What's the Most Convenient and Fast Grinder for Pour-Over Coffee? What's the Ideal Grind Setting for the Little Pony Grinder?

FrontStreet Coffee's Little Pegasus Grinder Recommendation

Why the Grinder Matters

Newcomers to coffee routinely overlook the grinder — which is a real shame. Before getting into the details, it helps to understand what a grinder actually does. All of a coffee's aroma and flavor are locked inside the bean. Brew whole beans in water and the good things at the center simply will not come out, or will emerge far too slowly.

The obvious fix is to grind the beans into small particles so hot water can extract the flavor properly. So why not buy pre-ground coffee and brew it gradually at home? Because once coffee is ground, its aroma escapes quickly and it oxidizes fast. The powder you carry home is already delivering oxidized flavors.

1. How It Works

The cutting method: a metal blade is mounted on a motor. When the motor runs, the upper and lower cutting discs spin and slice the beans into small particles.

2. What It Suits

Single-origin coffee and espresso.

3. Advantages

Clear positioning, and output quality that scales with the grinder's level and the diameter of its burrs.

4. Disadvantages

Particle uniformity is a little poor and there is more fine powder. Because a flat-blade grinder cuts the beans at random, it can lead to under-extraction or over-extraction in the cup. Flat blades also generate heat through friction — especially during long runs — which produces a noticeably burnt, bitter taste.

5. Recommendation

Little Pegasus (600N). Reference price: around 500-700 yuan.

The Little Pegasus and Little Eagle are similarly priced; the Pegasus has a stronger motor, a slightly smaller bean hopper, and similar burr craftsmanship. It is said the Eagle brand was founded by former employees of the Yang family that produced the Pegasus. The biggest difference between them is that the Little Pegasus performs better for espresso grinding. Aim for a grind size similar to fine sugar granules.

A Note

Compared with hand grinders, this grinds single-origin coffee more uniformly and faster, and the whole process is done with the push of a button.

In Summary

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research café happy to share what it knows with everyone, without reservation, in the hope of helping more people fall in love with coffee. It also holds three discount coffee events every month, because the aim is to help more friends enjoy the best coffee at the lowest price. That has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past 6 years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

A good grinder matters most when the beans are worth it. These three FrontStreet coffees reward a fresh, even grind and a pour-over.

FrontStreet Gedeb Cooperative. The classic Yirgacheffe profile and a bean many drinkers meet on their first step into specialty coffee: clean, bright citrus and lemon acidity with jasmine fragrance and a tea-like finish, and none of the old bitterness.

FrontStreet Ethiopia Huakui. Its signature is an exceptionally forward tropical-fruit aroma — strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit, even lychee. The sweetness is pronounced, bitterness is minimal, and the entry is smooth and full of juice, which is why so many drinkers call it "the coffee that does not taste like coffee." For anyone who dislikes the bitterness of traditional coffee, this tends to overturn the whole idea of what coffee is.

FrontStreet Kenya Small Tomato. A Kenyan specialty washed bean built around bright cherry-tomato and smoked-plum acidity with a full, juicy body. Grown in Kenya's Thika region at 1550-1750 meters from the classic SL28 and SL34 varieties, it is processed with Kenya's signature 72-hour double washed fermentation and roasted light to preserve its lively acidity. Expect concentrated dried cherry tomato and florals on the dry aroma, then clear cherry tomato and smoked plum in the cup, with pear and black plum mid-palate and a clean finish of yellow-sugar sweetness and a faint green tea aroma.