Picked a ceramic burr grinder over a flat plate one at a garage sale for $25

Last Saturday I was at a garage sale in Oak Park and saw two grinders sitting side by side. One was a cheap metal flat burr model, the other was a beat up ceramic burr Krups that looked like it had seen years of use. I went with the ceramic one because I heard they don't heat up the beans as much and it was only $25. Got it home, cleaned it out with some rice and a brush, and it grinds surprisingly even for being old. The only downside is it's slow, like 30 seconds for a 20 gram dose, but the flavor in my pour over is way smoother than my old blade grinder. Has anyone else had luck with older ceramic burr grinders from thrift stores?

2 comments

2 Comments

patricia9055d agoTop Commenter

Did you check if the burrs are still sharp or just need a good cleaning? I found a similar old Krups and it made a huge difference after I ran some uncooked white rice through it to get the coffee oils out.

skyler_kim155d ago

you know I used to be one of those people who thought you should never put anything but coffee beans in a grinder... but then I had this old grinder that started tasting like old burnt motor oil no matter what I did. I finally caved and tried the rice thing after seeing someone mention it online and honestly it worked way better than I expected. it pulled out all that gunk that had been sitting in there for years and the coffee actually tasted clean again afterwards. I was pretty skeptical because I heard rice can damage the burrs if you do it too much but once in a while seems fine. now I'm definitely in the camp of trying a deep clean before writing off a grinder as dead.