Better late than never.
Handground precision hand grinders are now shipping. After a successful Kickstarter campaign that saw the company meet its funding goal almost nine times over, the company missed its expected August shipping date to the patiently (and some impatiently) waiting backers, but an Instagram post yesterday confirmed the good news: the grinders were in the mail.
Giving to a Kickstarter doesn’t guarantee the donors will ever get their rewards, especially if the campaign is as wildly successful as Handground’s was. ZP Machines, for instance, raised almost $350,000 over their goal of $20,000 for their PID-controlled espresso machine that had all the initial signs of revolutionizing the home user market. Until they spectacularly and famously flamed out, that is. There are people reading this right now who backed the espresso machine and just became very sad and angry (sorry to open old wounds). There was a small worry that Handground may be going the way of the ZPM.
Luckily, that was not the case and the company has made good on their incentives to those who supported the campaign.
But are they worth all the hype? This may just be one man’s opinion, but yeah, I think they are. Having been lucky enough to field-test their product (Handground is based in Dallas, where I reside), I can say firsthand that the $80-100 grinder is one of the most consistent on the market, having evenness of particle size close to that of the Mahlkonig EK-43, which is saying a lot. The one drawback is that while it is a hand grinder, it isn’t really portable. It’s fairly large for a non-electric grinder, so it may not fit well within a travel setup, which is how most folks use their hand grinders. I mean, my travel kit is anything but portable, so this really isn’t a problem for me but I could see others favoring the Porlex for its decidedly smaller footprint. But still, even if it is too large to carry for some, it is vastly superior to just about every other grinder at its price point, electric grinders included.
Now out of the funding and into the full-blown production phase, Handground grinders are available for order via their website. It’s a worthwhile purchase for anyone looking to knock a zero of the price of their grinder who is also willing to put a little elbow grease in their coffee.
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.
*top image via Handground
