Coffee grinder Ceado E37S Silver, automatic SCC device, production 2017

Choosing a grinder can be a time consuming and stressful experience if you don’t know what to look for. The first thing everyone needs to know about coffee grinders is that setup is key. Dialing in a grinder is a key factor in determining the quality of coffee your machine will produce. When looking at grinders you have two types of adjustment mechanisms, stepped and stepless.

Stepless: Stepless grinders are those who permits micrometrical adjustment of the grinding. Stepless means that there is an infinite number of grind settings that can be obtained to perfectly extract your espresso whereas grinders featuring a stepped adjustment system is limited in the adjustments that can be produced. Stepless adjustment gives you the ability to finely tune your grinder to ensure you are able to achieve the standard 25-30 mls of espresso within 25-30 seconds.

The stepless grinder will definitely give you the ability to grind for every type of coffee prep. However, when it comes to going from a drip grind to a espresso grind, it won’t be as easy to find that perfect grind that you had originally been using.With an infinite amount of settings, you’ll have a more difficult time going from one preparation to another. If you grind for primarily one coffee preparation, or only occasionally switch to a different style, this is a good choice.

Stepped: These grinders have preset notches, which enable you to easily switch between disparate grinds.Rather than guess where you’re setting the grinder for espresso, then drip coffee and then back again, you’ll have referential numbers and settings to work from.

If you often grind for different coffee preparations (from espresso to coffee press), a stepped grinder is a good choice because you’ll have marked settings to reference when you’re switching between these highly disparate grinds. You’ll need to dial in less and ultimately waste less coffee.