October 13, 2021 – The coffee grinder died today. It’s old, the plastic yellowed from time, the brand lettering long ago rubbed away. It’s not fancy. Pour in the beans, press the button, prepare for joy. It’s been doing that job for me for a lot of years. More than two decades in fact. That’s a long time to establish patterns and routines. Subdue the alarm. Stumble down the stairs. Grind. Brew. Feed the dog. Every day.

Even so, there have been changes along the way. Multiple homes. Renovations (including the various kitchens where the grinder lived). No kids. Later, kids. The dog before this one. Yet every day, that little grinder, has always been a constant. Odd to place such emphasis on something as unassuming as a coffee grinder, no? But of course, it’s not the grinder itself, rather, all it represents.

But sometimes the old no longer works and it’s time for change. If a coffee grinder can’t grind then it isn’t serving its purpose.

Coffee grinder technology has advanced tremendously in the past quarter of a century. There are touch screens. Vibration limiters. Oversized hoppers. Whisper quiet decibel dampening. There are retro manual crank grinders and sleek ultra-modern automatic grinders. Fine grind, course, and all the micro-settings in between. There are grinders in every colour, shape, and size and they range in price from just a few dollars to many hundreds. How does one choose?

There is a new grinder now, stainless and black, a match for the kitchen (as currently configured). But beyond that, in the end, I opted for the simple, the familiar. This wasn’t a change I was looking for. Perhaps my coffee experience would be enhanced by a fully integrated grinder/pour-over brewer with an app for my cell phone. But the old grinder’s only failing was that after all those years it just stopped grinding. When the old model stops working, like it or not, it’s time for a change, time to update. But the new model is not so different. After all, the purpose hasn’t changed.

Pour in the beans. Press the button. Prepare for joy.