Whitney Standard Manual Coffee Grinder Gift Set

The one area I allow myself to be pretentious and snobbish is coffee. This means freshly ground coffee beans are essential. At home, I have an excellent countertop grinder. However, I have had to go to great lengths to accommodate my habit while traveling because I have learned that I cannot assume a quality coffee shop will be available, and I can no longer tolerate subpar coffee after years of snobbery. I travel quite a bit, so I've gone through at least four hand grinders in the last 8ish years. Most did not produce consistent enough grinds and were made with plastic pieces that broke repeatedly. The last one failed while on a week-long sailing trip with two others who were also addicted to coffee and were relying on my hand grinder...needless to say, it was a bit stressful even after the questionable fix that allowed it to limp through the rest of the trip. After that experience, I purchased the Whitney Standard coffee grinder. So far, so good! The grinder is well-machined with no plastic pieces and produces a consistent grind. Attached are pictures of what came in the box, the lack of plastic pieces where I have had failures before, the nice travel case, and my test of the grind consistency/grind levels. I have yet to put the grinder through rigorous testing over months of travel, but I am confident enough to bring it on my next sailing trip after the grinding I have done. The directions for finding the lowest grind level were a bit lacking, but with a little thought, I figured it out. I carefully tightened the grind dial until it could go no further (no spinning at this point!), and then I backed it out three clicks. That was the finest I attempted, and while the grinder performed admirably, I wouldn't suggest it. It is too fine of a grind for my WACACO Nanopresso (I'll be using 5-6 clicks), and it took more pressure than I am comfortable with to spin the burr (no matter how well it is built, it is still a hand grinder designed for travel and can't replace a heavy-duty countertop electric grinder). For my Aeropress, I'll be using 14-15 clicks. I stopped after 20 clicks because I am not interested in hand grind levels beyond the needs of my Aeropress.