Keeping Your Equipment Clean: the Burr Grinder

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You will need:

a soft brush
cotton swabs
wood toothpicks
cleaning pellets for your grinder (if you want a deep clean)
screwdriver (optional, in case you need to remove any pieces)
spare beans for seasoning

How to use them:

First, you will need the cleaning pellets, which you will run through your grinder according to the instructions. Some good and popular suggestions for this are Urnex Grindz and Full Circle. In theory, they are both good, but it seems like some people enjoy Full Circle more, even though Urnex Grindz appears to do a better job. Our advice is to try both and see which one fits your preferences. You might have heard about people that use rice instead of this, but let us tell you why this might not be the best option: it leaves a starch residue that is harder clean and will spoil your coffee, it is much harder than the pellets and you risk damaging your grinding engine, and, the worst of all, there are reports of plastic found in rice, and we are pretty sure you don't want that in your coffee. If you want just a surface cleaning, for maintenance, you can stop here. But if you want to give your grinder a little bit of a spa day, follow through for the next steps.

A really important step: unplug your grinder. We know it may seem obvious, but you know the saying: better safe than sorry! Next, pull apart your burrs, but just the ones that are supposed to, don't disassemble the whole machine. Make sure you check the instructions for this step, as every grinder can be different. Once you have them removed, you will be able to clean all the corners and crevices of the dust and other impurities.

After that, turn your grinder upside down and smack it lightly on the sides, this will make most of the residue come out, and you will be surprised by the amount. Now it's time for the soft brush to shine: use it to dislocate all the dust and remaining coffee grounds from the inside of your grinder, with some help from the toothpicks and cotton swabs. It will be easier to reach all the tight places, including the feeder channel. You will want to pay extra attention to it because that is the place where most residue can be found.

As soon as you've finished cleaning the machine on the inside, take care of the parts you took out. You can either dust them off or wash them with a little bit of water and soap, but make sure that you don't leave any residue behind and dry them thoroughly. Don't do the same to the inside of the grinder, though! There you will use only the things we talked about before.

If you feel like all of this still isn't enough, there are a few more steps to follow. Use the toothpicks and swabs to clean any place accessible when the parts are out. Depending on the model, you can also take out the upper and lower burr and make sure everything is spotless. You can also use the hose attachment on your vacuum to suck out all the little particles you might have missed, but be careful if you have any small pieces lying around. Before you reassemble everything, make sure to wipe down everything once again, to make sure you catch any oil build-up that might affect your coffee taste.

The final step: is seasoning your grinder. This means running a small number of beans to prepare it for the next time you use it, and you will also see if you reassembled everything accordingly. We know that it might seem a bit illogical to dust and oil it up back again, but trust us, it will be all worth it!