Video Overview | Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill Mini-Slim PRO Hand Grinder
When it comes to grinding coffee, Hario's Mini-Slim PRO hand grinder is an optimal choice for balancing cost and quality. Lightweight, sturdy, and easy-to-use, the Mini-Slim PRO will get you right on your way to great tasting coffee no matter where you go. Learn more about this compact, travel-friendly hand grinder in this video, as Steve takes a look at Hario's Mini-Slim PRO.
Transcript
Hey, it's Steve with Prima Coffee. Today, we're taking a look at Hario's Mini-Slim PRO Hand Grinder. It is the top of their Mini-Slim line with a lot of the same features that you'll see in their other Slim hand grinders. So, basically what makes this the one standout is the actual material of build. We have a steel grinds catch and a steel upper casing. So, nice and sturdy product, but it's also fairly thin steel, which means that you've actually got quite a reduction in weight, so it's real nice and compact. Really easy to throw into, like, a backpack for travel. We do have the newer molded aluminum handle on top, so nice and robust, and it has the hex drive that is really nice because it doesn't wear out quite as much as the older style did.
Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill Mini-Slim PRO Hand Grinder
Conical ceramic burrs
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We have a silicone ring on top of a plastic lid for the grinds container, which is really nice because that silicone seals pretty well, so you can even store beans up here and not really worry about it spilling out unless it takes quite a bump. That silicone seals pretty well, so you could keep a dose of beans in here and just kind of grind it when you need it. Inside, we have this sort of twist lock grinds catch, so just kind of twist it and pull. And then inside, just like all of the other Mini Mill-esque grinders from Hario, we have a ceramic conical burr set, and then we do have a stepped adjustment with this click wheel here. One thing to note is it's actually a little bit easier to either hold the driveshaft yourself or put the handle on when making adjustments, and that's just because the burrs do spin a little bit. Now, the cone burr does have a spring inside, kind of holding it in position, which is nice. It improves the consistency a little bit and also kind of prevents a little bit of wobble.
So, we have a pretty broad range of settings. Most of the Mini Mill grinders tend to perform best at a finer drip setting. They're not really great for espresso, mainly because we don't have much adjustment. The clicks can be a little bit big, which means that we might have kind of too much adjustment when we are trying to make fine-tuned changes for dialing an espresso. So, your V60s, your AeroPresses, this is a great AeroPress grinder. But, smaller grinds, finer grinds and smaller doses tend to be where this excels. Now, in terms of capacity, our hopper up top holds about 40 to 50 grams of coffee even with the lid on. It's actually pretty spacious. And the catch down below can hold about 30 grams of ground coffee. Kind of depending on what coarseness you set it to. Overall, it's a pretty modest grinder. It's good for the price for sure. It's not going to be the best grind quality out of a hand grinder that you can find, but pretty good, again, especially if you just want something you can kind of take with you for travel, whether that's going to work, or hitting the road for a road trip, or going camping or something like that.
The lightness of this grinder is really exceptional. It doesn't weigh much at all, so it's not very bulky and again, you can store beans right in that top with a nice lid that stays in place pretty well. Overall, especially with the ceramic burrs, the performance is, you know, it's entry level. It's fine. It will get the job done for sure. But the flavor is a little bit muddy and you'll actually see some fines and mud in your cup, or in your cone as you're brewing. You know, it's not bad at all. It's just probably not a super-premium product. I'm going to show you real quick just what it's like to grind and kind of give you an example of that grind consistency. I'm just going to throw a few grams of beans in here, grind them up real quick. Again, nice, snug lid. It's a super-nice feature, especially when it comes to grinding you know, if you get a little bit of popcorning as you go, it's a good smooth action. We don't really have bearing stabilizing in here, but we do have sort of a central sort of shaft holder made out of molded plastic, which gives a pretty good, smooth action. And again, that spring helps reduce a little bit of the wobble.
So, I'm going to pop my grinds catch off here and just to give you a sense, you know, I'm grinding a little bit kind of more medium coarse, so sort of like a Kalita Wave kind of thing. We do have some larger boulders, but overall, the texture is kind of that coarse, sandy consistency that I was looking for. So again, maybe not the best consistency but especially if you're just on the road and you just kind of want to make some coffee, it'll definitely do. All right. So, that is the Mini-Slim PRO by Hario, a good compact travel-ready hand grinder with pretty decent results for the money. Thanks for watching.
