The Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder - A Review
The Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder is Durable, Inexpensive, Easy to Use
I enjoy having a good cup of coffee in the morning made from freshly ground coffee beans, but I don't like to invest much money in expensive or complicated kitchen gadgets. As many people are doing these days, we're watching our budget. Also, our kitchen is small, and we don't need large gadgets cluttering it up.
I've found the Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder to be reliable and easy-to-use for quickly grinding coffee beans for my husband's and my fresh cup of coffee each morning. It doesn't take up much space on our countertop. Also, it doesn't hurt that it's inexpensive; I bought mine for about $20. I can be thrifty as well as drink good-tasting coffee!
This coffee grinder can also be used to grind spices, nuts, and grains.
The Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder has received overwhelmingly positive reviews by other people, who like me are very satisfied with this product.
Image is my own
Why Did I Choose the Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder?
Good Reviews From Others
Up until recently I haven't been particularly picky about the coffee I've bought and how I've gone about brewing it. Occasionally I'd buy whole coffee beans if I could grind them at the store, but otherwise I'd buy already-ground coffee. And our cups of coffee tasted...okay. Nothing to rave about though.
Lately I've become more interested in learning what goes into making a really good tasting cup of coffee. I've read over and over again that one of the key ingredients for brewing good coffee is to use freshly ground coffee beans. That means grinding the beans just before brewing to help preserve the natural oils and flavors within the coffee bean.
I did some research online for a good quality, inexpensive coffee grinder, and the Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder was far and away the highest rated coffee grinder for a reasonable price. There are about 500 ratings on Amazon.com alone, and people have overwhelmingly given it high marks, for an average of 4.5 stars out of 5.
Image of Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder with Kona coffee beans is my own.
Features of the Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder
This is an electric coffee grinder that quickly grinds coffee beans. Some of the important features include:
- Durable, inexpensive
- Compact, stylish shape, a little over 6" high
- Unique oval shape to ensure more even grinding
- Shape makes it easy to pour ground coffee beans into coffee maker
- Quickly grinds up to 3 ounces of coffee beans at a time (about 12 Tbsp)
- Stainless steel blades designed for even, fast grinding (For me this is the most important feature!)
- Lid-activated safety switch
This video shows some of the features of the Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder. You can get a good idea of the size from this video.
Blade Grinder vs. Burr Grinder
The Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder is a blade coffee bean grinder, which means that the coffee beans are chopped rather than ground up.
Blade grinders are the most common type of coffee bean grinders on the market, and they're relatively inexpensive. For courser coffee, you'd grind for less time (5 - 10 second), and for finer coffee, grind for longer (10 - 15 seconds). Drawbacks of using blade coffee bean grinders are that the grinding may not be even, and there can be more heat build-up which would affect coffee bean taste.
HOWEVER -- this coffee grinder has a powerful enough motor that ensures fast, efficient grinding without heat build-up. If you observe that the grind is not as even as you'd like, try gently shaking the grinder once or twice during the grinding process to re-distribute the beans.
Burr coffee bean grinders have grinding wheels to crush the coffee beans. This produces a more uniform grind resulting in a better tasting coffee overall. The grinding wheels can be adjusted for a coarser or finer grind. Burr coffee bean grinders are more expensive and larger than blade coffee grinders. They're also loud.
If you're a real coffee gourmand or if you use a pump espresso machine, you may prefer to buy a burr grinder. Otherwise, a small, good quality blade coffee bean grinder such as the Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder is a practical and convenient option for producing reasonable quality, freshly ground coffee beans.
How Do I Like My Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder?
As you would probably guess, I love it! It's easy for me to use, not particularly loud, and my coffee has a fresher, less bitter taste to it now. I've found that grinding for about 10 seconds gives me a good medium-size coffee grind to use in my electric drip coffee pot. It's fairly easy to clean out with a damp cloth or paper towel, although a small soft brush would be useful too.
I bought the white model (as shown at the top of this page), but the black is quite elegant too.
Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder on eBay
You may be able to find the Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder or similar coffee grinders on eBay. Take a browse around!
Have you used the Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder? Do you prefer a different kind?