Old coffee grounds can clog up your grinder and make it less efficient. Clear it out.
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It's important what setting your burr grinder is at. It should be on espresso grind, to get the rice to pick up all the excess beans. After the rice is completely pulverized, tap out the contents of the grinder and brush out any excess with a pastry brush. If you want to ensure the grinder is completely clean, repeat this process until the rice comes out with no brown coffee specks in it.
I think this is (mostly) silly and obsessive. Every time you grind coffee you are doing exactly the same thing. It is self-cleaning! There are no "stale" grindings in there if you grind beans on a regular basis.
The ONLY time I wipe mine out is if I have ground hazelnut flavored beans (or say, peanuts). I have another grinder for that, though. It's not a bad idea; it's just that (with the type of common grinder you used in the video) the concept of having nasty, old, stale residue lurking in there is flawed
1) if you have a blade grinder, dump it and get a good burr grinder 2) if you have a burr grinder, the issue isn't the old grounds, it's the oily residue that eventually accumulates. I've disassembled some older but regularly used burr grinders that have had some pretty nasty sticky residue in them from years of grinding. A couple of times a year, I run rice (uncooked!!) through, then grind some crappy beans to clean out the rice residue. Urnex makes a product, Grindz Grinder Cleaner, that I've heard good things about but never tried.
I think talking about burr grinders and how you should dump a non-burr grinder is off-topic for how to clean a coffee grinder. Take your burr grinder to a different forum and I will meet you there so we can duke it out, you elitist snob!
I don't understand why you "burr grinder types" have to come suck up all the oxygen from a comment area that has nothing to do with burr grinders. Perhaps you stole my lithium?
Just to add about cleaning burr grinders: a lot depends on the grinder itself. Some grinders are built with a rather large chute between the bottom of the burrs and the grounds hopper, and this chute is often square. Grinds and such get caught here, especially in the corners. Take out the grounds container and reach up there with a cotton swab. Also, don't just run a tablespoon of rice through: keep running it through until it comes out white. And important tip I almost forgot: use dry "minute" (pre-cooked then dried) rice. Unless you have a pretty heavy-duty grinder, regular rice is hard enough to potentially damage it.
I always clean mine after every use. I use a makeup brush my wife picked up for me. Dust it off like home plate(but upside down over the trash) , and wipe it out wit ha dry paper towel.
I only grind coffee beans in it. Anything else gets ground in my magic bullet.
I find that grinding rice in a grinder works very well. I haven't tried the stale bread trick myself though.
If you have a burr grinder, set it to super fine, and grind a couple of cups of rice through it. Then blow the dust off, give it a wipe, and it'll be clean.
For me the issue isn't so much the grounds, nor even the actual grinding performance of the grinder. It is more about the funky off tastes and smells you get from the stale residue (presumably in the oils). I travel a fair bit and only use the grinder once or twice per week. So it has the chance to sit and fester between grindings. It then starts to smell like old stale coffee - like the preground coffee gets after it has sat around for a bit.
I have tried rice - the idea of using the converted rice is a good one. It probably will do less damage than the hard stuff I had been using.
Any tips for how to efficiently clean a burr grinder? I've tried grinding dry rice, and wiping with paper towel, but is there a better way?
I second that query. I have no idea how to clean mine and it's high time I learned!
It's important what setting your burr grinder is at. It should be on espresso grind, to get the rice to pick up all the excess beans. After the rice is completely pulverized, tap out the contents of the grinder and brush out any excess with a pastry brush. If you want to ensure the grinder is completely clean, repeat this process until the rice comes out with no brown coffee specks in it.
I think this is (mostly) silly and obsessive. Every time you grind coffee you are doing exactly the same thing. It is self-cleaning! There are no "stale" grindings in there if you grind beans on a regular basis.
The ONLY time I wipe mine out is if I have ground hazelnut flavored beans (or say, peanuts). I have another grinder for that, though.
It's not a bad idea; it's just that (with the type of common grinder you used in the video) the concept of having nasty, old, stale residue lurking in there is flawed
1) if you have a blade grinder, dump it and get a good burr grinder
2) if you have a burr grinder, the issue isn't the old grounds, it's the oily residue that eventually accumulates. I've disassembled some older but regularly used burr grinders that have had some pretty nasty sticky residue in them from years of grinding. A couple of times a year, I run rice (uncooked!!) through, then grind some crappy beans to clean out the rice residue.
Urnex makes a product, Grindz Grinder Cleaner, that I've heard good things about but never tried.
I think talking about burr grinders and how you should dump a non-burr grinder is off-topic for how to clean a coffee grinder. Take your burr grinder to a different forum and I will meet you there so we can duke it out, you elitist snob!
Miss the daily dose of lithium, perhaps?
^ I found your first comment quite useful, thanks.
I don't understand why you "burr grinder types" have to come suck up all the oxygen from a comment area that has nothing to do with burr grinders.
Perhaps you stole my lithium?
Just to add about cleaning burr grinders: a lot depends on the grinder itself. Some grinders are built with a rather large chute between the bottom of the burrs and the grounds hopper, and this chute is often square. Grinds and such get caught here, especially in the corners. Take out the grounds container and reach up there with a cotton swab.
Also, don't just run a tablespoon of rice through: keep running it through until it comes out white.
And important tip I almost forgot: use dry "minute" (pre-cooked then dried) rice. Unless you have a pretty heavy-duty grinder, regular rice is hard enough to potentially damage it.
I've been inspired. I just ordered Grindz; I'll post what I think of it when it arrives and I can test it (probably be close to 2 weeks).
I always clean mine after every use. I use a makeup brush my wife picked up for me. Dust it off like home plate(but upside down over the trash) , and wipe it out wit ha dry paper towel.
I only grind coffee beans in it. Anything else gets ground in my magic bullet.
I find that grinding rice in a grinder works very well. I haven't tried the stale bread trick myself though.
If you have a burr grinder, set it to super fine, and grind a couple of cups of rice through it. Then blow the dust off, give it a wipe, and it'll be clean.
For me the issue isn't so much the grounds, nor even the actual grinding performance of the grinder. It is more about the funky off tastes and smells you get from the stale residue (presumably in the oils). I travel a fair bit and only use the grinder once or twice per week. So it has the chance to sit and fester between grindings. It then starts to smell like old stale coffee - like the preground coffee gets after it has sat around for a bit.
I have tried rice - the idea of using the converted rice is a good one. It probably will do less damage than the hard stuff I had been using.
Thanks for the thoughts