Coffee Grinders

[Bob Riebe]

My Miracle Mill that I paid 40 bucks for thirty years ago had stopped working, probably, five years ago; I finally decided to take it apart and see what was wrong, it just hummed.
Well upon opening I found the inside packed full of coffee grounds; the little cloth gasket that is supposed to stop that apparently did not, but I used to rinse it out with hot water and that may have ruined the gasket.

Cleaned it up as well as I could, plugged it in and it still just hummed, so I threw it away; makes me feel kind of bad as that was the first one I ever bought and thirty years ago, 40 dollars was a lot of money.

I ordered a new Secura Burr Grinder through Amazon (I have no love for Amazon but some times they are hard to beat) on sale with free shipping for 40 bucks with taxes.

I like the old one partly because it was small and easy to store; I have several of the round blade type but burr type are better if one wants to grind to a certain size.
Now, one, one blade one has never been used but the other is ten years old and still working which surprised me as I had one that went pffft in less than a year. (I checked on a cheap Krupp and reviewers said it was junk often lasting less than a month).

[Ranger99]

I just buy the can of ready to use.
Not really many choices of premium
type coffees and no beans, roasted
or otherwise to be had local.
A couple of decades ago, the big
stores had the selection of beans
and the grinder you would use to
grind your selection on the spot
into a neat little foil wrapped sack
and put it in your cart with your other
goods. Besides aldi and wally world
neighborhood grocery, the rest
of the few stores are designed to
serve the latin residents. They
pretty much go for the instants
and that cafe bustello.
I can't remember any of my elder
relatives ever grinding beans.
My mother's folks bought a
can of ground that was pretty good
sized,  maybe a 2 gallon can IIRC
My paternal grandpa would buy the
regular can (1 pound?) with the key
that you'd have to wind around the
side of the can and peel off a strip
to open it. I only remember red can

[Bob Riebe]

Ten years ago every grocery store in this town had a grinder and beans for sale plus several coffee stores dedicated to just that.
It is ALL gone now, even the foo-foo store has stopped.

You can still buy the beans but the selections are One-Fourth of what it once was.