TIMEMORE Chestnut C2S Manual Coffee Grinder with Internal Adjustable Grind Setting, Capacity 20g Hand Coffee Grinder with Stainless Steel Conical Burr, for Espresso to French Press, Black

There were some coffee grounds in the grinder when I opened the package. I’m not sure if this was to test before sending out or if it was a return. That said, this grinder is already improving my coffee. Took one test grind to dial in my settings for the medium roast. Started at a 5 grind setting and choked my machine, jumped to 6.2 and this seems a pretty sweet spot. Current settings is 16g at 6.2 grind. I might try to adjust the extraction manually to dial in further. Overall this is great so far. One thing to note, it was a couple minutes of hand grinding which I expected to be easy but I did get a bit of a workout. I can now add this to my daily exercise regiment.

Wonderful manual grinder. It made it possible to use my espresso machine. Lots of fine tuning can be done for many types coffee brewers. Looks great and has nice weight, too.

This manual coffee grinder is a game changer for anyone who loves a good cup of coffee. The adjustable stainless steel conical burr ensures that the coffee is ground to the perfect consistency for a variety of brewing methods, including pour over coffee and French press. The patented foldable handle makes it easy to grind your coffee beans with ease, and the compact size makes it perfect for travel or for use in smaller kitchens. The gray color is sleek and stylish, making it a great addition to any kitchen decor. What I love most about this manual coffee grinder is the quality of the grind. It produces a consistent grind every time, which is crucial for a good cup of coffee. It's also easy to clean, which is a huge plus. Overall, I highly recommend this manual coffee grinder to anyone who is serious about their coffee. It's a must-have for coffee enthusiasts who want to elevate their coffee game and enjoy a delicious cup of coffee any time of day.

This manual grinder is working well. Making a full load (a double-shot for two people) takes a bit over two minutes and it's a short but significant upper body workout. Though I don't know anybody that should shy away from that. I do wish they made a motor unit that would sit on top in place of the crank. I do need the exercise of the hand crank, but therer are times when I'd grab the motor to speed things up. I would definitely stick with the hand crank when camping.

I have the C3 Max which is different from the other ones sold here in that it has a slightly larger grind chamber that can hold 30 grams of light or medium roast coffee. For dark roast I have been able to get maybe 25 grams into it, but if it's really dark roast then maybe 20? This grinder is clearly refined from the previous versions and grinds fairly fast. Sometimes I feel like I am building muscle while grinding my morning coffee but it's probably a good thing, the only resistance I am getting is from the beans themselves, but once you get a little momentum going it's easy to slice right through them and it's satisfying, in a way. This thing grinds a lot finer than I would have thought from the way people describe it. I find that only the upper 8 settings of maybe 12-20 are good for filter coffee like I would probably go v60 = 12-14, maybe 15-18 for Kalita, and 13-18 for Mugen, maybe 15-20 for the steep and release pour overs with Hario Switch. For phin filter I have gone anywhere from 10 (too fine I think) to 18 (Perfect for Robusta Vietnamese beans IMO) with mixed results. For French press I would stick to the highest clicks like 20-24. Those are the 6 brewers I own and I am still dialing them in. Don't go beyond 25 clicks loose unless you want to release the spring on the burrs to open the shaft up and clean it. I don't think it's really necessary, these burrs are pretty precise and don't leave a whole lot of retention even of staticky grounds might have to be brushed off the bottom dial sometimes. They also tell you to never clean them with soap or water and sometimes I wondered if I was maybe making a cup of machine oil from the factory with my first cups, even though I threw away the first beans I ground in it to season it a little. I wish there was some acknowledgement of cleaning procedures being necessary. But overall it's a great grinder. If you can afford it and you've been looking at more expensive grinders such as the fellow Ode v1 I can confirm that it does at least as well as the Ode v1 for filter and immersion coffee, which is about the same as a Baratza Encore. I would say the Timemore C3 Max is maybe even better at grind consistency than the Ode V1. I haven't been able to make a truly bad cup of coffee with this grinder. Maybe some were overextracted due to getting the grind too tight, something I think this thing is vulnerable to which is the opposite of my usual Ode V1 whose issue was tight grinds and was better at speed. It takes a dang while to grind 30g with this thing and I have not yet tried doing 60g for a liter french press but I will soon. The effort is worth it though. I honestly haven't made a bad cup with it, even though it's a little annoying to fill sometimes, and makes me wish I had my old Aeropress funnel to direct beans into chamber early in the morning. It makes me wish this kind of grinder had existed back then. All hail Chinese manufacturers for making stainless steel burr grinders so accessible and excellent in quality, such that everyone and their mother can experience a great cup of coffee. I bought a Lardera Chestnut Max by Timemore, which is the C2 I believe, and a Clever dripper, for my Mother and she said she loved it, so naturally I had to try out the C3 Max for my filter brews. It really hasn't disappointed. I feel like I could probably take it camping. The only part we hate is the sound it makes when disconnecting or connecting the threads on the catch cup. It sounds awful and makes us cringe every time. But for the price, we cannot deny the cup this thing produces, it is superlative and should be a new standard. One coffee YouTuber complemented the extremely balanced and overall sweet cup that Timemore grinders tend to produce and I would agree even though I have not tried many grinders, only commercial grinders for my beans I used to buy to take home from my barista job, and of course terrible ceramic hand grinders like dad used to have, then the Ode V1, and that is great, but the Timemore C3 Max is unmatched for value for money, quiet operations in the wee hours, and grind consistency like a Much More Expensive German Brand, or so I hear.

Until October 2024, I made pourover coffee with a whole bean blend I bought at the Caribou outlet and had ground for a paper filter. It was ok but didn't meet the ideal I had carried since the 1970s - coffee should taste as good as it smells. I bought an OXO conical burr grinder and a coffee scale to "dial in" a flavor profile I liked from my dark roast. The flavor was more consistent, frequently very good. I bought 3 small bags of dark roast blends from two online vendors, expecting to better the Caribou experience. Their flavor was subtle, not matching the punch of the Obsidian blend. When I had trouble with the OXO (the plastic cap of the grounds container cracked and broke, removal of the burr for cleaning required a vise grip), I considered replacing it with a $230 single dose grinder. Then I watched and read reviews of several hand grinders and learned they could deliver a grind well beyond their cost. The Timemore website showed attractive models without the hype and price of some competitors. I bought the S3v in a ravishing green, received it well-boxed on Sunday, read the simple instructions, and did my first grind on Monday. The texture seemed too fine, though I was impressed with the uniformity. I saved it overnight in a glass beaker covered with plastic wrap and made it this morning using a paper filter, expecting the result to be acrid. It wasn't. I turned the grind dial a couple of clicks counter clockwise and ground another 18 gm. It was fun to feel and hear the crispness of the burr cutting the coffee beans. Using the blend I thought undistinguished, I made a cup that sang with flavor and sweetness. I drank coffee as it should be with a DIY experience I had not expected.

It grinds very fine, very consistently, with tiny increment adjustments easily available. I cannot speak to features of this one compared to any others you may now be wondering about, but this is the seventh such item I have tried over the years, and I'm comfortable it will be the last and best. More than even the smooth bearings, I am completely sold on the tiny adjustments available for setting grind size. Note, though, this is still a manual grinder, and therefore requires some effort to use. In defense of that need for focused tenacity, though, while cranking you always have a sense that the perfect cuppa is worth the bother.

Great