Comandante C40 Hand Grinder

So much fun

Best of the best, good, handy highly quality gadget. Easy dis&assembly, quick adjustment, ready to use.

Comandante C40 Hand Grinder

Great service from Foundry! Nice, simple, compact and bulletproof grinder which is just what I wanted.

I can’t make a comparison with other grinders - that’s for others better placed than I. The Comandante C40 is expensive but it works well and should be long-lived too. The grinder covers the range of particle sizes with a reassuringly positive adjustment system and grinds well. The capture glass is good to weigh the beans into (for those with OCD) then flip over snugly into the top of the grinder to load the beans without losing any, and once full with the grounds it perfectly fits the coffee basket of my mocha pot to keep that transfer mess-free too and it rinses easily. Cleaning and reassembly is easy, having mastered the knack of keeping the burr closed with my thumb nail whilst spinning the tri-nut with the other hand. I would have appreciated a decent long bristled brush to aid clean down though.

On the down side, when the grinder suddenly gulps a few beans I find it can turn in my dry and ageing grip. A sheet of that grippy draw liner stuff in my hand readily stops the problem however. The other issue, raised by reviewers, is the absence of a calibration scale. If I were to be constantly changing grind size from espresso to French press then this might be annoying, but for my purposes this is not an issue. In any case, if I make sure the burr goes back on the shaft in the same orientation when I reassemble (one of four positions on the square shaft), and note the position of the tri-leg nut at zero, I can read the setting. I can tell by eye whether the burr is one, two or three turns open, so right now I can look at the grinder face and see the burr is more than one turn open (12 clicks) and the reference leg of the tri-nut is another 3 indents open from the burr zero point, so the current setting is 15 clicks. Simple! Commandante, surely you could facilitate this!

On the whole this grinder delivers fresh evenly ground coffee in a functionally stylish way - particularly in the Red Sonja with that lovely red wood veneer! I shall enjoy exploring the impact of different grind sizes.