After careful research, I decided the Comandante C40 was the perfect manual grinder upgrade to my Encore, and received it today.
Initial thoughts: this grinder is hefty, build quality seems incredible, and it absolutely monsters through my beans. It puts my old Hario Mini mill to shame; grinding 15 grams takes around 30 seconds maximum. It looks incredible too (I got the red model).
I’m having a bit of a problem figuring out what the zero spot is though - I thought I had the zero spot, turned clockwise until it was really tight, and then turned counterclockwise for 23 and 25 clicks respectively. This gave me draw downs on a V60 of 2.09 minutes, and 1.55 minutes respectively. As expected, both cups tasted bland and flavorless. I’m assuming that I’m not quite reaching the zero spot, meaning what I think is 23 or 25 clicks is actually closer to 30+, hence the grind being coarser than I want.
I checked up on Comandante’s website, but their explanation didn’t make much sense to me. I’m afraid of turning too tight and damaging the grinder
For anyone that has the grinder, how did you find the zero spot? And what other feedback can you give me?
What’s your pouring regime? I don’t have a Commandante, but you shouldn’t need to go anywhere near as tight as damaging the grinder (though this is probably quite unlikely).
E.g. for a 1 mug V60 I’m starting the last addition of brew water around 2:00, so there will still be some draw down time after that. Try splitting the pour into 5 pulses 30s apart, or 6-7 at 20sec apart. Stir quickly at bloom/1st addition, then pour in spirals, swirl after last addition. See if that gets you a dry bed around 2:45-3:15. If not, adjust grind, but view time as secondary…if the brews taste really good outside of this range focus on how grind setting affects that, rather than making them fit a time.
Zero spot on Comandante is the first moment when gravity can’t move the handle so the burrs are touching. The more you go you can damage the grinder or overtighten the screw.
But I don’t really use the clicks on it, sometimes when I found some very good recipe I count them but most of the time it’s just by looking on the grind size.
One of my very casual recipes for V60 is:
22g at 33-35 clicks (yes so coarse)
330g at 92°C
80g in for 30s bloom (also little swirl movement with the V60)
after bloom another 100g in circles (don’t worry to touch the filter too with water)
at 1 minute pour another 100g
at 1:30 pour remaining 50g, swirl the V60 and let it drip till the bed is “dry” or till 2 minutes.
