Porlex Mini Coffee Grinder Review
The Porlex Mini II coffee grinder shows up in most of the best manual coffee grinder reviews, so being coffee lovers, we thought we would get one. Now that we have used our Porlex Mini coffee grinder for well over 2 years we thought we would share our thoughts being this is not a paid post as many of the online reviews appear to or could be (we could be wrong here, but you never know these days). Porlex have a few different manual grinder options, we chose the smaller version being the Mini II for space in our camp setup and weight.
Nothing Beats Ground Coffee
Before we had a manual coffee grinder, we would usually pre-grind our coffee at home. There is nothing wrong with doing this, but we all know that nothing beats freshly ground coffee in the morning. The aromas of freshly ground coffee beans is definitely one of our favourites, up there with that smell of freshly baked beer damper bread straight out of the camp oven. One issue with pre-grinding your coffee beans will be when you have a few different brewing methods. So, this is probably more of a coffee snob issue having a few different coffee options while camping. But yes, we fit into this category having a Nanopresso portable espresso machine, plunger, and percolator in our camp setup. Overkill maybe, but we like our coffee. With each of these methods you need a different grind setting to get that coffee brewing just right. Having a manual coffee grinder that allows you to adjust the grind setting gives you the ability to get your coffee just right for the brewing method of your choice.
Porlex Mini II Grinder Features
The Porlex Mini II coffee grinder is a manual grinder as we highlighted above. It is made in Japan, so you know it is manufactured to the highest quality. It is primarily stainless steel with ceramic burrs that do all the work in grinding the coffee. These materials will not rust and last forever. The Mini II can hold approximately 20 grams of coffee beans, giving you a double shot of coffee. The grinder is compact, durable, and lightweight so you can take this with you anywhere and everywhere you travel. You can adjust your coffee grind to twelve different settings although working these out exactly is a bit of a mystery. Here is a summary of the key features which we will discuss in more detail below:
- Compact design.
- Lightweight and durable.
- Stainless steel so will not rust.
- Ceramic burrs that are replaceable.
- Quality Japanese engineering.
- Holds 20 grams of coffee – double shot.
- 12 grind settings (not sure on this feature).
- Manual operation so no reliance on batteries.
- Removable handle.
- Silicon grip with handle storage.
How Does it Work?
Using this grinder is simple really. Before attaching the handle, you remove the top lid and pour in your coffee beans. Filling the top of the grinder is approximately 20 grams of coffee which is around a double shot. You then reattach the lid. Remove the bottom section of the grinder and here you can adjust the grind settings. You simply turn the adjustment to the correct setting for the brewing method. We will go through the grind settings later in this post. Once you have adjusted the grind settings, replace the bottom of the grinder. Now attach the grinder handle and grind away. The coarser your grind setting the quicker the grind process will be. If you choose to grind your coffee on the finest setting, be prepared to take a few minutes to complete this process. You will know when all the coffee beans have gone through the grinder as you will feel this when turning the grind handle. Remove the bottom of the grinder and there you will have your freshly ground coffee. It is as simple as that. There are quite a few hacks with these grinders where you can attach a drill to the top of the grinder instead of the handle. If you decide to try this method to save some time, be very careful with your drill speed settings as you can easily destroy the mechanism inside the grinder if your drill speed is too high. We choose to do this manually while we have our water on the jet cooker boiling.
Grind Settings
So, the best thing about this grinder is the ability to adjust the grind settings. Porlex advertise that you can choose between twelve settings as per the below guide being so many clicks when making the adjustment. The problem we found is that there is no click which makes following their recommendations a tad difficult. As a result, we have just worked it all out through trial and error. To adjust the grind, as we highlighted above, you simply turn the grind setting to the desired result. To start with, we turn the grind setting all the way until it stops, and this will give you your starting point as a reference from the finest possible grind. We then loosen the grinder to the desired setting. The starting point (when the grind setting is as tight as possible) will give you the finest grind possible. Somewhere close to the finest setting is what we use when grinding coffee for our Nanopresso (this is a portable espresso machine – you can read about ours here). We will set the grinder setting somewhere to a far coarser setting when using our coffee plunger and percolator. The easiest way to check the grind, is play around with the setting, grind a little bit of the coffee and check to see how fine or coarse it has come out. Then adjust if necessary.
To give you an idea this is what Porlex recommend as the different grind settings, however it is difficult to follow their recommendations when there are no clicks:
- 1-2 = extra fine
- 3-4 = fine
- 5-6 = medium-fine
- 7-8 = medium
- 9-10 = medium-coarse
- 11-12 = coarse
There are many posts online from coffee experts that can explain what grind is ideal for different brewing methods. We are not experts here so do some research on what is best for your coffee setup. Choosing the correct coffee grind allows you to extract the best flavour from your coffee. Remembering that the coarser your coffee grind, the longer the brew time required to extract the best possible flavour. Getting the perfect grind with the Porlex Mini II coffee grinder is super easy and allows you to have the best possible coffee while travelling.
Issues Maintaining Constant Grind
Overall, we have been happy with our Porlex Mini II coffee grinder but have found that the grinder settings can adjust automatically while grinding your coffee. When grinding fine for an espresso type grind this does not seem to be an issue as the grinder setting is set tight. When going for a coarser grind the grind setting can move causing inconsistencies with the final grind. Overall, this is not a huge issue as it only seems to occur during a coarse grind and if some parts of the grind are not consistent it does not seem to be an issue with a coffee plunger or percolator brew. To a coffee expert they might notice the difference in final taste, but for us the result is always top notch so we cannot really complain.
Our Verdict
The Porlex Mini II Coffee Grinder is a great bit of gear. We use this portable coffee grinder constantly and it always delivers a great coffee. We could just buy pre ground coffee and not worry about this step but having freshly ground coffee in the morning while camping for us is a luxury and one we would prefer to not go without. We do not just use this grinder while camping as we do find that when travelling in general it allows us to always have good coffee no matter where we are. So, if we are staying with family that love their instant coffee, we can take our little coffee setup along with us and still enjoy a good cup of coffee every morning. We usually end up making coffee for everyone as they will not say no to a good cup over a cup of instant. As the Porlex Mini II coffee grinder packs up small and does not weigh much it is a great bit of gear for any camp setup. The grind process is easy, and the handle works well. The ability for us to adjust our coffee grind while out on the road does give us the flexibility to have great coffee no matter which brewing method we decide on. Being a quality Japanese made bit of gear we know that it will last us a very long time. We have not tried any other manual coffee grinders so cannot compare this one to others, but in our opinion, this is a great bit of coffee gear that you will always find with us on our travels.
We hope you have enjoyed our review of the Porlex Mini II Coffee Grinder. If you have any questions or comments, please post them below. To keep up to date on our future posts then join the 4WD Adventurer Community here. For more regular updates please follow us on Instagram.
Thanks for reading legends.
