Use Fine Sugar To Easily Clean Your Coffee Grinder

Is there any greater joy in life than starting your morning with a hot, fresh cup of coffee? If you're a coffee drinker — 154 million Americans are, according to a 2016 report published by the Journal of Nutrition — then you probably agree that the answer is no. But what if there were a way to make your coffee even better? 

There's a simple way to kick your at-home brew up a notch, and it doesn't require hunting for the most expensive beans or spending lots of money at fancy coffee shops. You can upgrade your cup of coffee right from the comfort of your home, with the purchase of one simple kitchen application: a coffee grinder.

You can buy a household grinder for less than $20, and coffee experts say it's well worth the cost. By grinding your beans at home, you can enjoy a fresher, more flavorful mug of joe without breaking the bank. Even if you have a hectic morning schedule, you can still enjoy the benefits of freshly ground coffee. Using an electric grinder to grind your coffee beans is a simple and easy process that takes just a few minutes, and your taste buds will thank you for it. But once you have a coffee grinder, how do you clean it?

While grinding coffee isn't a particularly arduous task, it's important to take good care of your tool. Regularly cleaning and maintaining your coffee grinder is key to keeping it in tip-top shape. Leftover oils, grease, particles, and debris from your coffee beans can become lodged into your coffee grinder, which can negatively impact the taste of your home brew if it's not cleaned, per Serious Eats. The good news is that cleaning your coffee grinder doesn't have to be a monumental chore. You can clean it with a simple ingredient you probably already have in your kitchen.

Simple table sugar can be used to clean unpleasant residue out of your coffee grinder, per The Kitchn. Because it is neutral and absorbent, the sugar soaks up leftover oils and odors from the blades, leaving them fresh and clean. Simply run about 1/4 cup of sugar through the grinder the same way you would coffee beans, until it becomes fine and powdery. (If you're out of sugar, other common ingredients, such as rice and kosher salt, can also be used to absorb old odors and oils and clear out trapped grounds, per Compact Appliance.) 

Finally, wipe off the grinder with a damp paper towel, and voila, you have a shining, clean coffee grinder that's ready to prepare your next perfect cup of brew.

Freshly ground beans are a simple, inexpensive way to improve the quality of your coffee. Exposure to air and moisture over time causes ground coffee to go stale and lose the oils, aromas, and flavors that make a cup of coffee great. For this reason, experts recommend consuming your coffee within four to fourteen days of the roasting process for peak quality and freshness.

This degradation process is sped up the more of the bean is exposed to the air. Because ground coffee has far more surface area exposed than whole coffee beans, pre-ground coffee will begin to lose its freshness much more quickly than whole-bean coffee, according to Alternative Brewing. Therefore, if you only grind the amount of coffee that you plan on drinking right before you brew it, your coffee will remain at its peak flavor, quality, and freshness right until it lands in your cup.

Grinders also let you control the grind size of the bean, which plays a huge role in the flavor and quality of the beverage. (Different grind sizes work better for different brewing methods.) Grinding your coffee beans gives you a control over your brewing process that is simply not possible if you buy single size, pre-ground coffee, resulting in an all-around better cup of joe.