A handful of items get me through the extensive travel my day job requires. I often venture by land or sea to remote outposts, where one of my favorite comforts of society—a good cup of coffee—is a tall order. But with a bag of fresh beans and the Comandante C40 MK4 hand grinder, I’m confident I’ll outdo any barista that may or may not exist within 100, maybe even 1,000 miles.
I’ve also been on the coffee beat for the better part of a decade and tested more burr grinders than I care to recall. However, the C40 MK4 hand coffee grinder is the one I’ve been drawn to the most: It’s served me on several continents and never fallen out of order. It’s lived on my kitchen countertop beside my espresso machine, French press, and moka pot for several years now, and I don’t envision it going anywhere soon.
Why the Comandante Handheld Coffee Grinder Is Awesome
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If you fancy the best cup of coffee available to humanity, make no mistake about it: Apart from getting your hands on the freshest beans you can, there’s nothing like a good burr grinder. After all, a coffee grinder is only as good as its burrs. (At the risk of being offensive, I say that blade grinders don’t count.)
So, hear me out: If you’re not willing to spend over $500 on a coffee grinder, consider investing in the handheld Comandante C40 MK4.
It’s a spendy little ditty, to be sure, but it contains quality components, without the fancy electronics and large footprint of a countertop grinder. Sure, it’s slower. You’ll get a bit of an upper-body workout, and making more than a couple of cups of coffee is a tall order, but we are talking about java fit for royalty, after all. And the reason coffee brewed from the Comandante is so great comes down to the burrs.
When you’re grinding coffee, consistency is key. No matter how fresh the beans are or what your brewing method is, the grounds need to be even. This is determined by the burrs, or the milling contraption within the grinder. The more finely, precisely machined the burrs are, the more even your grounds will be. Lacking bells and whistles, the Comandante dedicates the bulk of its engineering to the burrs—in this case, high-alloyed, high-nitrogen stainless steel that won’t lose its edges unless you try really hard to ruin it.
These high-quality burrs ensure evenly ground coffee. Too many “fines,” or minuscule, powdery grinds, and you end up with over-extracted sludge that imparts an unwelcome bitterness. Too many “boulders,” or large particles, and you get an under-extracted brew that doesn’t do the job either. In our test of handheld coffee grinders (and with my own usage), the C40 MK4 outperformed every other grinder when making 600/800-micron grounds for pour-over coffee.
This brings us to another benefit of a small, easily adjustable handheld grinder: While you might not churn out half a dozen espressos in a jiffy, it’s easy to tend to this grinder and its burrs. It’s ill-advised to adjust a grinder between fine and coarse settings, as, somewhat like a bicycle’s gears being changed too fast, it can knock things out of whack. With the Comandante, it’s a little easier to control shifting between grind settings, thanks to an ergonomic grind-setting dial embossed with directions: counterclockwise for coarser grounds, clockwise for finer ones. (A tip for espresso enthusiasts: Consider the Red Clix, a secondary axle that doubles the roughly 40 factory settings, in case you want to dial in your fine grounds more accurately.)
The Comandante is also easy to clean—which you should do with any burr grinder from time to time. Just turn the dial counterclockwise until it pops off, and you’ll have instant access to the burrs. Further, electric machines tend to get hot, which heats the coffee beans as they grind and can lead to inconsistencies in size.
Being 2.4 inches by 6.3 inches (and about 1.5 pounds), it’s also small and portable, so I can take it on the road. It’s easy to dial in the grind size, and, within one or two test brews, have a perfect cup of joe out of anything from a French press pitcher to a moka pot, whether in a plush hotel or an Airbnb, or over an open fire along some distant shoreline. I take deep solace in that. It’s the little things.
FAQs
How do I know if my grinder burrs are worn out?
The easiest way to tell if your burrs are worn out (or at least require inspection and/or cleaning) is if your grinder starts to underperform, turning out inconsistent grounds.
Why We’re the Experts
- Owen Burke is a writer who has reported on coffee, kitchenware, outdoor gear, boats, the environment, and more.
- He’s been on the coffee beat for the better part of a decade and tested dozens of coffee grinders.
- He uses the Comandante C40 MK4 for everything from moka pot to French press coffee at home, afield, and sometimes afloat.
About The Author
