Related Sections: Galleries Kitchen
What coffee-making gadgetry looked like 100 years ago, and why some still swear by it
Today, making a cup of wakeup juice is so easy a zombie could do it. You could even forgo all the machinery and buy the instant stuff, or hit up Starbucks.
Yet those who still practice the art of waking up — or just believe there's a better cup of coffee to be had — still seek out old school, hand-cranked coffee mills that use blades, rollers or burrs. It takes more time than using a mechanical coffee blender to make sure beans are evenly ground, but rumors abound that the high RPM of the blades can distort a blend's flavor as it heats up the beans, or that they simply don't do as thorough a job.
Whatever the reason, antique coffee mills, some a century old or more, go for hundreds of dollars on online auctions and antique sellers, and some purveyors of old-school hand-crankers, such as Zassenhaus, are still going strong today. Coffee mills come in a variety of looks and sizes, from wall-hanging units to canister-loaded ones, and they look a hell of a lot better than my $10 Mr. Coffee machine.
Check out the gallery below for a selection of antique coffee mills.
 |  |
|
By drewdraws2 at 5:39 PM ON 02/12/08
I was actually told recently by a local coffee bean purveyor that I was essentially "wasting" my coffee by using what he described as a "spice grinder" to grind it. He went on for minutes about how the only way to grind coffee is with one of these.
Tasted good to me though.
By buencafe at 12:43 PM ON 02/13/08
These old machines certainly do a fine job. I've collected a few hundred of them, the one I travel with (when access to mains is questionable) is a Zassenhaus lap mill from the 1930's. Takes a bit of going, but it does the most even grind of anything I've seen excepting a VERY dear commercial mill weighing in at fifteen kilos. Certainly, the common electric whirly-blade grinder commits mayhem on quality beans. At the very least, invest in a powered burr mill, which can be had for under fifty dollars. Of course, if all one has in way of whole beans come from the local greengrocers, or charbucks, it matters little. They're spoiled before they come out of the bag. Find freshly roasted, not burned/black/oily, grind by hand, brew in the venerable French press.....and you'll never turn back.
on your cellphone!
Text DVICE to 72434
editor@dvice.com
buencafe:
These old machines certainly do a fine job. I've collected a few hundred of them, the one I travel with (when acces...More »