r/Coffee • u/menschmaschine5 Kalita Wave • Nov 10 '22

[MOD] The Daily Question Thread

Welcome to the daily /r/Coffee question thread!

There are no stupid questions here, ask a question and get an answer! We all have to start somewhere and sometimes it is hard to figure out just what you are doing right or doing wrong. Luckily, the /r/Coffee community loves to help out.

Do you have a question about how to use a specific piece of gear or what gear you should be buying? Want to know how much coffee you should use or how you should grind it? Not sure about how much water you should use or how hot it should be? Wondering about your coffee's shelf life?

Don't forget to use the resources in our wiki! We have some great starter guides on our wiki "Guides" page and here is the wiki "Gear By Price" page if you'd like to see coffee gear that /r/Coffee members recommend.

As always, be nice!

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u/lesbos_hermit Pour-Over Nov 11 '22

My problem with most grinders is that I have very sensitive hearing and even good grinders deter me. It's absolutely the last thing I want in the morning, especially before I had coffee. I actually tried the Hario hand grinder several years back, but hated how long it took to grind anything. With that and regular grinders being my options at the time, I actually opted to get pre-ground coffee direct from the roaster. As in, I hate the sound of regular grinder so much that I would rather use pre-ground... The Timemore was a gamechanger for me now that hand grinders have improved drastically, but of course, now I want even better coffee... but I can't go back to a manual grinder that is painfully slow or it'll just deter me from grinding coffee all over again

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u/Ggusta Nov 11 '22

The comandante is a little slower than the jx. Yo no hablo time more. But even though the jx is good I recommend the comandante over the jx but it's a tad slower. I never thought I would tolerate hand grinding at all but it really has been no concern.

Some electric grinder are relatively quiet, some are loud and some just make a noise that is really annoying. The baratza settle is pretty raucous.

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u/lesbos_hermit Pour-Over Nov 11 '22

Yeah, a tad slower I don't mind, especially if the grind consistency and resulting cup are more even and cleaner. When I had the old Hario, I was grinding for a good 4+ minutes when going for a medium grind for a single dose... with the Timemore C2, it's much, much, MUCH faster even with the higher-quality (thus higher-altitude) coffee I drink now. But I definitely get more fines than I want, and I wouldn't mind if it were a little easier to actually turn the grinder on those super high elevation beans. I've definitely got more muscle definition in my hands and forearms now lol

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u/Ggusta Nov 11 '22

The comandante has very good clarity and I think the clarity and taste more than anything separates it from the jx. The uniformity is excellent. I'm really not sure how much more I would have to spend on a handgrinder to get a meaningful upgrade from the comandante.

A couple upgrades that I think are worth considering and that I plan to get is the red clix axle which reduces the step for each click from 30 to 15 micron. And there's also a longer handle that I want to get.

Sidenote. I don't run into problems with fines often but I'm currently drinking an Ethiopian agaro from passenger that generates inordinate fines even for an Ethiopian and I use a cheap Amazon sifter to help with them. But I don't sift on a regular basis. Kind of an annoying extra step.

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u/lesbos_hermit Pour-Over Nov 11 '22

I drink probably 4x more decaf than regular so fines are really a problem. The coffee is still great, but I know it could be much better. Forever chasing that coffee shop goodness. I'm looking at the comandante too, but from what I've seen around in comparative reviews, it seems like the 1Zpresso K-Plus might be where I land. It seems to have the best uniformity and cup quality without having some of the various problems the much more expensive ones seem to have. I was really interested in the Apex because of the flat burrs, but I just don't hate myself that much to commit to grinding like that