Coffee is an essential part of most people’s daily routines. In fact, according to WebMD, drinking coffee even has health benefits such as protection against liver disease and Parkinson’s. There are countless different types and blends of coffee, but one thing that remains largely uniform is that coffee must be ground before it is blended and the quality of the grinder often directly impacts the quality of the overall coffee.
To that end, a startup company known as Kuissential is dedicated to revolutionizing the way that people grind their coffee.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign for their EvenGrind manual burr coffee grinder, the company--which uses a patented system to deliver even consistently grind size--sold their brand to SCS Direct Inc., a consumer products company, and as of 2016, the EvenGrind is available to the public.
Inspiration and review
Many people prefer to use a manual burr grinder at home rather than an electrical grinder because they tend to be affordable, easy to use and enable users to choose their desired grind size. The common design for a manual burr grinder produces a better quality grind than a blade grinder, which is sold by multiple brands including Hario, Breville and Gaggia.
However, too often the burr is not stabilized and subsequently rocks back and forth which creates an inconsistent grind size that fails to brew evenly.
The founders of Kuissential--who are caffeine aficionados--took the problematic aspects of existing coffee grinders into serious consideration when they designed the EvenGrind. Kuissential EvenGrind includes a removable stabilizing cage that keeps the burr steady while still being easy to clean and also an upper and lower bearing for extra support and smoother handle turning. It is this new design system that separates the EvenGrind from the traditional manual burr grinders on the market such as the Cuisinart DBM-8 and the KRUPS GX5000 Professional which have both been cited to produce uneven grinds.
In short, the EvenGrind does not make the coffee grinds smaller but instead makes them even which enables the user to decide exactly how big or tiny they want their specific blend to be ensuring that no brews will be over or under extracted.
Hence, whether you prefer espresso, Turkish coffee, or your own unique blends, the EvenGrind will be useful as long as you thoroughly clean the grinder before adding a new flavor.
That said, it can be a messy process to load the beans in and the quality of the resulting blend depends largely on how long and hard you turn the handle. Thus, if you’re seeking an easy way to blend, an electric offering like the electric Ninja Coffee and Spice Grinder might be a better option.
Future aspirations
Howard Greenspan, the owner of SCS Direct, came across Kuissential in the fall of 2015 and his interest was instantly peaked by the EvenGrind Kickstarter campaign. “No matter how fancy your brewer is, you can’t achieve the best taste if your coffee grinder does not produce fresh and even grounds,” he stated.
“If you use a French Press with half course and half fine grind size, the fine particles will over-extract, giving you a bitter tasting cup.” Branching out to a niche market of coffee lovers is something that is both innovative and a little daring.
That said, even people who are not coffee connoisseurs will likely be able to taste the enhanced quality of brews made via the EvenGrind immediately. In January of 2016 SCS Direct added Kuissential to their roster of Housewares brands where it has been quite successful alongside several other products across the kitchen and coffee categories. “We have plans to develop an EvenGrind 2.0,” Greenspan declared. “It is expected to launch in 2017. We definitely see a lot of potential for this item since coffee is not going out of style anytime soon.”