Transparent Black Mini Mill Plus | Compact & Adjustable Hand Coffee Grinder with Ceramic Burrs, Plastic,24g

Received this 2/3 days ago and so fa have used it 3 times, all on the fine setting to prepare my regular espresso (which is why I bought this item). I also use an electric coffee grinder, aminly for use in a drip filter or large and small cafetieres, but it is not so good for espresso, so have until now bought ready-ground espresso coffee, so once my current stock is reduced I will probably mainly use the manual grinder instead. It was easy to set up and pretty easy to use - the minor exercise when turning the handle is probably good for me anyway. The espresso grind is very consistent and produces excellent espresso grind coffee which works well in my small moka espesso pot, I also have a larger espresso moka pot for occasional use when guests call and will probably continue to use ready-ground for that, but for individual use the manual grinder is excellent. It seems pretty sturdily built so am very hopeful it will last quite a long time.

During furlough I went down a rabbit hole of 'third wave' coffee watching a lot of James Hoffmann and Chris Baca. It seems I only ever previously experienced coffee 'flavoured' drinks, and coffee can actually taste a lot different to this - this intrigued me and I wanted to see what these guys were talking about. So now you know what angle I'm approaching this from, a newbie who has no idea but wants to understand more. If I was going to jump down this rabbit hole it seemed right to start with the biggest piece of advice that seemed to be 'grind as fresh as possible'. Being furloughed, I didn't want to spend serious sums of money just to sate my own curiosity so this was a good sweet spot for an entry burr grinder that SHOULD be reasonable quality. It can comfortably take 30g of beans. The plastic construction is light, but rigid, and easy to clean. I had a lot of concerns about the shaft-wobble for the conical burr though - I'm tempted to 3d print a stiffening locator for the bottom. I found that on anything bigger than 'fine side of medium-fine' (about 4-5 clicks back from tightest position), the wobble gave REALLY inconsistent grind size. I've settled on using 4 clicks back for pour over at the moment. The clicks on the tightening nut could really be improved if they were made finer, to give greater control over the exact position. A stiffener to lock the bottom of the shaft below the burrs would be a massive improvement too. Even with these nitpicks in mind, it did the job and performs adequately for a compact, low-med price, coffee grinder which, good enough that I know I can't blame it for my own inconsistent brewing - but that's where enjoying constant improvement comes in!

I bought this grinder because I was seriously temped to buy a REALLY GREAT grinder. I had my sights set on the Aergrind made by Knock - but at £125 I couldn't justify it considering I wasn't even sure if I would use it as much as my ideal inner budding coffee nerd thought I might. As a compromise I picked this grinder up because it had decent ratings by coffee nerds and was in a much more affordable price range at nearly £100 cheaper. This was a good move it turns out, because while I like to think I'm the sort of person who will freshly grind my coffee every morning for my cuppa - it turns out.. I'd rather have it NOW than Fantastic. The fantastic can wait till i'm awake enough to full appreciate it. So.. I find I'm using it a few times a week when I want a really nice cup of coffee to enjoy, and for £32 - I can justify that. So.. the Hario has become my 'entry-level' coffee grinder, until such a time that I fall off the deep end and cough up £125 for a really amazing one. And as an entry level grinder - it's great.. I love it. it's easy, not messy, haven't smashed my fingers yet.. looks good in the cupboard. criticism - The sticky bar code - others have mentioned it. it took me ages to get it off - I don't know what kind of double strong super-glue epoxy gorilla adhesive they're using but it looks like crap, and it took me hours of soaking, scraping and using isopropyl alcohol to finally get it off without damaging the plastic.

If you want to try what is classed as 'fresher' and 'smoother' ground/filter coffee, by grinding your own beans, but don't want to go all in on the expensive side then this is pretty much the perfect 'starter' kit for you to begin your life long party conversation piece about how much better freshly ground beans are compared to buying pre-packed pre-ground beans 😉 It does what it says on the tin, it grinds beans using easily maintained and cleaned ceramic burrs, which are very easily adjusted between fine and not so fine (coarse), it just takes a couple of goes to work out what adjustment setting is right for you. A full container of beans gives you approx 20-22g of ground beans (level 2 marker) and depending on your fitness level takes approx 5 mins of turning the handle (clockwise) which is enough for 2 cups of coffee. This is the experimentation but, as depending what information you read some places say 12g of ground coffee should be used for every 150ml of water, yet most measuring spoons are 7g including the one supplied with the Sage Precision Pro Brewer and they recommend 1 level spoon per 150ml? so it may take a few attempts to get your preferred taste sorted. Other than that after a number of uses I find that this is easy and straightforward to use, gives me a great pre coffee workout and I can honestly taste the difference between 'fresh' and 'pre' ground coffee beans, come Christmas I'll be looking to upgrade to one that's a bit bigger ( or even electric) as there's 2 of us and we usually drink 2 cups each, which means a 10 minute post coffee workout = a bit much at 6am 😄 Highly recommended as a let's see what all the fuss is about coffee beans grinder 👍

Let me state here that I think the “Hario MMCS-2B Skerton PRO Mill” is superb (because it takes a while to get to the Hario grinder in this review). I'd contemplated getting a grinder for a long time. Would it be worth the investment, am I not happy enough with the ready-ground coffee that I've been using for decades now, etc? Over the last thirty (or possibly more years) I've had numerous coffee makers – quite a few moka pots and a fair few domestic espresso-cappuccino type machines, but have never had a grinder though I've wondered about it often. Well I bought an electric grinder (initially, that is before finding that what I needed was the “Hario”). That electric grinder seemed to tick all the right boxes. It was a ceramic burr grinder and had numerous settings including grinding for espresso. Coffee-wise I only drink espresso. I say that for reference only, as I hope I'm not a coffee snob. I looked forward to my freshly ground beans of a coffee bean blend that I'd been buying ready ground. The end result was a disaster. The electric machine could not grind the beans finely enough for my brew. I read yet more reviews and articles about grinders, and it seemed to me, reading between the lines, that one needed to spend plenty – much more than I had done, to get a satisfactory electric grinder that would give a satisfactory grind for espresso, for good strong intense espresso – and not the insipid drink that came as a result of the electric grinder that I had bought previously. All those articles that I'd read made me realise that if I went for a manual burr grinder hat I could then get fantastic espresso from it! It would also be cheaper than the electric grinder. For my espresso I am at the moment using a “De'Longhi Dedica Espresso Machine, Coffee and Cappuccino Maker” which is inexpensive but good as far as I'm concerned). I make three or four brews a day (6 to 8 espresso shots) and so the “Hario” has been used many dozens of times over the last five months since I started using it and it is as good as it was on day one. There are grind settings from coarse (for drip coffee) to fine for espresso and all shades in between. I'm finding the two finest setting to be too fine for my brew and have been using it set at the third finest setting to get a superb cup of coffee. The “Hario” grinder has made a definite improvement to the quality of my espresso. The improvement is not so overwhelming that I couldn't live without the grinder though. I could, I guess quite happily use pre-ground coffee again but haven't done so in the last five months or so since I got the grinder.

This is my first foray into coffee hand-grinders so I caveat this review by saying I don't have much to compare it with. I went for this model as I was weary of some of the super-cheap ones (thin metal, stripped threads, etc) but did't want to risk spending a fortune on something fancy and then decide that a manual grinder wasn't for me. This one seemed a good compromise and Hario kit has always worked well for me in the past. First impressions are pretty good. It is fairly weighty and sits on the counter securely and things like the metal for the crank handle are of a good thickness. The shape of the handle and the lid means that you can 'hang' it from the side for storage but it doesn't attach in anyway so no good for transport. The glass at the bottom is essentially a thick walled jam jar. In fact, so much so it has nearly accidentally gone out with the recycling more than once! The rubber on the bottom stops it sliding around when grinding however it is the loosest of fits - basically supports its own weight but is more than happy to slide off. Issues I have in use: Due to the design the collar that you grip when grinding is pretty large in diameter - provides a decent forearm exercise first thing in the morning which isn't always what you want when you just need coffee. The glass fits into the rubber 'foot' with a ball-and-socket type feel meaning the whole unit rolls about in use. Combine that with the point above and things can feel like harder work than they should be. The grind is very easy to adjust (hold handle whilst rotating the bottom of the grind unit). However, it is both stepped and unmarked. The steps can be annoying if, like me, you find the ideal is between two steps as there aren't many of them. Being unmarked makes it very hard to jump around multiple settings (unless you do things like 'all the way right before 3 clicks left' etc). I tend to use a variety of brew methods but it is annoying enough to chop and change the settings that this now lives on one setting, which leaves it feeling underutilised (really don't want to own a brace of grinders all locked in to one setting each!). All in all, this is a decent machine which I don't regret buying and would overall recommend, but just a few usability issues keep it back from being perfect.

I've used this grinder everyday, pretty much, for over 3 years. It's robust, strong and grinds really well. It's easy to set up, clean and to adjust the grind size. It doesn't take up a lot of room and it easy to take apart and out back together. There have been occasional beans that have been tough to grind and so a little hard work, but I would say that has been more to do with the beans than the grinder. 99% of the time it grinds really easily. An absolute essential for those who love coffee from coffee beans. Such good value.

For its price point its a great coffee grinder if you're starting out like me to see if you'll get into it. I have coffee fairly frequently and this was great to use. My main issue with it is that its hard to clean, it came with no brush so usually had to hand clean it and can be a bit finicky trying to get the pieces back together. Not the most complicated equipment in the world. But time consuming for someone that's not a big fan of it. As its a mini its awkward to hold when you're grinding One of the pieces from the grinder sadly broke and I cant seem to find a replacement for it so I'll need to order another grinder. Taken all my cons I wont get another one but it was a good one to start try out with