Brew which will not only grind your coffee, but brew it, and offer a digital display with the time, the weather, and give you instructions in foreign languages.
This is a world away from the manual grinder.

New-fangled electric grinders are the most popular, but if you are after that by-hand experience, there are specialty shops online where you can still find an old-fashioned manual grinder. Or just go to that cute little antique store around the corner.

The brand name is always a clue either. A lot of different companies make a good grinder. Believe it or not, the weight can tell you a lot.
A heavier grinder has a heavier motor. This means that it is a more powerful motor that can provide the torque required to grind, but still do it at a low speed.

The faster you grind beans, the more you will heat them from friction. This heat can make your coffee taste bad—from just a little too bitter to a definite burned taste. If you decide to get a cheap little grinder, that’s up to you of course, but if you grind a lot of coffee, it won’t take you long to burn the motor out, so spending a little more money up front may save you money on down the line.

One way you can save a little money is by avoiding a grinder with a doser. These grinders have little compartments and as the coffee is ground, these compartments are filled. Then with a flick of a lever, the correct “dose” comes out of the chute.

If you’re only making one pot in the morning though, you still have all those little compartments full of grounds which are going to sit and get stale until you use them. With a regular grinder, you can grind just enough for what you need.

Now if you ARE going to make several pots—maybe in the office, or if you’re a serious coffee addict, try the doser. It can make life a little easier. It’s all up to you—just do your research!

How you grind those beans is up to you—manual coffee grinder with an old-fashioned handle you work with a little elbow grease, a burr grinder which grinds the beans between wheels or discs, or chopping—maybe using your blender. There are also a couple of specialty methods.

If you pound the beans to a fine powder, you’ll end up with what’s known as Turkish coffee. You can also roller grind them, but if you have a roller grinder you probably own some industrial coffee business—they’re big.

All of these different grinder types produce different effects on your cup. The manual grinder gives you a sore elbow, and who wants that? Burr grinding gives you a bunch of ground up pieces that are a pretty uniform size.

This gives you an even extraction of flavor, and you don’t get tiny little bits of bean passing through your filter.
Usually a burr grinder has different settings so you can control how coarse or fine the coffee ends up.

Different methods of brewing require different grinds from super-coarse to super-fine. Oh—and chopping? Messy. You can get a lot of coffee dust that can clog your espresso machine, or end up as a film in your cup.
Yuck. Point being—to get from beans to brew, you need a grinder. From Krups to Cuisinart, from Braun to Mr. Coffee–just check them out and pick!

The faster the burrs rotate the more friction and the more friction the more heat. If you’re coffee is heated as it is ground, it can affect the taste.
Disc-type burrs rotate a little faster, so it creates more of that heat, but if you’re just grinding a little bit each morning for your pot, the grind time will be pretty short and you’re probably not going to crate enough heat to ruin the flavor or aroma.

Another thing that makes a disc-type burr grinder attractive for the home is that it is usually a little cheaper than a conical.
Burr grinders can also be found in a grind and brew combo machine, like the Melitta Grind and Brew.

Once you drop the beans in, your job is basically done. You can also save some counter space. A lot of these grind and brews can be pricey, but check out the different brands and read some online coffee grinder reviews.

A combo may be cheaper than buying a grinder and a brewing machine separately. Whichever type you settle on, a burr grinder will give you a consistent grind.
All the little particles are roughly the same size, and this means a consistent flavor extraction as the water passes through, without a lot of coffee dust passing through with it.

Espresso machines, drip machines percolators, French press—they all require different grinds so that setting option is great.
A conical burr grinder has got burrs made of steel that crush the bean. They can grind up the beans without creating a lot of friction.

Friction is bad news in a coffee grinder.
The greater the friction, the more heat created.
The more heat, the more your coffee will “taste funny.” A disc burr grinder does the same thing as the conical, but with two main differences.
For one thing, they’re noisier than a conical grinder, so if you want a quiet grind, the conical burr is probably the one for you.

The second difference is that heat factor again.
The discs rotate faster and so the coffee is heated a little more, possibly affecting the taste.
A disc grinder is normally cheaper than a conical, so if you’re on a budget and not grinding cup after cup after cup, go for the disc-type burr.
Your price will also vary from company to company of course.

Krups, Braun, Cuisinart—a lot of familiar names make them, and their prices will all vary. Of course, it may all come down to which company makes the color that matches your kitchen!