Melitta MEBG8B Coffee Mill
From Melitta
- Amazon Sales Rank: #164372 in Kitchen & Housewares
- Brand: Melitta
- Model: MEBG8B
- Dimensions: 5.00" h x 7.40" w x 9.60" l, 8.20 pounds
Equipped with hard burrs that grind beans more uniformly and without the flavor-destroying heat generated by blade grinders, this coffee mill makes preparing fresh coffee simple. It has preprogrammed buttons for grinding enough to brew 4, 8, 10, or 12 cups and a dial for selecting one of 18 grind consistencies, from very coarse to very fine for espresso. The bean chamber holds 8 ounces, enough for about 36 five-ounce cups. When the selected amount of beans is ground, the mill shuts off automatically. A transparent plastic container snaps into the mill's front to catch up to 8 ounces of ground coffee. It has a snap-on lid so it can store either ground coffee or beans. For easy cleaning, the grinding wheel twists out. The 120-watt mill measures 5 inches wide, 9 inches high, and 6-1/2 inches deep. It's clad in hard, bright plastic, has push-in cord storage, and carries a one-year warranty against defects. --Fred Brack
Very Satisfactory With A Little Adjustment
True, it is loud and will spray a bit of coffee dust on your clean counter. A similarly priced blade grinder will be just as loud and make just as much of a mess -- but this burr grinder is much more convenient. Push a single button to grind your morning coffee, no measuring of beans or guessing about the fineness of the grind.
Others have complained that even the finest "16" setting produces coffee that is still quite course. I had this problem as well, but it is fairly easy to reindex the grinder to produce a finer grind. First, unplug the grinder and leave the top grinding burr in place. Inside the whole-bean hopper you'll find 3 Phillip's head screws -- unscrew these to remove the hopper, then carfully lift off the black plastic top of the grinder. Inside you'll see another Phillip's screw on top of the fineness adjustment wheel -- turn the wheel to 16 and unscrew the screw to disengage the gears. Put a dab of White-Out on the gear around the grinding mechanism so that you know what the original setting was. Now you can turn the grinding mechanism clockwise to bring the two grinding wheels closer together. Turn clockwise until the burrs are actually touching, and you can't turn any more, then turn counter-clockwise an eighth or a quarter of a turn so that the burrs don't actually touch each other (you want to grind coffee, not the metal on the burrs). Now lift and turn the fineness adjustment wheel to "16" and screw it back in. Reassemble the grinder and run some coffee through it to check the fineness of the grind.
There, now your $20 grinder is as good as a $50 burr grinder.
A burr grinder at a regular grinder price
While the price of all small coffee grinders seems to have dropped, this burr grinder costs about what I paid for a basic blade grinder years ago. As to the machine. It has 18 degrees of fineness, which you set easily with a wheel on the side. Open the top, fill it with coffee (it holds about a half pound). Hit one of the preset amount buttons, 4,8,10 or 12, and in a few seconds, the bottom detachable container is ready to slide out. It takes some experimentation to find out how fine you like your grind, and if the preset amounts produce the right amount for your pot. I found that the amount it produced for eight cups was just right for our ten cup pot (and I don't like weak coffee). If none of the preset amounts are right for you, it has a shut off button on the front, so you can hit the button for a larger amount and shut it off early. Since the preset amounts seem generous, it should grind enough coffee for most automatic makers, press pots, etc.
The coffee storage area on top is a little small, i.e. it holds about enough for two twelve cup pots, but its simple enough to keep adding new beans.
The grinding burr comes out easily (i.e. the top one - the bottom one is attached, but cleaning is easy. When the coffee is ground, it ends up in a clear plastic container that slides out easily, and cleans up easily.
There is cord storage space underneath, so you can leave out just enough cord to reach from the unit to the wall socket - and this machine has earned a permanent place on our counter, next to the coffee pot. Its going to be burr grinding from now on.
Burr grinder quality for a blade grinder price
I have used many grinders, and the burr grinders make a much, much better cup of coffee than the blade grinders. There may be better grinders out there, but if you can't afford to spend a fortune, this machine gives you "burr" quality for a "blade" price. It is convenient and easy to use, and easy to clean. I never have to measure coffee, I just press the "6" button and pour the grounds into the coffee maker.
There are a couple of minor inconveniences.
1. There is a small amount of ground coffee that ends up on the counter. Very little, in my experience, nothing like the big mess described below.
2. You do have to experiment with the coarseness settings until you find what you like. It took me three tries to figure out that I like it at setting 10. I used the finest setting a couple of times, to make espresso, and the results were great.
By the way, I have found that I prefer to use the amount of coffee recommended for 6 cups when I make 8 cups of coffee. That has nothing to do with this grinder, I have found exactly the same results with other grinders and other coffee makers.
