Hi everyone!
You know when you grind your coffee beans, the grounds stick to the burrs or grinds catch? Or even worse just spill all over the place when you try to transfer them to your brewer?
Just when you were enjoying the awesome aromas from grinding your beans, static just has to ruin the flow.
I will share with you two ways to reduce static, so that this does not happen again.
Trying it the normal way
As a benchmark, I tried grinding the beans without doing anything special to them
In order to see the grounds, I used the transparent HARIO ceramic slim grinder.
I ground up 5g of beans. I set the grind size to what you would typically use for filter coffee. You can see the results in the picture
As expected the static causes the grounds to stick to the walls and the burrs. You especially have to watch out for the burr side because its easy to forget them and make a mess.
Here I’m using a hand grinder with a sealed catch, so the issue is not so pronounced, but if you use a electric grinder which shoots the grinds out into a cup, the mess will be ten fold.
Method 1 : Shake it
The first method, you can only use with hand grinders. What you simply do is, shake the grinder after grinding. Make sure that the grinds catch is securely attached when you do this.
This is what happens
As you can see, most of the grounds have settled nicely. The grounds which were on the burr side get nocked down as well.
There is no special trick in the way you shake, but just be careful not to shake too vigorously in the vertical direction. It may force some grounds back up in to the burrs.
I usually lightly shake vertically a few times to nock off the grounds on the burrs, then swirl it to nock off grounds from the walls.
Its a very simple and easy trick, but it really helps.
Method 2 : Add a tiny bit of water to the beans
Method 2 is to add just a tiny bit of water to your beans before grinding them.
This is often called the Ross Droplet Technique, named after the person who came up with it. Just a droplet of water drastically reduces the effects of static.
The key point is not to over do the water, because that will then become another reason grounds will stick to the burrs or walls.
There are many ways to add this water.
- Use a spoon or something to just drop 1 drop of water
- Wet a spoon and stir the beans
- Use a spray bottle
This time I used the stir method.
With this the results are as follows. (Note: this was not shaken)
Just a tiny bit of water drastically reduces the effects of static.
The benefit of this method is that you can use it with any grinder, including electric ones.
Again, you just want to be careful not to add too much water. It will make the grounds stick and leaving your grinder moist is not the best idea.
Summary
2 methods were shared to reduce static when grinding your beans.
- shake the grinder after grinding
- RDT method, add a bit of water before grinding
From the tests, I think they both end up with similar results. I personally use the first shake method everyday, because its easier and theres no worry for leaving my grinder moist. But if you use an electric grinder RDT is the way to go.
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