Opus 2013-229: Firsts: Hand Ground Coffee

I am on vacation.  I am open to trying new things.  I have time to try new things.  At my daughter’s house I have a blade coffee grinder, or at least I am told it is there.  Every time I try to ask about it I get a run-around.  At my son’s house I started the trip with frozen, year old, ground, flavored coffee.  I am not a coffee connoisseur but I tell people I can tell really bad coffee.  This was really, really bad coffee. 

Since he doesn’t have a grinder I went a local shop, bought some beans from Papua New Guinea and had them grind them for me.  But I still wanted to grind my own.  I was not willing to invest in another burr grinder like I have at home so I looked into inexpensive hand crank jobs. 

I got this little contraption that will grind enough for two cups of coffee.  I need to do enough for three cups and that gives me enough to make a good sized mug. 

I have never hand ground my coffee before.  I have experimented with the coarseness of the grind.  If you set it too coarse the flavor is weak.  If you make it like powder it comes out too bitter.  Finally I reached my baby bear level and it is coming out as I want it.

It takes about the same amount of time to grind as it does to bring the water to a boil in the microwave.  Works for me, at least on vacation.  And I can store it away so if we have a power failure I can still grind coffee.

Now the search for the perfect bean. 

homo unius libri