Moccamaster KM5 Burr Grinder Review

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Why did I wait so long?

Food & Wine / Jaclyn Mastropasqua

I’m an avid coffee drinker. When I go to bed each night, I do so savoring the anticipation of the next day’s first sip of coffee — always black, no sugar, medium or dark roast.

My coffee maker is one from Moccamaster, gifted by my lovely in-laws about eight years ago. The exact model is no longer available, but they haven’t changed much over the years — the Technivorm Moccamaster KB is basically the same thing. (Perhaps it’s as the old saying goes that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?) Aside from looking cool, Moccamaster’s no-frills approach to brewing is something I appreciate in this era of high-tech everything. No offense if you’re into controlling your kitchen appliances with an app, but I’m more than happy flipping a rocker button and coming back in 10 minutes to pour myself a renewed will to trudge through another capitalism-fueled workday.

Despite my fancy coffee machine, I will confess that my actual coffee has been of the pre-ground variety. A coffee grinder was one of those items languishing on my to-buy list — though feeling increasingly urgent after multiple conversations with Heather Calatrello of ShedLight Coffee Roasters, whose insistence on the importance of grinding immediately before brewing because “ground coffee begins to oxidize immediately and continues to degrade,” has more than once made me reevaluate my so-called commitment to good coffee.

So imagine my sheer delight when Moccamaster offered to send me a brand new KM5 burr grinder to try out — with no strings attached. (Sometimes the perks of writing about coffee go beyond caffeine.)

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Just as sleek and silver as my Moccamaster coffee maker, the KM5 immediately earned itself a spot on the countertop. Not that I would have had anywhere to store it otherwise — this grinder is big. It stands at just over a foot tall and weighs 10 pounds, but for something I’m going to use on a daily basis, I don’t see the logic in shoving it in a cabinet anyway.

Instead, I reached into said cabinet and fished out a bag of coffee beans. They were purchased in Tanzania more months ago than Calatrello would probably deem acceptable, but I tore into the bag and dumped the beans into the KM5’s hopper with a flourish. A quick peek at the instruction manual told me I should select grind setting 5. There was nothing else to do but push and hold the button. (Did I mention I love a no-frills machine?)

My only quandary was how much to grind. Pre-ground coffee is a much finer grind than the recommended medium for fresh-ground beans — my usual water-to-scoop ratio was not going to work. Eventually, I figured out that 30 grams of coffee should yield a similar strength, a measure easily achieved with my trusty digital scale, and I was in business almost instantly.

The KM5 is fast. Really fast. It takes less than 15 seconds to grind my 30 grams of coffee, and it’s a hypnotic 15 seconds. Watching the beans tumble gently toward the abyss and emerge into the glass below in a spray of tiny, aroma-loaded shards quickly became a highlight of my mornings. And because Moccamaster designed the grindy bits (not to get too technical) of the KM5 with 50-millimeter flat steel burrs, it’s an ultra-uniform grind every single time. There are nine grind levels indicated on the stepless dial to suit any type of brewing style — from pour-over to French press to classic drip — so once you’ve set it, you can forget it.

Is the Moccamaster KM5 burr grinder certified by the European Coffee Brewing Centre? Yes. Is it backed by a 5-year warranty? Also yes. Do I think the KM5 is as quiet as the brand claims? Not really. I mean, it’s a grinder. Pieces of steel are working together to grind whole coffee beans; the process is not going to be silent. I would not operate this machine in the middle of the night and expect anyone to sleep through the noise.

And while the KM5 is touted as having a static-reducing spout, I’d say the emphasis is on “reducing.” Most mornings, I do end up tidying a few errant grounds that don’t quite make it from the collection jar into the filter basket. But noise and static are not dealbreakers for me — even at the KM5’s lofty price point, some things simply cannot be avoided.

I’ve been using this grinder every day for two months and genuinely cannot believe it took me so long to start grinding my coffee fresh each morning. The aromas are more pronounced, the flavors more nuanced. There absolutely is a difference. And I’m having so much fun exploring different coffees through whole beans — Atlas Coffee Club has been a terrific portal for this; they had a Ugandan coffee one month that was so delicious I nearly wept as I ground the last of the beans — I can confidently say I will not be returning to pre-ground.

At the time of publish, the Moccamaster KM5 burr grinder was $339.

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