Porlex Mini Stainless Steel Coffee Grinder

I've gone down the coffee bean grinder rabbit hole! As a minimalist, I like that I don't have to plug it in, it does require batteries or charging. Solid metal construction. Not thin flimsy pot metal. I get my fix ground up in about 40 seconds. Minimal effort required to turn the handle. Easy to hold. Getting the grind setting takes some patience but well worth it. Just follow the directions to the letter, the best coffee of your life is at stake. And it's soooo worth it.

First off, great quality of grounds.... super smooth, consistent and even grind with the Espresso/Turkish fine settings. Be prepared to take your time (2-3 minutes for a full double-shot), honor your morning coffee as the relaxing ritual it's meant to be, and enjoy.For home use, I'm cheap and can't seem to find a reason to replace my old Bosch blade grinder I've had for about 30 years, and can't really complain about the taste of my coffee....After all, my Bosch works quickly, produces smooth grind, and doesn't heat up all that much. I suppose when the motor gives up the ghost i will switch to an electric burr grinder.Meanwhile, I bought the Porlex Mini after deciding I also wanted a small, manual coffee grinder for travel or camping or maybe to take to work, when i want to treat myself to a good cup of coffee made with freshly ground beans. Despite my loyalty to my trusty Bosch blade grinder, I did notice that beans freshly ground in the Porlex Mini and NOT heated up at all by the electric grinder do taste better. And mainly, they smell better! I like a very fine grind, between espresso and Turkish, and this grinder does the trick (had to actually back off the setting from the finest because the grinds were just a bit too fine and temporarily jammed up the filter in the Espresso maker).Directions for the Porlex Mini are in Japanese, but it's pretty intuitive to change the burr setting to get a finer or coarser grind. The Porlex Mini is well made and for my small hands, easy to hold. I like the hand-crank, reminds me of the winch-handles i grew up with sailing. The fittings are simple and perfect. I had read a lot of reviews of this product and some others before purchasing. My other choice would have been the Skerton Mini which is cheaper, but the design of the Porlex, stainless steel vs plastic container, overall size, etc, and the slickness of the Porlex construction swayed my vote toward the Porlex.After grinding your fresh beans, just slide the bottom of the stainless steel canister down and pour the grounds into your espresso shot (for home), very little spillage. For the complete "portable" espresso bar, the Porlex Mini (without the crank) fits inside the Aerobie AeroPress, for easy packing. Of course, I couldn't resist purchasing the AeroPress, and also went for the Kaffeologie S Filter for AeroPress (Ultra Fine Stainless Steel Reusable), so i'm all set for my next trip.

This grinder is amazing. Seems this is a new model with the top as a slightly twisted rectangular protrusion. I've tried Javapresse (cheap version of old Porlex with a hex protrusion) and the Handground grinder (looks cool, but not well refined as a product) as well as the Bodum Bistro electric burr grinder. I mainly use this to brew single cups.This Porlex comes out on top as it's the easiest/smoothest to turn and the fastest to grind 20g in about 30 seconds (compared with ~1 minute for the other manual grinders I've tried). Very consistent grinds as well in my opinion. The build quality is also excellent and feels great in my hands every morning. The grind capacity is also about just over 20g which is perfect for me (makes measurement pretty easy even if I don't have a scale), but might be a problem for larger batches.Both the inner and outer burrs pop out so it's super easy to clean. This is really helpful because I really hate the taste noises caused by old grinds so I always clean my grinder between coffee batches. I also prefer manual grinders because electric grinders make cleaning a bit more complicated (you'd need to either buy coffee cleaners or take it apart).In summary, this is a super high quality grinder in a very small and minimalistic package that serves all my needs perfectly, making it a super elegant product.