Porlex Mini and Tall Coffee Grinders Review 2024

Do you love to start each day with a great cup of coffee? Does pre-ground coffee or coffee from a pod leave you cold? Do you prefer the flavor you get from freshly ground coffee beans?

If you answered yes to all of those questions, you might well be in the market for a manual coffee grinder.

If that’s the case, you’re going to like what you read here in this—our Porlex grinder review.

Haven’t you heard of Porlex? Unless you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, you may not have! They’re a well-respected Japanese company in business since 1978, making graters and grinders of all types.

In this review, we’ll be taking a closer look at the coffee grinders on offer by the company, talking about each one in brief in a bid to help narrow your search if you’re in the market for a good quality manual grinder. Read on, and let’s take a closer look at what Porlex has to offer!

An Overview of the Porlex Brand

As we said in the introduction, Porlex is a well-respected Japanese company with distributors here in the United States. For the whole of their existence, they’ve specialized in making graters, spice grinders, tea mills, and coffee grinders.

While some companies (Hario, for example) offer tons of different models in an attempt to cater to every possible taste and preference, the folks at Porlex like to keep things simple.

They offer a few exceptionally well-designed models and let the quality of their work speak for itself.

If you’re looking for a grinder with a specific aesthetic to compliment your kitchen’s décor scheme, then unless your kitchen is decorated in a modern style, you may not appreciate Porlex’s approach here.

The good news is that many home kitchens today are decorated in a way where an appliance with a modern aesthetic would fit right in, so the company is catering to a significant chunk of the market. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the coffee grinders the company carries:

Porlex Tall Grinder II

The Porlex tall II coffee grinder implies the existence of a Porlex I tall grinder, and sure enough, the company makes a big deal about this in the product description on their website.

Taking cues from role-playing games, they proclaim that their original tall grinder has “earned enough experience points” to level up, and now, there’s a version 2.0. The Porlex tall grinder is cylindrical, with a diameter of 1.85” and a height of 7” (about 7.5” when the handle is in place).

The bean hopper has a capacity of 1.06 ounces, which isn’t the largest capacity we’ve ever seen but, in our view, is quite acceptable for most purposes.

The design is delightfully simple, clean, and modern, with a stainless steel exterior and black accents, and ceramic burrs to handle the actual grinding.

Porlex doesn’t use conventional grind settings with enumerated grind levels. Instead, the grind adjustment is measured in “clicks”, and the user manual that comes with both grinders the company sells outlines how many clicks are ideal, depending on the grind you’re looking for. 

Officially, there are a total of sixteen click steps, but some users have reported upwards of twenty.

The grinder is easy to use, with the only potential problem being that it may try to slip out of your hand as you’re grinding. To address that, the company sells a rubberized grip for a modest additional fee that will help you keep the grinder firmly in place while you’re using it. An excellent, travel-friendly machine.

Porlex Mini II Hand Grinder

The Porlex Mini II manual coffee grinder sports an aesthetic that’s identical to its larger cousin.

It has a 1.85” diameter, stands 5.12” high, and comes with a rubberized grip that will help you keep the grinder steady as you’re using it.

Like the taller version of the grinder, this one features the same “click-based” grind mechanism, with each click step being roughly 37 microns finer or coarser, depending on the direction you move the grind adjustment nut. Also, like the larger variant, this one has high-quality ceramic burr grinders, so there’s no risk of overheating while grinding. This model is even more travel friendly than the larger one!

Porlex Grinder Review Conclusion

Honestly, either of the grinders Porlex sells would make an excellent choice for use at home or on the road. In addition to being incredibly well constructed, Porlex sells grinder components, so in a very real sense, with proper care, this might be the last grinder you ever own, and there’s something to be said about that! We recommend both models without reservation.

Other Options to Consider

If you’ve reached the end of our Porlex grinder review and aren’t happy with the scant number of choices on offer here, or you’d rather have a different grinder—whatever the reason—here are some other options you may want to consider:

Where the two grinders in our Porlex grinder review both have a modern aesthetic, Peugeot’s grinders skew to the vintage. If you consider yourself to be a little more old school, or if a vintage aesthetic would be a better fit in your home kitchen, these grinders deserve a closer look.

As you saw in our Porlex grinder review, the company’s approach to grinders is pretty simple and straightforward: offer just a couple and make them really good.

Hario takes a completely different approach. They offer a stunning variety of grinders so that there’s something for every taste and preference. If you’re not completely sold on the options offered by Porlex, you’re all but guaranteed to find something you love under the Hario umbrella.

Recommended Reading

Hario Coffee Grinders Review

Our review delves into Hario Coffee Grinders, a diverse range of manual and electric options from a century-old manufacturing icon.

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Official Manufacturer Support

Sources & Resources

• Porlex, Official Brand Website.
• Why Coffee Grind Matters, Larry’s Coffee.
• 4 Reasons Your Coffee Tastes Bitter, The Kitchn.
• What to Eat with Coffee (Morning, Noon, or Night), Insanely Good Recipes.