How to clean your coffee grinder properly?

A Guide to Cleaning Your Coffee Grinder the Right Way 

Ever wondered how to properly clean your coffee grinder? Keeping your coffee grinder clean, pristine, and in proper working order can help you more easily access all of the benefits of delicious coffee daily.

Grinding your coffee beans fresh gives you the best coffee flavors and consistency in each cup! However, a dirty coffee grinder could lead to less-than-ideal nuances in your coffee. 

In this helpful coffee grinder cleaning guide, we will go over the best methods for cleaning the blades of your coffee grinder, maintaining its components, cleaning out used coffee grounds, removing rancid oils, and generally keeping your grinder in great working order. Let's get to it!

Grinding Fresh is Best!

Essentially, everyone agrees: for delicious coffee on demand, choosing fresh roasted Arabica coffee beans and grinding them right before brewing is best. Fresh ground coffee beans naturally deliver excellent flavors, rich oils, distinct essences, and superior aromatic notes. When you grind coffee beans just before you brew, you reduce oxidation and allow those beans to show off their best qualities!

A good coffee grinder and great coffee are key. You can purchase some of the best coffee online at www.onegreatcoffee.com by clicking here. 

How to Properly Clean Your Coffee Grinder?

To safely and effectively clean an electric coffee grinder, use a small brush to sweep out any old coffee grounds. Then, use a dry paper towel to wipe off any residues or oils. Reassemble your coffee grinder, and you should be good to go.

Don't Introduce Moisture 

It is not recommended to clean a coffee grinder with soap and water. Instead, you can use a small brush to sweep out any old coffee grounds. To remove rancid oil residues, use a clean paper towel to gently wipe the blades, components, and any other easily removable parts. This will help you protect blades, burs, gears, and other coffee grinder components that could be damaged by the introduction of moisture.

What parts of a coffee grinder can be washed?

If your coffee grinder has a glass or plastic basin for coffee beans, you can clean this with soap and water if you wish. However, it's best to do this by hand and avoid the dishwasher. Metal gears, latches, or grinding components should generally be cleaned dry, without the use of water. If you do use water to wash your bean basin or any plastic parts, be sure to completely dry everything before reassembling to avoid rust, particulate buildup, or corrosion. 

Coffee Grinder Cleaning 101: The Basics 

Coffee grinders are used to pulverize coffee beans into varying levels of coarse powder. From there, the freshly prepared grounds can be readily brewed into delicious cups of Joe.

Keeping your coffee grinder clean helps to ensure that every batch of grounds you prepare will exhibit optimal coffee flavors and aromas. After all, old coffee grounds can not only clog your coffee grinder but may also impact the flavor of the coffee you are making. 

Know Your Grinder 

Before you start cleaning your coffee grinder, first, you should identify what type of coffee grinder you actually own. Is it a ceramic grinder, an electric grinder, a burr grinder, or something else? You must identify the type of coffee grinder you have in order to clean it correctly.

The two main types of coffee grinders are blade and burr. However, there are also various types of electric grinders and manual grinders. Let's quickly go over the differences between some popular coffee grinders. 

Here's a quick breakdown of different types of coffee grinders:

Blade Grinders

The simplest, most affordable, and most commonly seen type of coffee grinder is a blade grinder. Blade grinders are usually electric and use sharp blades to chop coffee beans into tiny pieces. The longer you run your coffee beans through a blade grinder, the smaller the grounds become. Blade grinders must be cleaned and maintained regularly, and the blades may need to be sharpened from time to time. 

Burr Grinders

Burr coffee grinders are popular because they produce a more consistent grind level. They tend to give you uniform coffee ground sizes. The burrs in a burr grinder crush coffee beans between them, which is also great since it helps the coffee beans naturally release their inherent oils and essences. Burr grinders can be metallic or ceramic. They tend to be easy to clean and wipe down with a dry cloth or cleaning brush. 

Manual Grinders / Other Coffee Grinders

There are also conical grinders, ceramic burr grinders, and more. Manual coffee grinders tend to be smaller and don't require electricity in order to work. Usually, you must manually turn a handle or crank to grind your coffee beans. Ceramic grinders use ceramic components, which can be easier to care for and clean than grinders with metal components. 

Correctly Cleaning Your Coffee Grinder

Cleaning and maintaining your coffee grinder requires some forethought. After all, simply running its pieces through the dishwasher can cause issues like corrosion and rust. Rust, corrosion, and dull blades can prevent your grinder from working correctly.

Electric grinder motors can be shorted out by moisture. Whether you have an electric grinder, a manual grinder, a burr grinder, or something else, you want it to be operating correctly for optimal coffee brewing results.

Generally, the best way to clean a coffee grinder is to use a dry brush or vacuum to remove any old grounds and residues, wipe the pieces down gently with a dry microfiber cloth or paper towel, and then reassemble everything. 

Remove Old Grounds and Residues by Dry Brushing and Wiping Things Down

If you want to effectively clean your coffee grinder, the goal should be to remove any old coffee grounds and residues from its components without causing damage. You can use a small brush to remove any unwanted coffee grounds from the blades, basin, and/or grinding components with a sweeping motion or by brushing gently in small circles.

Then, take a dry paper towel and wipe down any oils or residues from the burrs or blades. A microfiber cloth can also be used to remove excess oils. When you are done wiping off the excess grounds and residues, you can reassemble your coffee grinder, and you should be good to go. 

Run Uncooked Rice Through Your Coffee Grinder 

Another simple way to clean a coffee grinder involves using uncooked rice. You simply run a few tablespoons of uncooked rice through the components of your grinder, as if you were grinding coffee beans. The rice will naturally absorb any excess residues or rancid oils from the components of your coffee grinder. Then, use a brush to sweep out any rice residue, and wipe everything down one last time with a dry paper towel. 

Rancid Coffee Oil and Residue in Your Grinder: Oxidation is the Enemy 

If you don't clean your coffee grinder from time to time, the grounds you prepare can start to have stale or unpleasant flavors and odors. Oxidation is to blame for this. 

You see, over time, old coffee grounds and coffee oils begin to build up in your coffee grinder and its inner components. These grounds and oils are exposed to oxygen constantly, causing rancid flavors that eventually, you may begin tasting in your brewed coffee. When this happens, it's time to clean your coffee grinder and wipe everything down well. 

You can prevent this by wiping your coffee grinder out every couple of weeks using a dry paper towel. Another option is to clean out any excess grounds every time you use your coffee grinder. Staying on top of things can go a long way toward preventing residue, ground, and oil buildup. 

Why can't you clean a coffee grinder with water? 

It is not recommended to clean the components of your coffee grinder with soap or water. This is because water can introduce rust into the components of your grinder. Plus, many coffee grinders have lubricants in the gears. Soapy water may remove these lubricants. Reapplying lubricant yourself can void your warranty if you have an electric coffee grinder. 

Moreover, electric coffee grinders have electric motors. Even if you unplug your coffee grinder before getting it wet, introducing water into these components and electric workings can cause shorts. 

Finally, most coffee grinder basins (and other components) can be effectively cleaned by simply wiping them down with a dry paper towel. No need to get anything wet in the first place. 

If any unpleasant flavors are still lingering, you can run some sacrificial coffee beans through your grinder or even a little bit of dry white rice. This should absorb any lingering residues. Once that's done, you can grind your fresh coffee beans and proceed as usual. No need to introduce moisture or chemicals. 

COFFEE GRINDER CLEANING: THE BOTTOM LINE 

It's important to understand how to correctly clean the blades, basin, and inner components of your coffee grinder correctly to extend its life and remove old coffee grounds or rancid oils. 

As a rule, try to keep your grinder dry. Brush away any old grounds and then use a microfiber cloth or dry paper towel to wipe away residues. You can also use a small vacuum to clean out any grounds from the inner components. Running rice through your grinder is another way to absorb unwanted oils or old flavors.  

With proper cleaning and maintenance techniques, you can extend the life of your coffee grinder and always have it ready to pulverize fresh beans, thus unlocking the advantages of great coffee every day!

Shop for top-quality US-roasted gourmet coffee online now!