This morning I was putting some chicken in the slow cooker for dinner and I decided to use a little sea salt to flavor things. When I gave a quick twist to the plastic grinder I realized it was pretty similar to the hand crank grinder my friend Nora gave me for my birthday.
Me being me, (and I think this is a Scandinavian trait, so please correct me if I’m wrong–it might also be OCD or something) I had to take it apart to see how it works. Sure enough, inside the top is a plastic burr grinder, just like in a regular coffee grinder.
What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re like me and you like to have good coffee wherever you go, this means you can carry along coffee beans and have fresh grind anywhere–especially if you have a French Press coffee maker (most outdoors stores sell different varieties of these, including the JetBoil coffee kit which makes your cookpot into a coffee pot/mug). It can also come in handy if you are without power due to a natural disaster (I’m lookin’ at you, Ike). It’s not as quick as using ground coffee, but grinding your own never is.
The jar the salt came in is made of glass and therefore both breakable and heavy. I am now on the lookout for a small plastic or lexan jar to replace the glass. In any case, I got this one at the dollar store, so it’s widely available and inexpensive. If anyone has a suggestion on the replacement jar, please contact me or leave a comment.
It weighs 5 ounces (142 g) with 4 ounces (113 g) of that being the small glass jar. It holds 6 T. (89 ml) of coffee beans; about enough for one pot of French pressed coffee.
