May 9, 2012. Paul Hixon
Welcome to this grinder review. I have been looking around for a decent grind for a good long while now, and I do believe that I have found it here with this grinder from Cuisinart.
One of the main reasons that I like this Cuisinart DBM-8 Grinder so much is the fact that it is a burr grinder and not a blade grinder.
The main differences between burr grinders and blade grinders is the fact that blade grinders heat up and often cause the coffee to lose flavor. Obviously this leads to the coffee being ruined. Burr Grinders don’t seem to have this issue. There is also a hugely reduced risk of there being any bean “misses”. What I mean by that is beans that make their way through the grinder without being ground and make it into the coffee grounds in whole bean form. There have been reports of this machine doing that, but it is not something that I have encountered personally.
The smallest setting on the grinder, does tend to grind the beans into a powder and could potentially lead to you getting a bitter cup of coffee. My recommendation for using the machine with a drip coffee maker is to use the middle range or coarse coffee grind setting when grinding. This should lead to a pretty strong and flavorful cup of coffee.
In conclusion I would say that this grinder is one of the best in its range for drip coffee makers. When it comes to grinding coffee for an espresso machine I would recommend that you look to buying a more expensive machine. The grind of this unit is pretty good, but you will not likely see the consistent grinding process that is required for an espresso. There are some very nice grinder out there that are built for this purpose, but they will cost around 500 bucks.
Updated May 9, 2012. Published March 31, 2011. Paul Hixon
