So yesterday I had to go to Seattle and while down there, I couldn't resist stopping at a Tuesday Morning I drove past. And what did I find (besides the Viking immersion blender I thought was a steal on closeout last year at Sur la Table at $90 for only $60)? A Capresso burr grinder. Remembering how the name Capresso came up in a very positive way over and over in a coffee grinder thread here awhile back, and thinking about the fact that my Cuisinart burr grinder is at least 15 years old, I decided an appliance replacement just might be in order.
The Cuisinart still works, but just this week I noticed that the hopper was kind of hot when I removed it to get at the coffee. Sure it's in serious need of cleaning, but maybe about to die, too. And then, I don't know that we've ever been that happy with it: the slider switch that sets the amount of coffee it grinds is so damned sensitive that you can't really go back and forth between settings when you want larger amounts for two servings or a whole pot. I mean, you can, but you don't actually know where you were to go back to that exact place again where it grinds the perfect amount for one serving. What looks like the same place might not be quite enough, or it might be twice as much and it takes days to find the right setting again. Over time we've adjusted ourselves, not the machine: if we both want a cup of coffee at the same time, we activate it twice. If we want a bigger shared pot? Three times. Irritating.
The Capresso was priced $39.99, showing an MSRP of $80. For those not in the U.S., Tuesday Morning is a liquidator kind of retailer who often has some screaming deals on high-end brands.
I explained to Bob that we might notice a difference in flavor, in the way we noticed a difference between the Cuisinart burr grinder and our old Krups, so this morning we staged the Battle of the Burr Grinders.
Interestingly we noticed that the Capresso suggests a coarser grind for French Press. And then we noticed that somewhere along the way we've reset the Cuisinart to Fine from the Medium I know we started out with years ago. It probably just got turned accidentally--the bean hopper swivels to change the setting, and it can get turned easily just handling it. So we decided to make three individual French Press mugs (all identical, we own four): one fine grind from each to match what we're used to, and one coarse from the new Capresso just to see if we liked that difference.
Each machine got fresh beans from the same bag and grinding proceeded. There was a very unexpected and interesting difference in the appearance of each machine's fine grind. We use a soup spoon for a measurer and always use one heaping spoonful per cup. The Cuisinart was more powdery and made a very conical pile in the soup spoon we use to measure the heaping tablespoon per cup we like. The Capresso, on the other hand, wasn't so conical but made a jagged pile of several different levels, the ground bits seemed to be flatter and fit together differently.
We used the same amount per cup and the same water temperature, steeped each for five minutes and then tasted the coffees from short wide tea cups that maximize aroma.
Neither of us liked the coarse grind; we found it thinner and less flavorful than the other two which were very similar. So much so that Bob thought he liked the Capresso better but wasn't at all sure. I also thought I preferred the Capresso--it tasted marginally smoother and richer but the best part was that it seemed creamier across my palate. But I also admitted to expecting/wanting it to win meaning that bias couldn't be ruled out.
So we had to go blind. Or at least, I did, since I'm The Palate in this family. We did several tests, and the coffees no longer seemed so similar. Bob switched them and switched them, poured and repoured, and in EVERY test I guessed correctly which was the Capresso. Blind, that creaminess was still there and even more compelling/significant. It also seemed richer/smoother--just a tad, but then, still a tad--than I'd thought nonblind: at one point, the Cuisinart cup seemed so dull I asked Bob if he had inserted the coarse grind cup as a ringer. He had not.
Capresso wins!
And now I need to go run around the block--not used to so much caffeine!!!