Chestnut C3 ESP Manual Coffee Grinder, Hand Coffee Grinder with Internal Adjustable Grind Setting, Stainless Steel S2C Conical Burr Coffee Grinder, for Espresso to French Press - Black

This grinder does a better job than any of the mid-range electric burr grinders I've had over the last 20 years. The grind is phenomenally even and the espresso it produces, with perfect crema and full range of flavors, couldn't be better. Easy to use (around 120 full strokes for 10.5 grams of coffee on a grind setting of 5) and easy to clean. It’s also a beautiful object with its weight and finish and feel.

This grinder delivers consistent, precise grinds thanks to its 42 mm stainless steel burrs and 50 adjustable settings. Build quality feels solid and premium, and grinding is smooth and efficient. Excellent performance for espresso and filter coffee—highly recommended.

There were some coffee grounds in the grinder when I opened the package. I’m not sure if this was to test before sending out or if it was a return. That said, this grinder is already improving my coffee. Took one test grind to dial in my settings for the medium roast. Started at a 5 grind setting and choked my machine, jumped to 6.2 and this seems a pretty sweet spot. Current settings is 16g at 6.2 grind. I might try to adjust the extraction manually to dial in further. Overall this is great so far. One thing to note, it was a couple minutes of hand grinding which I expected to be easy but I did get a bit of a workout. I can now add this to my daily exercise regiment.

Stable hand grip due to textured metal body. The split handle is a welcome feature in tight places. Also appreciated is the ability to fine-tune the grinding process. Finally the bottom is covered with rubber so it doesnt slide sideways on table.

It works great!

I have the C3 Max which is different from the other ones sold here in that it has a slightly larger grind chamber that can hold 30 grams of light or medium roast coffee. For dark roast I have been able to get maybe 25 grams into it, but if it's really dark roast then maybe 20? This grinder is clearly refined from the previous versions and grinds fairly fast. Sometimes I feel like I am building muscle while grinding my morning coffee but it's probably a good thing, the only resistance I am getting is from the beans themselves, but once you get a little momentum going it's easy to slice right through them and it's satisfying, in a way. This thing grinds a lot finer than I would have thought from the way people describe it. I find that only the upper 8 settings of maybe 12-20 are good for filter coffee like I would probably go v60 = 12-14, maybe 15-18 for Kalita, and 13-18 for Mugen, maybe 15-20 for the steep and release pour overs with Hario Switch. For phin filter I have gone anywhere from 10 (too fine I think) to 18 (Perfect for Robusta Vietnamese beans IMO) with mixed results. For French press I would stick to the highest clicks like 20-24. Those are the 6 brewers I own and I am still dialing them in. Don't go beyond 25 clicks loose unless you want to release the spring on the burrs to open the shaft up and clean it. I don't think it's really necessary, these burrs are pretty precise and don't leave a whole lot of retention even of staticky grounds might have to be brushed off the bottom dial sometimes. They also tell you to never clean them with soap or water and sometimes I wondered if I was maybe making a cup of machine oil from the factory with my first cups, even though I threw away the first beans I ground in it to season it a little. I wish there was some acknowledgement of cleaning procedures being necessary. But overall it's a great grinder. If you can afford it and you've been looking at more expensive grinders such as the fellow Ode v1 I can confirm that it does at least as well as the Ode v1 for filter and immersion coffee, which is about the same as a Baratza Encore. I would say the Timemore C3 Max is maybe even better at grind consistency than the Ode V1. I haven't been able to make a truly bad cup of coffee with this grinder. Maybe some were overextracted due to getting the grind too tight, something I think this thing is vulnerable to which is the opposite of my usual Ode V1 whose issue was tight grinds and was better at speed. It takes a dang while to grind 30g with this thing and I have not yet tried doing 60g for a liter french press but I will soon. The effort is worth it though. I honestly haven't made a bad cup with it, even though it's a little annoying to fill sometimes, and makes me wish I had my old Aeropress funnel to direct beans into chamber early in the morning. It makes me wish this kind of grinder had existed back then. All hail Chinese manufacturers for making stainless steel burr grinders so accessible and excellent in quality, such that everyone and their mother can experience a great cup of coffee. I bought a Lardera Chestnut Max by Timemore, which is the C2 I believe, and a Clever dripper, for my Mother and she said she loved it, so naturally I had to try out the C3 Max for my filter brews. It really hasn't disappointed. I feel like I could probably take it camping. The only part we hate is the sound it makes when disconnecting or connecting the threads on the catch cup. It sounds awful and makes us cringe every time. But for the price, we cannot deny the cup this thing produces, it is superlative and should be a new standard. One coffee YouTuber complemented the extremely balanced and overall sweet cup that Timemore grinders tend to produce and I would agree even though I have not tried many grinders, only commercial grinders for my beans I used to buy to take home from my barista job, and of course terrible ceramic hand grinders like dad used to have, then the Ode V1, and that is great, but the Timemore C3 Max is unmatched for value for money, quiet operations in the wee hours, and grind consistency like a Much More Expensive German Brand, or so I hear.

This manual grinder is working well. Making a full load (a double-shot for two people) takes a bit over two minutes and it's a short but significant upper body workout. Though I don't know anybody that should shy away from that. I do wish they made a motor unit that would sit on top in place of the crank. I do need the exercise of the hand crank, but therer are times when I'd grab the motor to speed things up. I would definitely stick with the hand crank when camping.

Excellent solid grinder: the grind adjustment is internal, but so what....it does the job perfectly. I am very pleased with the C5.