Peugeot Costa Rica Natural Coffee Mill

Peugeot Costa Rica Natural Coffee Mill
by Peugeot

List Price: ~~$69.99~~
Category: Kitchen
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Product Summary

Manufacturer: Peugeot
Brand: Peugeot
Model: CM1819
Product features:

Classy mill grinds coffee beans into cabinet drawer
Tradition wood design dates from mid-19th century
Steel parts coated in gold color
Famed grinding mechanism with lifetime warranty against defects
Measures 8-1/2 inches high to top of knob; 5-inch-square cabinet

Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Peugeot Costa Rica Natural Coffee Mill

Customer Review: Low tech in the computer age
Summary: 4 Stars

I bought the Peugeot Costa Rica coffee mill for two main reasons - I like hand-powered tools, and I wanted a mill which is less noisy than my blade grinder. The Peugeot is solidly built and easy to use. Cranking takes less force than I expected. It's not particularly fast, taking about 150 turns to grind a quarter cup of beans for a small pot. The grounds go into a small drawer, which is large enough for only that quarter cup. If you want to grind more than that, you'll have to empty the drawer a few times.

It's less noisy than an electric mill, but still scares my cats out of the kitchen. It needs to be held solidly, which means holding it between my legs or clamping it to the counter.

The ground coffee is less consistent than I expected. It appears that the inside of the bean becomes almost a powder while the grind setting (a brass knob under the handle) determines how finely the skin is ground. A friend told me this is ideal because the skin can be bitter. Grinding the skin more coarsely means less of the bitterness goes into your cup. I don't know if this is true, but it seems plausible. Either way I get good coffee using a coarse grind in a cheap drip coffe maker.

Grinding coffee beans produces static electricity, which makes the grounds stick to the drawer and inside the mechanism. The same is true for any burr mill, hand-powered or electric. This makes it a little bit harder to clean, but a tap on the side of the sink gets most of the dust out of the drawer or mechanism. I use a small pastry brush with the bristles trimmed to remove the last little bit. Cleanup is as easy as my blade grinder.

If you're willing to live with its limitations, you'll like the Peugeot coffee mill. And it makes an attractive kitchen ornament. But it may not be ideal if you brew large pots of coffee. An electric coffee mill is probably more convenient, but this one has more charm.

Update: I've started roasting my own coffee, which produces larger beans than most commercial coffee. The large beans often don't easily slip down into the grinding burr. The grinding stops, and I have to use my finger or a spoon to push the beans down into the burr to get it started again. Also, I'm grinding more finely so it takes me more than 200 turns to grind a quarter cup of beans. I'm shopping for a replacement mill which works better with large beans.

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Description of Peugeot Costa Rica Natural Coffee Mill

Employing the famed mechanism invented in 1842 by renowned French manufacturer Peugeot, this classy mill grinds coffee beans for a fresh-tasting brew in the morning or after dinner. Grooves in a Peugeot grinding mechanism are individually cut into steel, and the mechanism is then hardened, making it virtually indestructible and deserving of its lifetime warranty against defects. While the mechanism was designed for the world's first pepper mill, it works equally well for coffee beans. Like the mechanism, the design of this mill dates to the mid-19th century. The bowl and arm are made of steel and colored gold. The cabinet is natural wood. After going through the grinder, ground coffee falls to the cabinet's drawer, which can be removed for emptying into a coffeemaker or French press. The mill measures 8-1/2 inches high to the top of the knob, and the cabinet is 5 inches square. --Fred Brack

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