There’s a scene in “City Slickers” where Billy Crystal fires up his coffee grinder ready to make his coffee, only to start a stampede. This probably would not have happened if he had an old-fashioned hand crank coffee grinder. In the old days of the wagon train, this quaint but bulky device was a necessity as the only way you can get coffee was if you bought coffee beans by the sack.
A very rustic device, you turn the crank on top, and the beans start to give off the distinct aroma. It’s almost like juicing the coffee beans, as the oil seeps out slowly while the beans get ground. By today’s standards the grinds would be considered “coarse-ground”, with the resulting ground being an eighth of an inch in size.
Almost like a ritual, this is one device which prepares the coffee drinker while he’s preparing the brew.
