It’s a simple idea and one that we strove to incorporate into the HG-1. If you measure 17.0 grams of coffee beans for your shot and put it in our grinder, you should get as close to 17.0 grams as possible of ground coffee coming out. Anything left in the machine is wasted, and any retained grounds will grow stale and rancid, impacting the quality of your next shot.
HG-1 Low Grind Retention
Retention
Many home and commercial grinders suffer from the same two shortcomings. The first is the difficulty of cleaning the machine and the second is the amount of ground coffee retained in the unit after use. These two issues go hand in hand. As the picture on the left illustrates, ground coffee can quickly fill up every nook and cranny in a grinder, and if the machine is difficult to service, this quickly becomes a problem.
Manufacturers often turn a blind eye to these problems, forcing the user to either adopt arduous cleaning regimens or resort to workarounds to compensate for design deficiencies. We wanted to address retention and ease of cleaning in the HG-1 design from the very beginning. One of our solutions was to incorporate a direct exit path for the grounds from the burrs.
What goes in must come out
The vertical design of the HG-1 facilitates coffee traveling through the machine in a direct downward path, letting gravity do all of the work. Beans are loaded into the upper funnel which is located directly above the burrs. The ashtray shape of the upper funnel in combination with the onion like profile of the main shaft, minimizes the chance of beans popcorning out of the grinder. Once through the burrs, it’s a straight shot down and out of the machine.
There are no chutes, dosing mechanisms, or nooks and crannies for grounds to become trapped.
And with barely any surface contact, we minimize the chance of grounds rubbing against the surface of the grinder or becoming compacted. All of this leads to better results in the cup as well as a grinder that’s easy to clean. If you regularly enjoy changing your coffee origin or blend then the HG-1 will suit you well as there are no concerns over cross contamination between shots.
