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Our customers have been asking us to recommend a hand grinder for a long time. We’ve tried most of the best ones on the market over the last few years but a few months ago we finally got our hands on the beautiful Comandante C40 grinder and we fell in love with it. So much so that we recently contacted the factory in Germany and became a stockist.
Let’s start with the ergonomics of this grinder. It just makes you happy when you hold it in your hand. The body of the grinder is built of a hard stainless steel. The shape and feel of the handgrip is great. You know those grinders that make your hand super tired and sweaty? - this won’t happen with the Comandante C40. The handgrip on our test model is made of a natural oak wood, it’s really tactile and just so pleasant to hold.
The burr is made of a high nitrogen steel which allows for outstanding grind quality and cutting performance. The nitro blade burr is also neutral in the sense that you could use it to grind spices or tea and it won’t affect the taste of coffee afterwards.
The burr teeth are super sharp, so we recommend to watch your fingers when you adjust a grind size or when you’re cleaning the grinder. Trust me you don’t want to go this route.
At the bottom of the C40 you will find a three-legged star-shaped adjustment knob, it will allow you to dial in your grinder for the particular brew method you are using. Check out our upcoming brew guides for grind size recommendations for Clever Dripper, Aeropress, Cafetiere and Wilfa Brewer.
The click system makes the grind adjustment super easy, consistent and repeatable. Have you just bought this grinder - or maybe cleaned it for the first time and want to go back to brewing your daily coffee? With Comandante C40 that’s not a problem. It’s also the very best thing about this machine. The ability to calibrate to a set ‘zero-point’ means that you have a repeatable and reliable way of communicating your grind settings with others or returning to previous settings and getting the same results as you did back then.
To get to the zero point, simply turn the dial clockwise till the crank stops spinning freely. This is your point zero. Now turn the dial anticlockwise to get to the point you need, counting the clicks as you go. For example if you are brewing using the Clever Dripper we recommend 33 clicks as a starting point.
In the box you will also find 2 glass jars, one clean and one brown, each holds about 40g of coffee beans.
The Comandante C40 Nitro Blade is designed for speciality coffee enthusiasts and it is the first hand grinder that we have ever recommended - it’s the real deal. It’s not the cheapest grinder out there but we expect it will last a lifetime so that makes it excellent value. If you do have problems, spare parts are readily available and there are lots of really good resources on the Comandante website too.
In summary, the C40 does a phenomenal job of grinding coffee, it is easy to use, easy to live with and easy to transport too - so you can make amazing coffee wherever you are.
Review by Magdalena M.
