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Permalink Reply by Dustin DeMers on May 18, 2011 at 11:51am

The only way a hand grinder is going to work is if your doing very little business. Dont get me wrong I love hand grinders, I own a couple, but I only grind about 21 grams at a time. It going to get old real quick, not to mention your arm getting cramped up and tired.

 

What you could do is hook an electric drill to the top of the grinder. Obviously you would have to charge the batteries before hand, and probably have a couple extra wouldn't hurt. Ive never done this myself, just seen it done. But it could work.

 

Or just let the customers hand grind there own coffee, and tell them "its all part of the experience!" :)

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Permalink Reply by Tom Maegdlin on May 18, 2011 at 1:24pm

I went through the same thing you are dealing with right now. The problem you will have is most definitely meeting demand. The drill idea is a great one. I use a variable speed drill on the Skerton. The other issue your contending with is the water heating situation. I would recommend a portable power supply and a electric water boiler. My rationale is once you have a lot of water heated your recovery time will be faster. Boil the water in the dispenser at home first. Once you get to your farmers market you will be able to get the water up to temp faster.

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Permalink Reply by ¡AЯЯÓN! on May 18, 2011 at 8:37pm

Dustin's idea of letting the customer grind their own coffee is great!  I wish I thought of that one before! I've worked events without electricity, and what we did was pre-grind the coffee at the shop.  Yeah it wasn't as great as it could've been, however, the coffee doesn't go 'bad' it's just not ideal for the discerning palate. 

 

The hot water issue is a tough one. I agree with Tom about boiling at home, first.  Otherwise, what immediately comes to mind is investing in a small propane burner. You can get a small Coleman burner for $80 and it works with those little green Coleman cans. REI has some awesome burners, as well.  I would advise against using the 'stove' per se, a burner looks more "official," if you will, and the customers' focus will remain on the coffee! 

 

I hope this helps, let me know how it works out for you!

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Zimmermann on May 19, 2011 at 8:33am

I am thinking about using my backpacking burner, but I agree heating up the water before you go will save a lot of fuel and time. I hate to do the preground coffee but I might have to start with that. Thanks!

¡AЯЯÓN! said:

Dustin's idea of letting the customer grind their own coffee is great!  I wish I thought of that one before! I've worked events without electricity, and what we did was pre-grind the coffee at the shop.  Yeah it wasn't as great as it could've been, however, the coffee doesn't go 'bad' it's just not ideal for the discerning palate. 

 

The hot water issue is a tough one. I agree with Tom about boiling at home, first.  Otherwise, what immediately comes to mind is investing in a small propane burner. You can get a small Coleman burner for $80 and it works with those little green Coleman cans. REI has some awesome burners, as well.  I would advise against using the 'stove' per se, a burner looks more "official," if you will, and the customers' focus will remain on the coffee! 

 

I hope this helps, let me know how it works out for you!

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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on May 19, 2011 at 12:58pm

Well, you could go on eBay and look for those 1800s hand-crank coffee grinders.  Or buy a Zassenhaus (a real workout for 100 cups a day) or similar hand grinder.

 

Or, you could simply pre-grind the coffee just before you leave for the farmers market.

 

It really depends on how hardcore you want to be.  Certainly pre-grinding the coffee is not ideal but perhaps the five hours you may be at the market is not too long to cause terrible degradation to the cup quality.  That's something you'll have to test on your own and decide for yourself.

 

Camp stoves are nice but they can be quite noisy (thinking the MSR Firefly and the like).  Alternatives are portable butane burners (go to the Asian market and pick them up cheap) or that Coleman dual stove (maybe that's what you had in mind?).  Always keep a pot boiling to keep up with the flow.  And be sure to boil in closed top vessels to maintain as much heat as possible.

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Permalink Reply by christopher myers on May 19, 2011 at 5:08pm

I am doing the exact same thing, and was also worried about the grinder situation.  I stopped worrying about it so much when I learned that Blue Bottle pre-grinds their coffee.  If you pre grind just before the event, it won't affect the flavor too much from what I've noticed; and I think people understand that at a farmer's market you just don't have the ideal situation where you can control everything.  We use the hand grinder for single origin, and just grind whenever we have a minute (our market isn't very high volume).  But we pre grind the blend.  I also tried using a hand drill and hooking it up to the hario, but stripped the threads and had to re-thread it.  You can also strip the pieces inside because of the amount of torque the drill has (even on low gear), so I don't advise this unless you're ready to go through a few grinders.

For heat we use a double Coleman stove and have two kettles boiling at all times, and we just make sure one kettle is always at a boil, while the other heats up, and transfer hot water to the buono.  I know it's been said that it isn't ideal to re-boil water, but again, it's a farmer's market and you're working without electricity and with limited equipment, so don't sweat it so much.  You can still make excellent coffee.

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