Hario Skerton Pro Manual Coffee Grinder for Travel, 100g

A hand grinder with conical ceramic burrs and a heatproof glass catch bowl. Made in Japan, holds 100g, and small enough to live in a bag.

Why grinding fresh matters more than the beans

This is the upgrade that changes more than any other. Whole coffee holds its aromatics for weeks. Ground coffee starts losing them within about fifteen minutes, because grinding multiplies the surface area exposed to air by an enormous factor. That's why a mediocre bean ground fresh usually beats an excellent bean ground last month. If you're buying good coffee and grinding it at the store, you're paying for something you never taste.

Burr, not blade

A blade grinder is a propeller in a cup. It smashes beans into random fragments, some dust, some boulders, and then water extracts them all at different rates, so you get bitterness and sourness in the same mouthful.

Burrs work differently. Two shaped surfaces with a set gap between them, and coffee is milled down until it's small enough to fall through. Everything comes out roughly the same size, which is the entire foundation of brewing consistently. Ceramic burrs also stay cool, and heat during grinding drives off aromatics before the coffee ever meets water.

Being straight about what it's good at

For pour-over, drip, French press, and cold brew, this is a genuinely good grinder at its price, and the upgrade over the original Skerton is real, the adjustment is easier and the grind is more consistent.

For espresso, manage your expectations. It will physically grind fine enough, but espresso demands extreme precision at the fine end, and hand grinders in this class struggle to hold that consistently. If espresso is your main brew method, you'll be happier with a dedicated espresso grinder. If it's occasional and everything else is filter, this is fine.

Why hand grind at all

It's quiet, it needs no power, it costs a fraction of an electric burr grinder, and it goes camping or into a hotel room. The tradeoff is about a minute of cranking per cup, which some people find meditative and some people find is a minute too long before their first coffee.

Details

• Burrs: conical ceramic, low heat
• Capacity: 100g
• Range: fine through coarse, with repeatable settings you can return to
• Bowl: heatproof glass
• Brand: Hario, making coffee and laboratory glassware in Tokyo since 1921