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10 Gear & equipment

Burr Grinder

A grinder that crushes coffee between two ridged metal discs (flat or conical): produces a much more uniform grind than a blade grinder.

  • Availability: Common

A burr grinder uses two abrasive surfaces (either flat parallel discs or nested cones) set a precise distance apart. The user adjusts that gap to set grind size, and the burrs cut beans to that target rather than smashing them randomly the way a blade grinder does. Uniformity matters because every off-size particle either over- or under-extracts. Commercial Brooklyn bars typically run a Mahlkönig EK43 or similar high-end flat-burr grinder for batch brew and a Mythos or Mahlkönig E80 for espresso.

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