:: camano coffee mill review ::

A few weeks ago, Andrea was looking through Martha Stewart's Living magazine and pointed out a coffee mill in the holiday gift recommendation section. I replied that I had been looking on eBay for a vintage one to grind coffee at work, but I never pulled the trigger for I was unsure of how well they would work. However, I was getting frustrated with my coffee I ground at the store losing much of its glorious terroir flavors and aromas over the first week or two. Therefore, I started researching what modern mechanical options there were that would do as good of a job as the electric burr grinder attached to our Capresso coffee maker at home. After reading a few articles including a discussion on Chowhound, my research took me back to the same one that Martha Stewart had recommended -- the Red Rooster Trading Company's Camano Coffee Mill!
Some of the selling points were that each grinder is hand-built in the United States with the wood being walnut sourced from Amish woodsmen. Reviews praised how quiet and well constructed it was; moreover, at $60, it was a lot less than a good electric one. Most importantly, the grind was adjustable!
By simply lifting the washer, the threaded wheel at the bottom of the spring could be turned; turning it clockwise changed the spring tension and made the grind finer, and turning it counterclockwise made it coarser.
In tuning the grind today, I could make it rather coarse (left) or rather fine (right) with the desired medium in the middle (note that there is some cross-contamination of the grinds in each pile). I did not take them to the extremes so even finer for espresso grind seems quite doable. From the resultant coffee we made, it seemed like a success!