Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill – ‘Mini-Slim Plus’ Manual Coffee Grinder 24g Coffee Capacity

Good Enough and Quick — As the song says, “There, I said it again.” Grinding coffee with this thing or anything like it is a lot of work, but it feels good. I would never rely on this for daily grinding of more than a cup or two at a time. I can’t imagine women would love this thing. Setting it down on the counter is no way to go. I’m no weakling, but this thing is not the easiest to hold on to when you’re really cranking on it. I choose to hold it so the bottom edge is resting firmly against my sternum near my solar plexus, and then hold onto its waisted cylindrical shape as high as I can — up near the handle — don’t cut or scratch yourself with the handle! I wish I could put it in a bench vise and really go to town with it — yah, sure, you betcha! Anyway, it does a nice job, it adjusts quite nicely, and it is a handsome and durable unit. I think someone is making a good profit at the price it seems to sell, but evidently the demand is there, as they seem to leap off the retailers’ shelves briskly, so the market is telling you the value is there vs alternatives. If you’re in early times and just starting to dip your foot into grinding, go ahead and get this one. Later, once you’re addicted to good coffee, you can always buy a good electric burr grinder that will take you through hell and back. But this little Hario you should always keep for small experimental tasks, and for travel, so I think it is an excellent choice. Just know what you’re getting into with these small hand grinders — they all take the same effort and time to grind up (to fracture predictably and fairly uniformly) these surprisingly hard, tough roasted coffee beans. This Hario is a good one, possibly the standard of the small, ceramic burr hand grinders. I’d buy it again, but only if I lost this one or wore it out (unlikely), as i certainly don’t need two . . . yet, that I can think of . . . wait, one in each car, in each camping pack? Hmmm . . . Cheers!

Fist of all this is a great grinder given its price, it can make a much better cup of coffee using hole beens whan compared to pre-grinds.
With that said, there are a few gripes that I have with this product. The grind quality is only acceptable and the grind settings are not very easily reproduced. You will make a few cups to dile the grind settings in for a coffee and if you want to try out some other coffee your previous settings a basicly lost. Which is understandable given it’s price. But my biggest gripe is the bar code sticker on the back of the grinder. It leaves a lot of residual which is very notesable on clear plastic. It took me 30 minutes with rubbing alcohol and a micro fiber cloth to remove filly.
If there where no bar code sticker this would be a 5 star product.

This makes a great addition to my traveling bag. All i need to bring is my coffee and I can make delicious cowboy coffee with my favorite grind.

I bought this coffee grinder because I needed something portable to use with my Aeropress when travelling. I typically like to make cold brew, and needed something that could grind finely.

Overall, it is “good” for this purpose. At its finest setting, this can grind beans into a fine flour-consistency, which is more than what I need for cold brew. Adjusting the grind setting is easy and intuitive, and the setting has never slipped on me (which is an issue I’ve had on my home electric grinder). For other people that use multiple different grind settings, it would be nice if ranges of settings were labeled as fine-medium-coarse, but since I only use one setting, I was able to set-it-and-forget-it after some experimentation.

The downsides are:
1) entirely plastic build – it does not feel premium, but the price is low so this is to be expected.
2) short grinding arm. The low torque from this means that it’s a workout, and a long one. I would not be able to use this to make multiple cups of coffee if I had a guest over. On my slower mornings, I really do not look forward to using this grinder.
3) it is not as portable as it could be. The bottom of the grinder is flared outward, but it doesn’t actually contribute to the amount of coffee grounds that can be held there. It simply feels like a waste of plastic. Maybe it helps with gripping it during the workout of grinding, but still, this could have at least contributed to a larger chamber for holding more grounds.

I would be able to give this grinder 5 stars if there was an option of a longer grinding arm so that grinding would be easier and not a “workout”.

Hi! I’m fairly new to the specialty coffee scene, but having this be my second hand-grinder (and the one I’m still using) I’ll give my thoughts. I’ve been using this hand grinder daily usually one cup of coffee a day since the beginning of the year.

Pros:
1. Shape and size: very easy to grip, holds up to about 30g of beans in the hopper while the lower chamber on the “Mini Slim Pro” model will comfortably hold over 60g (haven’t tried more). The opening of the hopper is wide enough to pour beans into without spilling too!
2. Materials: The metal hopper and bin feel really sturdy, no noticeable scratches so far and it feels like it will last forever
3. The Handle: super sturdy, I think it’s cast aluminum and will never bend on you.
4. Decent grind quality: This will not be as good as the $230 Comandante or other very high-end hand grinders, but for drip coffee, Aeropress (my method of choice), and pour over (I’ve tried Kalita Wave 185) this grinder will make tasty coffee!
5. Burrs: Made of ceramic, I haven’t had any problems with them.\
6. Noise: this thing is much quiter than any electrical appliance with a motor, great for not waking up roomates!

Cons:
1. The latching mechanism: Instead of threads, Hario went with a simple latch that makes it easy to attach and remove the bin from the hopper – if it’s facing the right way. It’s a small annoyance, but if I remove the grounds bin to pour my freshly ground coffee in my Aeropress and the hopper isn’t facing the right way, I have to hunt around the side of both pieces to make sure the little latch is aligned.
2. The latching mechanism: so this isn’t actually a big problem – yes the latching mechanism does wear a little bit on the “hopper side” of the grinder, as you can see in the picture. Most of that wear occured within the first month or two, and now I’ve had it for over 5 months now and it hasn’t progressed. If you’re worried about wear, just grip the grinder a little higher and support the hopper a little more. However I do feel this issue was overlooked in the design.
3. Grinder Consistency at coarser grind: So for a <$100 grinder, the consistency I believe is pretty good, but if you're grinding for french press, filter, or cold brew you're gonna have a decent amount of fines, which are smaller particles/dust than what you're aiming to achieve. For Aeropress and French Press this doesn't matter too much (you'll still get great coffee as long as your beans are also good) but these fines do have a tendency to clog paper filters, such as for pourover (not as bad if you're only making a couple cups) and for cold brew. I ground 90g of coffee coarsely to make some cold brew yesterday for the first time, and I thought I'd filter the coffee through my Kalita wave, but yeah that didn't work out very well, the whole thing clogged up. I had to use my aeropress to pressure-filter the coffee!
4. Setting the coarseness: if you’ve never used one of these before, trying to figure out exactly how many clicks to set the grinder to the first time is intimidating and confusing! Just remember: 10 clicks from completely closed is medium/drip, 5 would be fine/espresso, and 14 is about as coarse as you want for french press/cold brew (I brew french press at 12 clicks). This website is also super helpful: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/guides/coffee-grind-size-chart/ (the mini-mill chart also works for this)
5. Effort: Yes this takes some elbow grease. Apparently much more expensive hand grinders have bearings and sharp metal burrs to make it a lot easier and smoother, but this isn’t that fancy (or as expensive)
6. While slim and portable, it doesn’t fit inside my aeropress like the aergrind might. I wish there was a slightly easier way to carry it for travel, but this is more of a nitpick than a real concern.

As you can see, most of my cons are more nitpicks and annoyances, but in reality, are very easy to deal with day to day.

Experience:
The grind quality of this may not be too terribly much better than the “plus” model or other grinders out there, but I really enjoy the metal body and large grinds bin this grinder has. For a hand grinder below $100 I am very happy with this purchase! It takes a couple minutes to grind the 17g of coffee for my cup in the morning, but it’s always much less time than it takes for the kettle to heat up. Over 30g of coffee though and you’ll have to refill the hopper, and by then the churning of the handle starts to get old (the 90g of coffee for the cold brew yesterday took ages!). Also, pourover brewing will probably take a little longer than some instructions say due to the filter beginning to clog a little near the end of the brew, but it’s not that big of a deal and your coffee will still taste really good! (and sometimes excellent!) I usually go with aeropress (at a medium-coarse grind) and I get a consistently tasty cup 🙂