What is your expeience with the Porlex Mini II manual grinder?
It’s the only grinder I’ve ever used, I find it quite handy and consistent in the grinding but I have actually no benchmark to judge it objectively. Is it actually good?
@coffee@lemmy.world
Never buy a ceramic burr grinder these days. I’ve not used this specific one but for the money it is a terrible choice. These days there are fantastic high quality steel burr grinders available at a similar price from Timemore and Kingrind or other lesser known companies. Well made stainless steel burr grinders are faster and provide a much more consistent grind size/grind variability than ceramic grinders.
If someone is buying a new grinder they should stay away from Porlex ceramic and Hario ceramic burr grinders. 20 years there were no other choices at those prices now there are tons of far better grinders with stainless steel burrs. Porlex is overpriced garbage.
Steel conducts heat. If you grind coffee with steel, there’s risk of slightly cooking the beans - changing the flavor profile.
Ceramic, in contrast, is an insulator. Therefore, it’s safer to use ceramic grinders for coffee.
If you handle a ceramic burr grinder properly, you can get consistent enough grinds quickly enough to make consistent, high quality coffee. Those of us who grind by hand don’t care as much about speed - we are grinding by hand, after all.
It’s not worth the risk to add heat to the grind process.
I’ll add that I don’t judge if people use steel grinders for their coffee. It’s your coffee, make it the way you like it! But ceramic grinders are hardly garbage, and Porlex does make some of the best hand mills.
Unless you are attaching your hand grinder to an electric drill, a person cannot apply enough force or speed to generate the high RPMs to generate heat. You are way off based on this.
You and I may disagree, but hot damn Timemore makes a sexy product.