AeroPress finally released its own grinder last year, solving a problem no one had even realized existed — you can fit the grinder inside your AeroPress like a Russian doll. Talk about convenience.
When you go on trips, you can still pack light. Forget trying to fit your grinder, beans, and AeroPress into your camping backpack or fighting with an overstuffed carry-on. But is this portability enough to make the AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder one of the best coffee grinders on the market? If you’re an AeroPress addict, without a shadow of a doubt.
However, I’m not going to claim the AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder is the most uniform grinder in the world. It performed best at medium-fine coarseness — the optimal grind for AeroPress, funnily enough — but I wouldn’t recommend it for French press or cold brew. If you want to find out more, though, keep reading this AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder review.
AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder review: Cheat sheet
- Who is it for? AeroPress aficionados
- What does it do well? Fits inside my AeroPress and is super easy to use
- What does it cost? $199 / £199
- What are its weaknesses? Not as uniform as some Timemore or 1ZPresso alternatives
AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder: Specs
AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder review: Price & availability
The AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder is $199 from Amazon U.S. and £199 from AeroPress U.K.. You may be thinking this is expensive for a coffee grinder, but you’d be wrong. This is firmly in the budget-midrange category for burr grinders.
If you want to spend as little as possible, I’d recommend checking out the Timemore Chestnut C2s, just $79. You might also want to check out the ceramic-burred Hario Mill Grinder ($40) or the 1ZPresso Q-Air ($60).
At the premium end of the spectrum, we’ve got the Comandante C40 MK4, my personal grinder and my highest-recommended hand grinder. If you’ve got $300 to invest in pro-level coffee, it’s gotta be the Comandante. You might also want to check out the 1ZPresso J-Ultra, $199, which is surprisingly functional for its midrange price.
AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder review: Design
As with everything else AeroPress makes, the Manual Coffee Grinder is gorgeous. The silver-and-gray exterior is sleek, modern, and stylish, and the grooves on the grinder body make it easy to hold.
Besides being beautiful, the AeroPress Grinder is also teeny-tiny. Its diameter is just 1.9 inches, and it stands at 7.4 inches tall, so it’s considerably slimmer than the 1ZPresso J-Ultra, although the 1ZPresso Q-Air is 0.1 inch smaller (but its capacity is only 15g-20g).
The handle packs down to sit flush with the grinder body, which is fantastic for portability. This is definitely one of the smallest grinders I’ve ever seen.
But the most impressive aspect is this: the AeroPress Grinder fits inside an AeroPress. If you’re going camping or on vacation, you can take your AeroPress and your grinder without taking up double the space. This is one of the biggest selling points, and makes the grinder a must-have for serious AeroPress fanatics.
While it doesn’t fit inside the $199 AeroPress Premium, it’ll slip into the AeroPress Clear Color, Go, XL — and the OG AeroPress, of course.
Although this means the grinding chamber is quite small — it fits just 25g of beans — if you’re making an AeroPress, you probably wouldn’t need to grind any more than that, anyway.
AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder review: Performance
To test the performance of the AeroPress Manual, I evaluated four main aspects: ease of use, static/clumping, uniformity, and retention.
Ease of use
As it’s a manual grinder, the AeroPress grinder is very easy to use. To adjust the grind, you simply twist the dial on the underside of the grinder body. As with every other grinder I’ve used, clockwise is finer and counterclockwise is coarser.
After putting coffee in the grinding chamber, all you have to do is twist the handle, and you’ve got it working. It’s so easy a toddler could use it (although you shouldn’t let your toddler use this).
I will say that if you’re going at superspeed, the handle sometimes flies off. I wasn’t sure if this was a skill issue on my part, but I’m inclined to believe it is — the knob of my Comandante C40 MK4 also flies off when I’m going too fast. Maybe it’s the grinder gods working together to try and save my bicep from exhausting itself.
Static & clumping
The AeroPress Manual Grinder has incredibly low clumping. I was amazed by the even distribution of the grounds. This is ideal for using with an AeroPress, where you don’t want the water to get clogged in certain areas.
The grinder also generates supremely low static. Sure, there’s a bit of static, but this is expected when you’re turning organic solids into even smaller organic solids. A static-free coffee grinder is nigh on impossible. If someone’s invented one, I have yet to see it. Static is worse when a grinder is new, and typically decreases over time anyway — often after a few kilos of beans.
Here’s a photo of the static so you can see what I mean.
As you can see, there’s a small ring of husk around the adjustment dial, but this is really not that deep. If you keep reading, you’ll be able to see my retention tests that back this up.
Here’s a photo of the lack of clumping so you can see.
There are literally zero clumps in this bowl — this is best clumping performance I’ve ever seen.
Uniformity
Alright, I’m going to rip the Band-Aid off nice and fast: the AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder isn’t the most uniform grinder in the world.
In general, it performed much better when grinding medium-fine, which is the optimal grind setting for AeroPress, anyway. If you’re only using this grinder for AeroPress, it’ll be perfect. However, if you wanted to dabble in French press or cold brew, your brew may not taste as consistent as you’d like.
Take a look at my results. We’re looking for big jumps here: think 0% 300upm to 100% 500upm. A result like that would mean all the coffee grounds are between 301-500upm, which means a more consistent flavor in the resulting brew.
|
Grind size |
300μm |
500μm |
800μm |
1100μm |
1400μm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Click 10 |
10% |
80% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
|
Click 20 |
0% |
20% |
90% |
95% |
99% |
|
Click 30 |
0% |
0% |
40% |
80% |
90% |
|
Click 40 |
0% |
0% |
20% |
50% |
80% |
|
Click 50 |
0% |
0% |
20% |
30% |
50% |
This is around the same level of uniformity as the Timemore Chestnut C2s, and unfortunately, not as uniform as the Comandante C40 MK4, whose least-consistent test saw jumps from 20%-90%-100%.
This is not to say the AeroPress Manual is a bad coffee grinder, just that it performs best between clicks 10-20 (the optimal setting for AeroPress). If you’re deep in the AeroPress ecosystem, there’s nothing like the grinder.
Retention
In general, manual grinders have lower retention than electric grinders. This is effectively due to the difference in burr position: in a manual grinder, the burrs are right there, just above the catch chamber. There’s a smaller area and fewer places for coffee to get retained. Even so, it’s still essential to test average retention.
|
Weight before grinding |
Weight after grinding |
Retention |
Average retention |
|---|---|---|---|
|
20g |
19.6g |
0.4g |
– |
|
20g |
20g |
0g |
– |
|
20g |
19.8g |
0.2g |
1% |
The lowest-retention grinder I’ve ever tested was the Timemore Chestnut C2s, which had an average retention of 0.1%. However, the Comandante C40 MK4 had a high retention rate of 2.75%. In the middle, you’ve got the 1ZPresso K-Ultra ($249) with an average retention of 1.8%.
While you can get “better” grinders for cheaper or the same price — the $79 Timemore Chestnut C2s and the $199 1ZPresso J-Ultra — if you’re an AeroPress lover looking to upgrade your setup intelligently, I’d recommend the AeroPress grinder. Come on — it fits inside your AeroPress! How perfect is that?
AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder review: Storage & maintenance
Like Comandante, AeroPress offers a lifetime warranty on the burrs. This means if your burrs are defective, you can get a replacement burr set forever (assuming AeroPress still exists as a business, of course).
This is fantastic, and just goes to show how high-quality the burrs are — AeroPress wouldn’t offer this if it weren’t confident in the burs themselves. Other brands like Timemore and 1ZPresso just offer the basic 1-year warranty.
It goes without saying, but do not use water to clean the grinder. You must never use water to clean a coffee grinder — the provided brush will be sufficient day-to-day, but investing a few dollars in a rubber air blower is a good idea, to give it a good clear out if and when needed.
As the Manual Grinder is so tiny, you can easily store it in a drawer or cabinet between uses. Mine fits perfectly in the small cutlery drawer underneath my coffee unit.
AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder review: Verdict
Despite not being the most affordable or uniform grinder in the world, I can’t help but love the AeroPress Manual Coffee Grinder. It fits inside my Clear Color, and looks so cool while doing so. If you’re an AeroPress fanatic like me, I wholeheartedly recommend this grinder. It’s just so convenient.
You’d get better uniformity with the Comandante C40 MK4, but that’s $100 pricier than the AeroPress (and can go up to $200 pricier in certain colorways). Again, if you’re only using this grinder for AeroPress, the medium-fine setting resulted in the best uniformity, anyway. Don’t fret, though — I was still able to grind espresso-fine. I just wouldn’t recommend it for French press or cold brew.
For serious AeroPress enthusiasts, there’s nothing like this grinder. It’s cool, easy to use, and can be packed away. Let me say this one more time: it fits inside the AeroPress!