If you love your coffee, the flavor, the aroma, if a great cup of coffee is more an experience than a beverage, it may be time for you to become your own brewmaster. The first step to a perfect cup of coffee is the perfect grind.

Many people believe that you shouldn’t grind the coffee bean until you’re ready to brew it and that’s what a coffee grinder is all about. By the end of this article you’ll know what you need to pursue the perfect cup of coffee.

There are two basic types of grinders, manual and electric. A manual grinder has the advantage of portability, simplicity and intimacy. You can’t get any closer to the process than grinding the fresh beans yourself, and if you take your time and use a good quality manual grinder you can achieve a consistent uniform grind.

Manual grinders may also be portable, and because they aren’t dependent upon electricity you can take them on trips, or camping or excursions where electricity isn’t available.

The other type of coffee grinder is the electric grinder. Electric grinders come in a variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and capabilities. Which grinder is right for you will depend in part on how you will brew your coffee.

Coffee grinders come in two basic flavors – blade or burr. Blade grinders are easy to use, and inexpensive, relying on spinning blades to grind the coffee beans. Typically they are easy to maintain and clean up with a simple wet paper towel. Blade grinders are best used when you are using a drip coffee maker because the drip style brewer doesn’t require a fine or perfectly uniform consistency.

A burr grinder grinds a few beans at a time between grooved metal disks. Burr grinders are more expensive, larger and heavier than a blade grinder. If you are grinding your beans to use in an espresso machine you’ll need a burr grinder. An espresso machine requires a fine and consistent grind that can’t be easily achieved with a blade grinder.

It is recommended that you use a blade grinder when you are using an automatic-drip coffee maker because the finer grind from a burr grinder is typically more bitter than a more coarse grind. This is because a finely ground coffee exposed to water for several minutes will leach bitter flavors, while the few seconds the coffee is exposed to the water when making espresso won’t result in the bitter flavors.

If you want to create that perfect brew, fill your home with the aroma of freshly ground and brewed coffee, or you just want to save money while enjoying that same satisfying, flavorful, fresh cup of coffee that you buy at the trendy coffee shop, a coffee grinder may be your first step.