Casual Grounds Manual Coffee Grinder with Scoop Spoon

This coffee grinder does what it says it will do. You unscrew the top part and put a couple scoops of coffee beans in and put the top back on. You can be grinding in less than a minute. It is a manual process, so it takes a little longer than using an electric grinder or K-Cups. However, I actually really enjoy making my coffee. I've done the K-Cups thing, and while it's fast, most of the time the coffee is more bitter than when you grind it yourself. So, I started grinding my own coffee, and it tastes less bitter this way and I actually find it a kind of peaceful morning routine. The smell of the coffee beans while grinding, being able to choose how fine the grinds, and taking the time to enjoy making and drinking my coffee is important to me. This handy little grinder does the trick and makes me feel like I'm involved and in control of my morning coffee routine. It's heavier than I thought it would be, which is a good sign, and it's pretty sturdy when I'm using it.

I ordered this manual grinder to use with my coffee press. It is my goal to reduce my carbon footprint wherever I can. With the manual grinder, I can make a good cup of coffee without using electricity. All I have to do is boil a pot of water.I like this little grinder. It does what its supposed to do…that is grind my coffee beans. I can also adjust how coarse or fine to grind the beans by tightening or loosening the nut on the top of the grinder.The manual coffee grinder just like a coffee press isn’t for everyone. I love it because I enjoy every aspect of my morning coffee ritual. I enjoy taking the whole bean, placing it in the manual grinder and grinding it while waiting for the water to boil (it also causes me to use muscles that would otherwise be unused if I opted to use an electric grinder).Once the beans are ground, I measure the appropriate amount of coffee to place in the coffee press. After the water boils, I slowly pour it into the press and wait the allotted time before I gently lower the handle of the press to make the perfect cup of coffee.The only critique I would offer the manufacturer, is to include a measuring spoon that actually fits into the glass base of the grinder. The scoop spoon that comes with the grinder works fine for scooping the beans into the top of the device, but it does not fit into the mouth of the glass jar. Not wanting to pour coffee onto the spoon and create a mess, I opted to use my 1TBS measuring spoon that is narrow enough to fit the mouth of the jar.I’ve only had it for a short time, so time will tell how durable it is. In the meanwhile, I’m very happy with it.UPDATE 10/5/16:It’s still only a week or so since I received the coffee grinder. I use it to make two cups of coffee daily. Since using it regularly, I would like to make another suggestion to the manufacturer.The removable nut atop of the grinder is cylindrical in shape. Just to be clear, I’m referring to the nut that holds the grinding arm in place and also adjusts the coarseness of the ground coffee. The nut functions as it should, but on occasion, I’ve scraped my finger against the edge (where the rounded sides meet the flat top) of the nut while grinding coffee. If the top of the nut were rounded like the top of an igloo or a rounded bullet, I believe it would eliminate this issue.Maybe this isn’t an issue with people with smaller or larger hands, but I dinged my finger a few times with the current setup.Update: 10/20/19I guess this product has a shelf life. It worked great for a few years, now it's crapping out on me. Not only is it more difficult to grind the coffee (it just doesn't seem to want to grind anymore), but I have to use pliers to get the nob on the top of the coffee grinder off.While it worked, it did great. I guess it's time to try something different.

This is a solid little gadget. It's clearly well-made, and it's fairly easy to figure out how to use. It's my first time using a coffee grinder at all, so I don't have anything to compare it to. One thing I wasn't expecting was that the fineness of the grind is controlled by how tightly you screw on the nut that holds the whole contraption together. I had to experiment a little to get a feel for how much to tighten it to get the desired effect. However, that very feature makes it quite customizable, which is nice. Altogether, I'm quite happy with it.

I don't care for the design of this grinder. The coarseness of the grind is controlled by how tightly you screw on the nut on top of the handle. This means you end up readjusting the grind EVERY TIME YOU USE IT. The nut that you tighten to adjust the grind is somewhat difficult to turn, so repeating this process over and over is extremely irritating. Compared to another manual grinder that I have used where you just set the grind and then forget about it, this is a ridiculous design. Also, the handle you hold onto to turn the grinder is small and uncomfortable to hold. The grinder basically works and is certainly better than going without coffee, but I'm only going to use it for emergencies (e.g. power outage at work).

I purchased this to grind spices because there is nothing better than freshly ground spices. I thought, I can just throw my spices in there, twist the handle and deliciousness will ensue. Not exactly. When it came, the grind shaft wasn't perfectly aligned because it's not in a fixed position in the middle of the grinder (this flexibility is what allows you to change the size of the grind). Because of this, when I'm attempting to use it with hard or irregularly shaped spices, a piece gets wedged into one side between the ceramic grinding mechanisms and causes those mechanisms to bind against each other on the other side. Then you flip the whole thing upside down and attempt to extricate firmly wedged piece of spice so you can do it all over again.I know coffee snobs say burr grinders are the way to go, but I'm probably going to get a blade grinder for my spices. This is very reasonably priced and did work well for select spices, so I'm chalking this up to a lesson learned.

I will say, it gets the job done. The grounds come out pretty even and this being my first coffee grinder I'm in love with grounding my own coffee and will never go back to pre ground coffee again.The reason I only give it two stars is the fact that it is a real workout to grind the beans. I'm not out of shape, but this grinder gives you the forearm workout from hell! Good to try out but not a permanent solution.