crgwbr Senior Member Joined: 8 Oct 2007 Posts: 40 Location: PA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Heavily Modded Krups XP2010 Grinder: Turkish Hand Mill Drip: French Press Roaster: Popcorn Popper
Posted Fri Oct 12, 2007, 5:16pm Subject: Just bought a new grinder- did I make a good choice?
I just bought my first espresso grinder (Click Here). Since I'm on a tight budget, I opted for a Hand-Crank turkish mill from Amazon.com. Has anyone had experiance with this grinder? Any tips or thoughts about it?
Thanks, Craig
"Better to be a geek than an idiot." "To go forward, you must backup." "Programmers are tools for converting Espresso into code."
ThatCoffeeGuy Senior Member Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 880 Location: Kalamazoo, MI Expertise: Pro Barista
Espresso: NS at shop, nothing at home Grinder: NS MDX, NS MCF (home), Bunn... Vac Pot: Yama Tabletop Drip: Chemex Roaster: Behmor 1600, FR-8, Popper,...
Posted Fri Oct 12, 2007, 7:00pm Subject: Re: Just bought a new grinder- did I make a good choice?
Looks like a knockoff Zassenhaus, probably a decent grinder (what application are you using it for; just espresso? I don't know that it will grind fast enough/even enough/fine enough for decent espresso extraction, but only you will be able to tell) Your use is really the only way you will be able to tell if it is any good or not. Looks to me like you made a decent choice though, although I still have my slight reservations about whether or not it will work for espresso.
HTH -Bry
P.S. -Hopefully someone with experience with this grinder or the Zassenhaus that looks just like it, will weigh in on using it for espresso, but I have no experience with this grinder (sorry).
Bryan Wray
"I just hope that people realize that coffee is not just a caffeine delivery service, it can be a culinary art." -Christopher Owens
crgwbr Senior Member Joined: 8 Oct 2007 Posts: 40 Location: PA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Heavily Modded Krups XP2010 Grinder: Turkish Hand Mill Drip: French Press Roaster: Popcorn Popper
Posted Mon Oct 15, 2007, 4:39am Subject: Re: Just bought a new grinder- did I make a good choice?
Thanks for the reply, I'll post a review or something after I get it. At the very least, it should be better than nothing. Until now, I've been using coffee that I bought & ground at the grocery store. In other words, it was pure crap.
"Better to be a geek than an idiot." "To go forward, you must backup." "Programmers are tools for converting Espresso into code."
Posted Mon Oct 15, 2007, 9:24am Subject: Re: Just bought a new grinder- did I make a good choice?
Hi crgwbr,
It's not Zassenhaus or a knockoff Zasenhaus (if we're to talk about knockoffs, well zassenhaus turkish mill itself is a high quality knockoff already :D ) What you got is a turkish handmill and here http://static.flickr.com/56/138995579_f907496ae4_o.jpg you can see a very old (and in very good condition) version. And here 2 other, this one http://images.gittigidiyor.com/275/2750419_0.jpg and this one Click Here (images.hemalhemsat.com) not in good condition. What you bought is a new version, see this hungarian page http://www.terebess.hu/szorolapok/kave.html (scroll down to where it says turkish coffee in english, you'll see the exact picture of what you bought) and it looks like you bought from parthenonfoods via Amazon Click Here (parthenonfoods.com) As you see they sell goods from many countries including Turkiye.
Now about tips.. There are many Turkish handmills around and some of them are high quality with thick brass, stainless steel interior, some are again thick brass but inner parts made of cast iron (this is probably yours), and some are very thin brass and awfull construction inside with worst materials used you can imagine. In all cases it will work no worries there :) Just don't wash it ever! NO! First fill it till top and grind all of it but don't use. Meanwhile you can adjust your grind's fineness by thightening or untightening the huge screw at bottom of your mill (pull the bottom cap, you'll see a screw there, use your joint arm to tighten) The more tight means finer grinds. If you're having difficulties with joint arm that means coffee will come as powder (as fine as turkish coffee) step by step untighten it and try with your machine till you find the right setting. In time with use the screw at bottom will loosen, no worries there, just tighten a little again. 100-150 turns of joint arm gives you enough coffee for 1 cup turkish coffee, 200-250 turns (sometimes more) gives you enough for single espresso shot, and 300-400 for a double (these varies from mill to mill, basket size to basket size)
crgwbr Senior Member Joined: 8 Oct 2007 Posts: 40 Location: PA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Heavily Modded Krups XP2010 Grinder: Turkish Hand Mill Drip: French Press Roaster: Popcorn Popper
Posted Mon Oct 15, 2007, 12:58pm Subject: Re: Just bought a new grinder- did I make a good choice?
Thanks for all the information. I'm hoping its of good construction, though it probably doesn't matter a whole lot if the interior is brass or iron. Wow, 300-400 turns every time I want a double shot (~3 times per day)! Looks like I'll get workout at least. Hey, I'll finally be able to say that my espresso habit is healthy, lol. Any idea how much torque it's gonna take? If it's not too much, and it won't permanently hurt the grinder, I may take the handle off and attach a cordless drill to the crank-shaft. That would be good for mornings that I'm feeling especially lazy, lol.
Anyway, thanks for the info, Craig
"Better to be a geek than an idiot." "To go forward, you must backup." "Programmers are tools for converting Espresso into code."
gime2much Senior Member Joined: 10 Dec 2004 Posts: 1,965 Location: Sunny S Fl Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: La Pavoni, Astoria comm, 2... Grinder: La Pavoni Zip, Bunn... Drip: Bunn comm Roaster: Popcorn popper (air),co/ufo
Posted Mon Oct 15, 2007, 1:49pm Subject: Re: Just bought a new grinder- did I make a good choice?
I recently picked up a 14 inch tall brass pepper mill (i use only for pepper) with ceramic burrs. It takes much less effort to grind than my old commercial model.
Posted Mon Oct 15, 2007, 2:17pm Subject: Re: Just bought a new grinder- did I make a good choice?
crgwbr,
Yesterday I had written about my grinder journey in another post and as I said there, you definetely put some muscles on your arms =P Anyways I made cordless drill test with my brother a year ago. First off all we couldn't find any suitable sizes, nibs/tips whatever you call those wouldn't fit, we even went to a huge shop and searched for a suitable tip but couldn't come up with anything, thickness was blabla,5 so we tried with a larger and hardly fitting smaller tip, yeah mill turns but it is dangerous =P Anyways I'm still working on that project already, asked to a friend (she's el.engineer) for a suitable cap design which works with electric and batteries. If I ever succeed I'll post all details, till that time go turn that arm you won't regret of the results ;)
Dan,
The issue with turkish mill, it's hard to turn only if you're grinding for turkish coffee (which means powder) that much tightness, there's almost no space between burrs, but if you're grinding for espresso then it's easier to turn. Also here's another tip, if there are other people around, show it to them, eventually they will want to play with it (it happens all the time ayh!) just mention they have to turn for 100 minimum...well actually the number depends on how merciless you are being *evil grin*
PS. If your mill is cast iron inside, and if you realize it started to worn out, dismantle it (if you can, I don't recommend though =)) then do some filing job around burrs, I was able to save one of my very old smaller mill that way ;)
crgwbr Senior Member Joined: 8 Oct 2007 Posts: 40 Location: PA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Heavily Modded Krups XP2010 Grinder: Turkish Hand Mill Drip: French Press Roaster: Popcorn Popper
Posted Mon Oct 15, 2007, 4:47pm Subject: Re: Just bought a new grinder- did I make a good choice?
I won't be grinding for Turkish too often (maybe once a week or so). It's good to know it won't be insanely hard to turn for my morning double shot. I didn't realize that the burr material would make a huge difference. So, the brass would be better?
I'll have to try pawning off the grinding to others. Sounds like it would work well, unless of course they've read Huck fin, lol.
"Better to be a geek than an idiot." "To go forward, you must backup." "Programmers are tools for converting Espresso into code."
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