The original full review is available on Rendeljkinait
The HiBREW G7 coffee grinder is a stainless steel, conical solution designed to grind coffee beans. Few people know that the Holy Grail of coffee making is not the coffee maker, but the grinder, so I recommend everyone to get one. Especially if it is made of stainless steel and is compatible with all kinds of portafilter sizes, and can be adjusted to the same level as the HiBREW G7.
Hibrew G7 Coffee Grinder Test – Grinding and puck prep
The Hibrew G7 is not the first Hibrew product we have we tested, in fact, I would say, at home OrderChina has the most articles about the brand's productsI wouldn't say we're anointed ambassadors for the brand, but they have some really good stuff, for example the Hibrew G3 conical grinder – test here -, of which we have been using 2 pieces for almost 2 years with great satisfaction. There is also a Catler/Graef grinder in the family, so I have experience and a basis for comparison to tell you what kind of product the G7 is.
The Hibrew G7 double boxed, plus a Styrofoam insert protects the product and its accessories. These are completed by a plastic dispenser – dosimeter…no, I was just kidding, that’s completely different –, a brush for cleaning the grinding blades, and a manual. Oh, and you’ll also find the Hibrew G7 coffee grinder in the packaging. What everyone might notice at first is the stainless steel cover – also available in white – which is advantageous for two reasons: on the one hand, it does not rust – let's not even talk about plastic -, on the other hand, it is very easy to clean.
Before we go into details, I would like to highlight a few things about making espresso – we don't boil the coffee, we make it:
- fresh coffee beans Without it, even the best machines only make dog coffee
- not the coffee maker, but the grinder is the most important
- puck prep is also important, i.e. preparing the grounds and coffee cake
It is advantageous that the Hibrew G7 coffee grinder is designed to there is a removable profile at the front, into which you can insert the portafilter – the lever element of the espresso machine and the filter basket. And because
If you want to measure coffee with a scale and dispense 9/18 grams for single and double espresso, this is the only way to place the container underneath.
It's smart, someone who has seen a coffee grinder up close designed it. As for the quality, I think it's okay, the shiny plastic element collects fingerprints, while the steel one doesn't. The bean container is made of plastic as usual, 160 grams, which is enough to make about 18 servings.
I think this is small,
The G3 has a 250, which means it can hold a XNUMX-pound bag four times (don't buy a XNUMX-pound bag, but that's another story). So, for those who don't want to spend a fortune and want quality, this is a good size, but for those who are lazy like me, it will be small.
The soul of the Hibrew G7 is conical grinder, which has a circular blade in the middle, I took this out so you can see in the pictures what one of these looks like. These grind the coffee beans - and not chop them like a poppy seed grinder - relatively slowly and evenly, so as not to burn the grounds. By rotating the bean container Grinding fineness can be adjusted in 48 levels, which at first I thought was the same for both end states, but they divided the scale into many parts. But it turned out that when I put the G7 and the G3 next to each other, it wasn't, the Hibrew G7 can grind much finer, almost powdery.
The finest grind is typically used for Turkish coffee, while the largest grain is used for French press coffee.
I made one to show you what it looks like, you can see it in the gallery below. For espresso, turn the grinder approximately 1/3 of the way from the bottom position. – around 10-15 - but it's worth playing with it a bit to see what grain size the Hibrew G7 works with. When compacting, it will immediately become clear how evenly you can pack the coffee cake.
There's an extra on top of the Hibrew G7's bean container, which is why I bought my G3 at the time:
a powder blower.
This pushes the residue out of the machine, which on the one hand reduces grinding loss, on the other hand it is easier to keep the machine clean. I recommend that everyone who doesn't have one buy one, it's cheap and useful.
Now cast your watchful eye over the control panel. The pictograms are self-explanatory, the power icon turns the Hibrew G7 on and off, 1 and 2 cups of coffee represent the doses, and there is a start and stop button for manual grinding, in which case it grinds as long as you want. Set the grind fineness and then the portafilter size, which is shown on the display. To do this, you need to press the two coffee cup icons at the same time. The machine can:
- Stand for 51 mm portafilter (traditional, home coffee maker portafilter size)
- Stand for 54 mm portafilter
- to stand on a 58 mm portafilter (this is the hospitality industry standard)
Source: Geekbuying, Hibrew G7 subpage
Obviously, the larger one can hold more coffee, but you don't have to fill the basket. How do you know what's right for you? Either measure the diameter or set it to 51 mm, because 90% of home appliances are like that. There are also two lights on the control panel, one warns of overheating, and the other indicates that the bean container is not properly installed, in which case the Hibrew G7 will not allow the grinder to rotate. He takes this quite seriously, So, firstly, turn the bottom of the container until it stops, and secondly, when adjusting the grinding fineness, be careful not to move it out of the end position, because then it will light up its little pictogram and will not let you grind. The easiest way to do this is to hold the bean container with your left hand and turn the grain size adjustment ring with your right.
I noticed several things during the first use, most of them positive:
- noise level: quiet, works with much less noise than my Hibrew G3
- spread: it doesn't make any mess at all, I didn't even have to use the portafilter's heightening ring, which is exactly why I bought it
- grinding quantity: it grinds an awful lot of coffee beans, definitely cut back on the grinding time
Obviously these can be parameterized on the Hibrew G7, and they also need to be adjusted, because the default portafilter size is 58 mm and chances are your coffee maker won't be like this. Unless... Hebrew H10AThey had a , which uses the hospitality industry standard and is in my opinion the best Hibrew product. The test batch 160 grams of coffee beans I had one container, which I used to brew about 20 cups of coffee. I made two types of coffee:
- esperanto: the classic, 8-9 grams of ground coffee, with a small grain size
- cold brew: this is like a French press, except the coffee has to be soaked in cold water for 12 hours and made with very large grinds.
In the case of the Hibrew G7, I made two different types of coffee so that I could test the fineness of the grind. At the lower end of the 48-point scale, the G7 grinds coffee incredibly finely, almost to dust, which rather for Turkish coffee and it's not good for espresso, so I set the level to 48 out of the 15-point scale. In the case of cold brew, the same value is above 40, because a large grain size is needed there. The pump also allows the remaining powder to come out of the Hibrew G7 grinder nicely, and the conical grinding blade is easy to remove after removing the container, so if you blow it out with compressed air, cleaning is not a big task either.
Basically, the type of coffee you can make with the Hibrew G7 coffee grinder is influenced by a thousand things.
I made cold brew for the first time, and it didn't turn out nearly as well as I wanted. I made good espresso because the beans were fresh, I knew the right size, I smoothed the mixture with a coffee needle, I tampered properly, and I've made hundreds of them. Then I finished it all off with hot coconut water, which is sacrilege in coffee circles.
But I like it that way, others have different tastes, and there's no point in arguing about tastes, but there's no question: the Hibrew G7 is a good coffee grinder.
Summary
It is with a heavy heart that I admit that the Hibrew G7 is a better grinder than my own Hibrew G3, but I'm not going to throw it out the window just yet. The Hibrew G7 doesn't have too many flaws, I think the default settings are not good, you need to play around with this a bit, the tank will be small for many people, but that's it. It grinds nicely and evenly, is quiet, is super easy to clean, doesn't spill grounds, and is compatible with multiple portafilter sizes. The console is removable, you can record it if you want.
What is a French press?
The French press is nothing more than coffee made with hot, but not boiling, water, where the coffee grounds are placed in a glass cup and is pressed through the water with a piston. The device in which the French press is made is also called a piston-filter coffee maker. The cheaper ones cost a few thousand forints, while the more precise ones cost tens of thousands. The Cold brew is nothing more than coffee that has been steeped for 12 hours and then pressed in a French press coffee maker. This is good because less acidic flavor is released from the coffee, so it doesn't burden the stomach as much, but in return the drink will be thinner and, in my opinion, less flavorful.