The Ultimate 1zpresso Hand Grinder Comparison

Hello everyone, what's up? I'm Joshua from Alternative Brewing. Today we are going to do a

comparison

of easy presso

grinder

s and not the entire range but a few manual

grinder

s that sit at the top of our list for offering the best of what easypresso has to offer but before we jump straight into it , go ahead and hit the like button and while you're there you can also go and hit the subscribe and bell icon and this gives us the signal that we're making the videos that you want to watch and we really appreciate it so without further ado, let's dive in, the four grinders we'll be comparing today are the easy preso q2, the jx pro, the j max and the k plus, now directly on paper.

It's the J Max that stands out as a solid contender for the title, but that in no way diminishes the quality or value that can be found in these other grinders and since this is still a

comparison

video, it's much less about which one. of these grinders is the best, as Easy Presto has also done a very good job of distributing the functions between all of these grinders and it is more about which particular combination of functions will resonate with you and make grinding your coffee less of a hassle. effective at grinding what you require it to do and also more fun now with a simple visual inspection of these grinders, they are a little different and how does this play out in the real world and what are the advantages of one grinder over another.

It is possible to choose one over the other and I will do so at the end of this video, but there is not likely to be one grinder that dominates them all, it just doesn't work that way now to start with the aspect that possibly separates these grinders quickly. For most people it's the precision and range of the grind output or what brewing methods are really good at grinding, so we'll start by looking at the jx pro and j-max which have the widest range. of grind combined with the smallest adjustments made between each grind setting, the jx pro has a burr movement of 0.0125 millimeters with each adjustment made and the jmax has an amazing burr movement of 0.0088 millimeters and this factor produces hundreds of grind settings available in each of these grinders and grind for very fine Turkish coffee all the way to chunky cold brew and there are many intermediate steps between this complete range to be considered ideal for brewing espresso and filtered coffee, now the j -max uses titanium coated burrs meaning there is much less wear and tear on these burrs which are constantly used to grind fine coffee while the jx pro uses a standard burr set and these grinders along with the k-plus use burrs 48 millimeters and if you pay special attention to the k plus cutters.

These are a special set of burrs that are only available on k-series grinders and have been designed for a variety of brewing methods, so they can grind equally well for espresso and drip brewing, no matter what the grind is. setting adjustment on the k plus which is twice the distance of the jx pro and almost three times that of the jx max and the k plus comes in at 0.02 of a millimeter now you will probably have noticed that I left the q2 for last and it is surprisingly Underrated for its grinding performance, maybe it has something to do with its 38-millimeter versus 48-millimeter steel burrs, but among its 90 usable grinding settings it still has that 0.025-millimeter-per-step fitment accuracy that's only 1 3 000. of a millimeter difference from the k plus, given the difference in burst size, you will notice less grinding efficiency with that smaller burst set, plus there will be a much smaller window of grind settings for mark on each preparation method, although I'm still standing.

Based on my review, it can be ground well enough for espresso, as it's not in everyone's bag of tricks to fine-tune a coffee to its ideal recipe and maybe you're just looking for a grinder that doesn't produce Niagara Falls when you try to do it. Take a shot of espresso, expect a good amount of effort to grind in a finer range with the Q2 compared to its counterparts in the JX Pro, the J-Max or the K-Plus, but my point is that the Q2 grinds for espresso like almost any other. manual grinder with metal burrs and a grind setting that can produce a grind of, for example, less than 200 microns;

Otherwise, you won't always have that option to tweak the grind settings by small margins if you want to add or subtract seconds from your espresso shot. Consider the q2 as a complete coffee grinder. Now another feature that completely separates these grinders is the grind adjustment mechanism found on the q2. We have a wing nut adjustment that is located under the burst set, so you have to remove the catch cup and then keep that

hand

le on to adjust the grind setting, although this is a common design found on many grinders manuals and there are numbers, a marker and audible clicks on each setting, making it easier to track.

Next is the jx pro and it has its fit on the inside. the hopper, so it's a little easier to access with one less thing to do, it's also easy to make and follow adjustments even with your small incremental changes, the settings snap into place smoothly and you simply snap the lid on to start grinding now the k plus has that grind adjustment mechanism as an adjustable collar around the outside at the top of the grinder and this is a welcome design for manual grinders as it is really easy to use and keeps track of the grind settings from the outside and with only one and a half full rotations. on the dial you go from fine to coarse and for someone new to manual grinders, I think the k plus adds the advantage of being the easiest and most intuitive to make grind adjustments now, plus the j-max of course uses the same mechanism. but it takes what the k-plus is for and extends it a little further with additional rotations on its dial, since the increments are much smaller between each of the settings and you track these rotations through a set of points that are located below the adjustment.

The ring tracks the number of rotations you're on, so now let's talk about the size and capacity of these grinders, since there's an obvious division here too. The q2, I would say, lands in that category of really good travel grinders. It is lightweight for easy travel. It's maximum. The capacity is 25 grams, making it compact enough to fit comfortably in a travel coffee bag and it can also fit in the plunger of an aeropress, which is a big plus if that's your choice of coffee maker. trip and among the other three grinders it is its type. of neck and neck, since they share similar dimensions, I guess the k plus wins marginally here with a little more capacity and a lighter build, while the j series definitely has a more solid build, each of these pressing grinders easy, although it uses similar materials through aluminum alloy, stainless steel and wood, and all offer a premium feel in the manufacture, which I must say is excellent and is at the top of the line grinder and So far the Q2 and JX Pro are very well machined. screw-on grind catches, while the k-plus and j-max have magnetically attached grind catches and the notable difference here is that the k-plus has a quick release where you can remove the receiver from any angle, while with the j- maximum, you just can't do that and you have to twist the receiver to break the seal and remove it, and this may bother some people, but I think it's a great design to prevent it from being accidentally bumped.

Then look at the accessories that come with Each of the grinders, the jx pro, comes safely as is with a grinder brush and this adds to its affordability. The q2 knows its travel capabilities include a travel bag and grinding brush. Next, the jmax comes with a slim eva carrying case and a silicone sleeve. case to fit around the body of the grinder, there is also a grinder brush and a blower to clean the grinder, but it's the k plus that easily wins here with a full eva carrying case that has plenty of room inside for the beans, you also get a grinder brush and a blower to clean the grinder, as well as an alternative grind receiver called a blind stirrer, which allows you to transfer grounds directly from the bottom of the receiving cup and disperse those grounds evenly in any coffee maker you use. are using.

It is especially useful with espresso portafilters as it also has a stepped bottom, making it compatible with many sizes of filter baskets. As for which of these manual grinders grinds the fastest, I think you can safely eliminate q2 from this equation. and it will be among the other three and if i remember correctly it was the k plus that won marginally here due to its bird design, but i will add links to the individual videos where i do use a full dose on each of these. grinders now, thanks to the precise measurements of burr movements provided by easypresso across their range, I went ahead and calculated two sets of grind settings that matched the exact bird distances on each of the grinders, so I used an espresso grind and also a medium grind setting that you would use for example aeropress and then I set about measuring the particle size distribution to compare how each of these grinders performed with their grinds and this was done using Jonathan Garnier's application, which can be downloaded for free and you can analyze the particle size distribution. of coffee grounds also a special mention to james hoffman for shedding light on this really interesting tool to use and also opening me up to jonathan's work.

It was not surprising to find that each grinder performed well for their intended purposes: the j-series grinders and the q2 manual grinder had the greatest similarity in grind distributions in a filter grind setting, as well as across all grind settings. for espresso, the jmax and the jx pro for espresso were very close, with the j-max just pushing it here and when comparing the j-max to the k-plus for espresso, the conclusion here is that the j-max had the most of their grind sizes represented very close to each other for a more even distribution of grinds, while the k plus had some finer particles shown at the lower end, which would indicate that more fines were found in the grind, so that the j-max seemed to have the advantage over the espresso here, as well as being comparable to the k plus in filter grind settings, although you do note how the k plus performs. individually in espresso and filter, the trend with the k plus burrs seems to produce more uniformity in the grinds with most of the grind sizes concentrated at the high end and then a considerable difference in particle sizes less than at the low end, while with the All j series grinders produced uniform distributions, as in the case of the jx pro, which had consistent performance in both tests.

Now these bar graphs don't tell the whole story, but they do shed light on reasonably good performance on the q2 as well as the k plus having a slightly different grind distribution pattern, another thing, although I noticed and got out While I was dialing in all of these grinders, it was that the jmaxx grinder was very far from the setting I was hoping to achieve and seemed to grind a lot. much finer than I had calculated so I had to go and adjust the settings on the j max by 20 or so coarser grind settings just to match these grind settings which isn't bad but is just crazy how much control of the grind settings you have. i have with the jmax compared to these other three grinders and that's really it between each of these grinders, unless we start pulling out the hen's teeth by quickly talking about the cleaning routine, they are all super simple and easy to press .

We've set it up that way so there are no tools required on each of these grinders to go deep into the body of the grinder to get a good clean and I guess you could continue to spend time looking at those charts to discern which of these is actually the one. grinder with better performance, but it really is the same again. what each of these grinders is intended for so i will summarize each of these grinders before choosing the q2 is absolutely a great grinder for traveling or for someone looking for a budget friendly grinder but also doesn't want to sacrifice quality as the q2 has proven to have really good grind performance and there is a great grind range for all methods albeit with a little less room to adjust so now the jx pro in my mind is that new budget espresso grinder and let me explain that to you . a bit, although it is not as affordable as other manual grinders and to say that its budget makes it look cheap, which it certainlyIt's not, it's a very high performance grinder and has all of its benefits lined up with great value as a great grinder.

What I mean when I say budget espresso grinder is that I think for under AU$250 it's probably the best espresso grinder. automatic or manual with better performance. Now let's talk about k-plus and j-max, which seem a little more difficult to me. to separate them as each shares that grind range for all brewing methods, although the j-max is much more precise with its grind settings. I don't know if you need that much precision when making filter coffee, so let's put it this way. If you are a true espresso connoisseur and that is all you brew then I would have to recommend the j max over the k plus when looking to hit that espresso sweet spot and if you are more into filtered coffee then I believe in the unique set of strawberries k. in the k plus it brings that advantage over the j max for a more flavorful filter coffee where it produces a more uniform grind and increases the clarity of flavor in your cup and with just one full rotation of the dial you have all your brewing methods, but honestly, I would be pretty excited about any of these simple press grinders when I travel, I make espresso more often, but on rare occasions I have a pour-over aeropress or even a mocha master, so for me it makes more sense to have the jmax, but I would be equally happy with the k plus and that's it for this comparison.

Which one would you choose and do you know the deal? If I've missed anything about any of these grinders, please add it in the comments section below and we'll get back to you and any questions you have about each of these. Grinders and as always thank you for watching until the end of this video and I'll see you in the next one.