The Kinu Classic is an over-engineered masterpiece
A solid chunk of stainless steel that takes your freshly roasted, single origin, specialty coffee and precisely grinds it into uniform particles. With the right beans and these hardened steel conical burrs, the only obstacle to creating the perfect pour over coffee or espresso every morning is you.
- This thing just churns through coffee beans. It’s almost as fast as my electric grinder
- The stepless adjustment is extremely precise. You can dial in a perfect grind size for any coffee bean
- Ideal for excellent pour over coffee. Excellent espresso is possible but takes longer to grind.
- Hopper prevents beans from spilling out. A real pleasure to use.
- The magnetic bin is very strong and makes a satisfying “click” when attaching
- The thumb guard is genius and keeps your manual coffee grinder from slipping
- Very durable. Will be the last grinder you own.
A Brief tour of the Kinu M47 Classic
The hopper is a pleasure to fill, with an extra-wide opening that prevents you from spilling beans everywhere.
This manual coffee grinder is stepless, meaning you can take your coffee OCD to new heights by fine-tuning your grind sizes at a precision of 1/100th of a mm. If you feel your pour-over brew is just slightly too heavy or doesn’t exhibit enough floral notes, just give the dial a fraction of a turn and set your own grind size.
Turning whole bean coffee into perfectly uniform particles is also effortless. The with each rotation, even the flabbiest of arms can split high-altitude hard coffee beans 50 times. The innovative thumb stopper prevents slippage, no rubber grip needed.
The coffee basin of the Kinu Classic is held in place by powerful of magnets, coming off and re-attaching with a satisfying click. No more dusting screw threads of coffee dust. Just pull, dump, and re-attach.
The only downside to the Kinu Classic is if your ambitions for the perfect coffee pour over requires travel. At a hefty 1.85 kilos, this is not a piece of equipment you want to be dragging around airports. For frequent fliers, we would recommend the Kinu Pheonix, which trades the heavy steel for lighter plastic parts without sacrificing quality.
Differences between the Kinu M47 Pheonix vs the Classic and Simplicity:
| Pheonix | Classic | Simplicity | |
| Weight | 780g | 1,850g | 1,050g |
| Hopper | ABS Plastic | Stainless Steel | ABS Plastic and Stainless Steel |
| Basin | ABS Plastic O-Ring Closure |
Stainless steel |
ABS Plastic O-Ring Closure |
| Grip | Rubber | Thumb Stopper |
Thumb Stopper |
| Capacity | 40g | 40g | 40g |
Finishing Differences:
Top to bottom: Classic, Simplicity, Pheonix
Hopper Differences
Left to right: Classic, Simplicity, Pheonix
Take manic control over your travel brews
With the Kinu Pheonix you still have the same over-engineered burrs as the more expensive models with very precise, stepless control over your pour-over and espresso grind sizes. If you are ok with less metal, no thumb stopper and no magnets then you can have a grade A grinder that is even lighter in weight and easier on your wallet.
Here I talk through the differences between the Kinu Pheonix, Simplicity and Classic.
Want a 3rd party opinion?
James Hoffman – The Ultimate Hand Grinder Showdown