What is your expeience with the Porlex Mini II manual grinder?
It’s the only grinder I’ve ever used, I find it quite handy and consistent in the grinding but I have actually no benchmark to judge it objectively. Is it actually good?
@coffee@lemmy.world
Haven’t used this, but I would think most would agree there it’s not a bad grinder at its price point, but for not much more you could likely do better. Whether that matters is probably more important. If you like it and have it dialed in for your brews then you might not gain all that much by upgrading. I would recommend considering the following: Go to a reputable local roaster and order a pour over there. Assuming you like it, note if they used a flat bottom or conical brewer, ask them the brew ratio. Buy a decent size bag of the same beans and use a similar style brewer and same ratio and play with trying to get a Similar or better cup with your grinder. Once you’ve reached apex, go back and order the same cup to put things back into perspective. If you feel like you just aren’t matching it, a better grinder is the next best step to getting closer.
@Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works Actually I literally just did it after tasting a V60 coffee in a local cafe. I got a 150g bag of the same coffee (a really good Colombian) and I managed to obtain a cup almost as good as the one they served me, even if I’m using a stovetop kettle without termometer.
However my main doubt is about the setting of the grinder, mainly because I can calculate how many steps it needs to obtain a theorically correct size of the ground, however I mostly end up looking for instructions online and finding the right setting by trying
That process sounds akin to what I would do with any grinder. Many popular grinders have lookup tables available and the calibrations are better on some than others. You can also get sifters and grind size guides to check all of this, but ultimately I’ve always just relied on dial-in trials as it sounds like you are doing.