Easy easy to clean your coffee grinder: rice!
Related entries in Brewing tipsYeah I know, sounds nuts. I don’t know where I picked it up but it does work. This trick is intended for the blade-type grinders. I also just did this so I know it works great. So, you simply put a scant 1/4 of dry rice (use cheap rice, not your exotic jasmine rice) in the grinder and grinder away. The dry rice scours the grinding area and picks up stray coffee too. You wouldn’t believe how shiny and clean my grinder is right now. I dump the remnants into the compost pail (the rice is now basically seed meal) and wipe out the grinding area and lid (which doesn’t get all that clean) with a paper towel or cloth.
This cleaning trick works great if you have to use your grinder to grind spices. You keep the coffee out of the spice and the spice out of your coffee. It also is good to do once and a while to get old rancid gunk out as well.
Give it a shot!
Tris Hussey is the Chief Blogging Officer for Qumana Software and Managing Director of Qumana Services. He can be reached at tris AT qumana DOT com or tris AT trishussey DOT com.
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April 27th, 2005 at 6:55 pm
I’ve done this before! You know what else it does? It freshens it and gets rid of the old coffee smell a grinder can take on. It’s a great idea.
April 28th, 2005 at 3:39 am
Thats right, those blade grinders are much better for rice than they are for coffee. Seriously though, those things are really the worst thing you can do to your coffee. The easiest way to improve your coffee at home to invest in a proper grinder. (Solis Maestro, Zassenhaus hand mill for instance).
April 28th, 2005 at 7:41 am
Alistair, you’re right of course. I know that blade grinders are prone to overheating the beans and not grinding evenly.
Some day, I’ll move up in the grinder world, but I’ve had this grinder for years and years and it’s served me well. It’s the standard Braun that everyone seems to start with.
On the flip side, these grinders are great for spices!
Thanks for your comment!
April 29th, 2005 at 1:50 am
I hate plugging my own wares, but we stock the Zassenhaus. Its a small investment ($110) for a lifetime worth of awesome grinding. So simple. All of the staff have one, we love them.
April 29th, 2005 at 5:37 am
I’ve seen those! They are nice. Love to try one some time. Which ones do you carry?
BTW…on the French press travel mug…you are right if you linger over it the coffee can get over extracted, but it makes a great indestructable press for travel. Just pour into a cup!
April 29th, 2005 at 7:35 am
I’ll have to go look at the Zassenhaus. I’m actually looking for a grinder right now.
April 29th, 2005 at 8:42 pm
these are the ones we have at the moment: http://www.coffeed.com/users/alistair/zass.jpg
May 11th, 2005 at 9:34 am
I use rice to clean my grinder. If I have a batch of my home-roasted coffee that doesn’t turn out as it should, I hang on to it and run it through the grinder, after the cleaning, to clean out any of the rice dust that remains (don’t want to be wasting the good stuff ;) ).
December 7th, 2005 at 2:29 pm
What sounds nuts is the way of cleaning one’s kettler – with Fanta! I heard it not so long ago^ just boil your Fanta in it. Crazy stuff.