Is a manual grinder worth it?

[SpicyRiceTea]

I'm looking for a grinder right now with the largest range since I drink both French Press and Turkish.
With entry level electric burr grinders, I've heard the Baratza Encore and the Capresso 560.01 Infinity being suggested.
Though personally, I like the romanticism of manually grinding your own coffee. So I wanted to know, are there manual grinders that are available who can give a grind at the same level of accuracy and range as those entry level electric burr grinders?
Cheers

 

[MntnMan62]

Looking briefly online it seems that almost all of the grinders recommended for turkish coffee are manual. The only one I saw that was motorized was the Capresso 565 Infinity. I know I'd have a tough time with how much effort a cup of turkish coffee would require using a manual grinder. There are lots of good electric grinders that excel at french press. That is my preferred brew method and I use a Baratza Virtuoso. Love it. Good luck in your search.

 

[shadow745]

I've had quite a few grinders and can honestly say the Rancilio Rocky I ran for years would grind from road gravel coarse to Turkish fine and had plenty of range for espresso, etc. It has thermal protection so possible damage is minimized. Any grinder that will grind Turkish fine will likely have issues with clogging and would need to be cleaned often to help offset that.

There are some manual grinders that will cover both ends of the grind spectrum, but it will involve some effort/time. I recently bought a 1ZPresso JE-Plus hand beast and although it's geared primarily toward espresso range grinding, I'm sure it will go much more coarse as well as a good bit more fine than typical espresso range. A 19.2 gram batch (espresso range setting) takes me around 160 turns in maybe 75 seconds. Of course a very coarse press setting would be much faster, but Turkish a good bit slower. A nicely designed manual grinder will minimize the effort/strength needed compared to cheap alternatives.

I'm not one to recommend multiple grinders, but for your case it might be an option. Maybe something like the Capresso Infinity for the coarser range and a dedicated Turkish style hand mill just for the super fine range. Those grinders have a unique type of burr that pulverizes the coffee into powder, but I've never used one so no comment on function.

 

[shadow745]

I am just wondering if a cheap blade grinder can be used to make Turkish? You just find a way to keep it running for 30 minutes and turn everything into dust...

Well 30 mins might be a bit overkill. Issue with them would be keeping the grounds moving around somewhat to be sure pretty much all the particles have been pulverized.