Pre ground coffee

Luke92

Anyone have any preferences. Got a basic coffee machine (DeLonghi Motivo). But didn't get a grinder with it. So looking for some decent ground coffee to use until I get a decent grinder.

odyssey06

Illy is my favourite, it's expensive and has low caffeine content, so may not be what you are looking for. Make sure once opened you have an air-tight container to put the coffee into - another reason I like Illy is their nifty looking cans.

You could always start with Tesco \ LIDL\ ALDI own brand, just make sure it's 100% Arabica.
Discussion here of LIDL v ALDI options.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057491141

Or for brand names, Bewley's have a few different varieties which are good.

Pay attention to the labelling of whatever one you get, there will be light, medium and dark roasts, and to how the coffee is ground - fine or coarse. I assume for your machine you would want a fine grind, and maybe start with a medium roast and then decide to go lighter or darker based on your personal preference.

Prenderb

I've found a lot of the supermarkets' own brand options to be very tasty. As an occasional treat, you can sometimes (I've found always if you're not in a chain) get your local caffeination station to grind up for you a half-pound (lb) of coffee beans you've bought in the shop.

dillonmr

buy a grinder. If budget is a problem buy a hand grinder. The fact is that coffee deteriorates extremely quickly once ground and that lovely gourmet expensive light roast that you found may well be cheap robusta in a matter of days (or even hours). You can get a decent burr grinder for about the 100-200 range and cheaper if you find a well maintained second hand machine. The alternative is to get a decent hand grinder which will be sub 100 and while needing a little bit more elbow grease will go the business. Whatever you do don't get a blade grinder, they are pointless for coffee. FYI someone has a ROK hand grinder on adverts (I have no involvement in the sale) which is a great piece of kit and looks lovely too.

R

Day Lewin

My current top favourite is Starbucks "house blend", and they will grind it for you at the shop.

I had to conduct a few experiments - the lower numbers are the finest in a Starbucks café grinder: the way I make coffee (utterly simple, no electric gadgets required) needs a grind of No. 7.

It's always best on the first day, yes; but I keep mine in a tight Tupperware coffee canister and it holds pretty well for the week or so that it lasts in my house.

I should add, I am serious coffee head and trust my tastebuds above all else.

Day Lewin

My current top favourite is Starbucks "house blend", and they will grind it for you at the shop.

I had to conduct a few experiments - the lower numbers are the finest in a Starbucks café grinder: the way I make coffee (utterly simple, no electric gadgets required) needs a grind of No. 7.

It's always best on the first day, yes; but I keep mine in a tight Tupperware coffee canister and it holds pretty well for the week or so that it lasts in my house.

I should add, I am serious coffee head and trust my tastebuds above all else.

J_E

dillonmr wrote: »

Whatever you do don't get a blade grinder, they are pointless for coffee.

They're not great but far from pointless. They just require decent timing, I can get a decent espresso shot from mine while I save towards a burr grinder.

murphyebass

J_E wrote: »

They're not great but far from pointless. They just require decent timing, I can get a decent espresso shot from mine while I save towards a burr grinder.

I find it very hard to believe that you get a decent shot from a blade grinder.

To get a fine enough and consistent enough grind you have to go burr.

Id far rather a manual burr grinder over a blade grinder.

Even for aeropress or cafetière the blade grinder is too inconsistent imo.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

Another shout for illy. I haven't found a coffee that beats it yet. I normally get in from Amazon. They usual have deals on the twin packs.

As others have mentioned, get a good quality airtight container to store the coffee.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

Another shout for illy. I haven't found a coffee that beats it yet. I normally get in from Amazon. They usual have deals on the twin packs.

As others have mentioned, get a good quality airtight container to store the coffee.

dillonmr

don't bother with pre-ground, the grind will be no where near to right for your machine giving you poor results. Get a entry level burr grinder and enjoy

J_E

murphyebass wrote: »

I find it very hard to believe that you get a decent shot from a blade grinder.

To get a fine enough and consistent enough grind you have to go burr.

Id far rather a manual burr grinder over a blade grinder.

Even for aeropress or cafetière the blade grinder is too inconsistent imo.

You can get a grind fit for a turkish coffee from a blade grinder - the issue is not how fine it goes, it's the consistency and accuracy you miss out on. I'm hoping for a Baratza in the future but I can still work the blade grinder for a decent 25-30 sec extraction in most cases with some care.

Preground coffee is bad though - if you can't grind at home and haven't got the means for a grinder just yet, at least get it ground in-store, better than buying it from a supermarket that might have 2-3 month old coffee in there.

murphyebass

J_E wrote: »

You can get a grind fit for a turkish coffee from a blade grinder - the issue is not how fine it goes, it's the consistency and accuracy you miss out on. I'm hoping for a Baratza in the future but I can still work the blade grinder for a decent 25-30 sec extraction in most cases with some care.

Preground coffee is bad though - if you can't grind at home and haven't got the means for a grinder just yet, at least get it ground in-store, better than buying it from a supermarket that might have 2-3 month old coffee in there.

Personally I never found a blade grinder could get to espresso grind but if you can fair play.

I completely agree with the consistancy issue as I pointed out in my post earlier.

This is why I would suggest a hand burr grinder for the likes of Aeropress and get a machine burr grinder if you're going espresso.

Just my experience of grinders and machines over the years.

My current set up is a gaggia MDF grinder, gaggia classic and aeropress.

A set up like that isn't expensive in the grand scheme of things and if you're serious about coffee it really is the perfect entry point.

ScumLord

I got a blade grinder, I didn't really know about this burr grinder thing, even though I found a full on automated espresso machine that has a burr grinder in it. It's needs a refurb though, so I bought a cheapo espresso machine in Lidl and a grinder out of argos, didn't realise it was blade until I got home.

It took some experimenting and I did find that the longer I ground the beans the better the coffee got. There is a bit of a shortcut when using the blade grinder, when using it it sends all the fine powder up to the lid of the grinder and it sticks there. But I do spend most my time grinding, mixing it up, holding the grinder on it's side and grinding some more, but I can get a good cup of coffee out of it now.

After reading this I think I might try taking the burr grinder out of the automated espresso machine and seeing if I can get it working on it's own. But I did want to refurb it and bring it into work.

murphyebass

ScumLord wrote: »

I got a blade grinder, I didn't really know about this burr grinder thing, even though I found a full on automated espresso machine that has a burr grinder in it. It's needs a refurb though, so I bought a cheapo espresso machine in Lidl and a grinder out of argos, didn't realise it was blade until I got home.

It took some experimenting and I did find that the longer I ground the beans the better the coffee got. There is a bit of a shortcut when using the blade grinder, when using it it sends all the fine powder up to the lid of the grinder and it sticks there. But I do spend most my time grinding, mixing it up, holding the grinder on it's side and grinding some more, but I can get a good cup of coffee out of it now.

After reading this I think I might try taking the burr grinder out of the automated espresso machine and seeing if I can get it working on it's own. But I did want to refurb it and bring it into work.

I too bought a blade grinder at the beginning but on the advice of some of the good folks here I went with a burr grinder when I could afford it and yeah there is an absolute world of a difference between a blade grinder and a burr grinder. There's absolutely no competition/comparison. Genuinely chalk and cheese type scenario here.

Burr will give you a consistant and fine result.

Blade will give you a inconsistant and course result.

Also the longer you chop the beans in the blade grinder the more likely it is that you're actually burning the beans due to the excessive friction which in turn will taint the flavour.