The Best Cheap Manual Coffee Grinder

Here are links to the grinders I reviewed (these are Amazon affiliate links):

Links:

[MrPooPooKatchu]

Thank you for never begging for likes and subs. Both will come naturally with the level of quality you have been producing in these videos. Thanks again, James! Proud to be a backer

[hamleyn]

I think it's time you did another one of these reviews for both cheap and ultimate hand grinders as there's been a lot of movement in the market in the intervening period. Lots more brands, better quality and price movements. Hence I think it'd be great to see this updated for 2022. Great video though!

[marcusj]

You are not begging for likes or subs or being noisy in your videos. You are calm and precise in your wording. You are the Moses of coffee brewing. You definitely have my subscription.

[bobbelsekwol]

I'm on the website now. Grinder isn't showing anything about coffee though.

[MissPoplarLeaf]

2:43 Build Quality
5:10 Build Quality Scores
5:27 Portability
6:50 Portability Scores
6:53 Usability & Grind Quality Intro
8:04 Usability
12:12 Grind Quality & Taste
14:18 Usability & Grind Quality Scores
14:21 Summary

[suzanthrasher]

Born to American parents, I spent my childhood in Brazil, with my favorite memory of, standing in the billowing smoke while the cook’s husband roasted the coffee into the second crack, hand cracking an iron barrel over hot coals. He even let me turn the crank once in awhile.
I started home toasted about 25 years ago, outdoors with a hand crank popcorn popper over a gas flame. I have a strong affinity for Brazilian organic beans from the Santos region, creating the soft, velvety roast of my halcyon childhood memories.
I giggled as I watched your “cheap grinder” video. You see, mine was never considered... the really old fashioned kind with an open top and a drawer. It works great for my daily pour over, into my grandmothers antique sterling silver coffee pot.
I don’t time or weigh or measure, I simply roast and grind and brew from my happy heart...
and enjoy the delight of every cup.☕️
Your show makes me smile, your teaching style is thorough and entertaining, and no matter the time of day, it makes me crave my next hot cup of my home roasted “songbird” coffee.
Thank you for this channel...
it’s one of my new favorites.

[TavisAllen]

I currently live in Japan, and have done research as best I can with my limited Japanese on both of these Japanese companies. Porlex is a manufacturer of ceramics (Kyocera being the other major ceramics manufacturer) in Osaka, and Hario (the 'HA' is pronounced like 'HOT') began as a glass maker in Tokyo. I mention the cities they hail from, as pride and therefore competitive spirit are evident from both companies. Porlex products, be it their coffee, tea and spice mills, coarse and fine food graters, or soy sauce pourers, all feature ceramic used in some way. Hario offers a huge and varied array of products for both coffee and tea users.

Both the Mini and the oft overlooked Tall version fit exactly into the plunger part of the Aeropress, which was almost certainly one of the design objectives. In a "chicken and egg" scenario, I believe the Aeropress came out first.

I bought the Tall way back in May 2012 from, of all places, Orphan Espresso. It is made in Japan and, even here in Japan, is more expensive than its Hario competition. This certainly has to somewhat account for Hario being more popular both in Japan and abroad. It has served me well, but an even grind is only possible at the finest settings.

[dwirandypradhika]

I love how fast the coffee industry has been moving forward in terms of accessibility in a very short period, now we have something like the Timemore C2 that will pretty much run circles around these grinders at a similar price class.

[AdMBandLeader]

I eat a whole coffee plant alongwith a bucket of boiling water once every 5 years so I never require to worry about drinking coffee for those many years altogether.

[GogogoFolowMe]

Love the parallel shots at 7:42. Clearly exposes your consistency

[thspear]

One extra category (possibly on your next review) - CLEANABILITY - I’ve used the Hario for years when ever I go away and used to use it as my daily driver at home. Whenever I wasn’t getting what I expected cleaning it saw a massive improvement, but at the same time was a complete pain with all of the tiny parts.

It’s plastics construction and almost ergonomic design certainly made it easier (against say a standard porlex) - I also preferred HOW it grinds. Although others often felt smoother the hario seemed slightly faster. It would often take as long as the kettle to boil for around 30g of coffee as apposed to others which always felt like they took longer.

The only use for the windows on those other models - a quick reference for grind size (which again I find useful on the hario).

Lastly. I never really know whether it’s cost effective to sift grinds from such a cheap grinder. Am I losing more coffee than it’s worth?

[HipekPhotography]

I bought Porlex mini 2y ago just because it was small and it fit inside aeropress! For travel, perfect.

[Rockmaster]

I don't even like coffee, but I am hooked on these coffee videos for some reason

[SoXFireBlade]

You can buy a tall version of the porlex and it has a capacity of 45 grams for coffee. I have it for 2 years and it's still working great

[clawrence]

Harrio should do a collaboration with Makita and make a hand grinder with a hex shank on it so that you can run your hand grinder with a drill.

[nvrumi]

I bought a Porlex a few years ago on recommendation from a friend. It lives in my camper now. It is perfect for me, since it's just me and the dog and she doesn't drink coffee. My typical coffee load is about 65gm/l with a dark roast. I use an AeroPress for extraction.

It works for me. ;)

[tylerosborne]

Did you only buy hand grinders that matched your outfit? Thanks James for another awesome video!

[allyrose]

I have had the porlex for 5 years and it’s still going strong yielding decent ground coffee. I’d class myself as a “mediocre-coffeesnob” drinker it’s been fine for me 😅

[danebrewer]

The Hario has a nice little feature, I use it all the time at home, and standing on the side, the Boss of the handle where it attaches to the grinder shaft, has a little groove around the edge. This groove fits over the edge of the lid. So whilst not the most compact (and I'm not crazy about the double wall thing that the grinder has going on) you cN hang the handle on the edge of the coffee grinder when it's just sitting on the side and you're not using it 👌🏻

[shipreck]

PSA for anyone watching it now: the two furthest to the right are mass manufactured in china, and they can now be found on the UK amazon for ~£9 each depending on the brand which definitely makes them competetive for their price, if you can't find them on amazon they are plastered everywhere on aliexpress (which I suspect is where they are being drop shipped from on amazon).