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Like a lot of people, I love coffee. Like, I really love it. Just like anyone who has had one cup of joe too many, I have become a bit of a coffee snob in recent years.
Instant coffee just doesn’t hit that sweet spot for me. Early on in my coffee consumption journey, I quickly moved to try out different ground coffee, (Kenyan beans are my personal favorite) and started testing out different brewing methods too.
The next obvious step in my journey to becoming an unbearable coffee snob was to start grinding my own beans, so I bought this cheap and cheerful grinder on Amazon. It does the job okay, although it’s pretty noisy, and doesn’t exactly look great cluttering up my countertop.
As I slumped over my kitchen counter one morning, impatiently wanting this noisy little machine to churn out my ground coffee (every coffee snob knows you need to grind those beans fresh for the best taste), it got me thinking.
Why can’t I get a KitchenAid coffee attachment?!
My KitchenAid sidekick literally does every other job I throw at it. Mixing, squashing, shredding, hell it even grinds meat and vegetables. If a simple stand mixer can do all these weird and wonderful jobs, why can’t it do the simple task of grinding coffee beans?
This led me down the rabbit hole and a few hours of painstaking research and ultimately came up with 3 possible answers to this question.
The 3 Reasons Why you can’t buy a KitchenAid Coffee Attachment
Because KitchenAid already has a stand-alone coffee grinder
Perhaps the most obvious reason why you can’t buy a KitchenAid coffee grinder attachment is that KitchenAid has its own range of coffee appliances, which includes a stand-alone bean grinder.
In fact, KitchenAid is a bit of a pioneer when it comes to domestic coffee grinders. The company created the first electric coffee mill in 1937, the same year they launched its, now iconic, Model K stand mixer.
In my opinion, this is the single biggest reason KitchenAid hasn’t given us coffee lovers the attachment we so desperately want. Who is going to buy their grinder if they sell us an attachment for 50 bucks? I can’t imagine they would have many takers.
That said, once you get over the fact that you can get your hands on a coffee attachment, you might notice that their bean grinder is actually pretty cool. Their newest model, the Artisan Coffee grinder, is probably one of the nicest coffee grinders around, infinitely miles better than my cheap amazon one, anyway.
- 70 Precise Settings for your perfect grind - from coarse for Cold Brew and French Press, to fine for Espresso.
- Built-In Adjustable Portafilter Holder to grind directly into 54-mm or 58-mm portafilters.
- 10 oz* Removable Top Hopper to save and transfer unused beans back into a sealed container for fresh keeping and to easily switch beans between brews.
Of course, the machine uses a burr grinder mechanism, as any self-respecting coffee grinder should. This guarantees that the beans are uniformly ground, and I also really like that their grinder allows you to choose from 4 different grind sizes. As coffee lovers will tell you, grind size is a pretty important element for getting a delicious cup of coffee.
I also really like that you can grind straight into the portafilter (or just into the hopper if you are making a filtered coffee) which you can stick straight into an espresso machine.
On that note, their espresso machine isn’t too shabby either. They have two machines to choose from, the standard Espresso machine, or the Espresso Artisan. Both have very similar features; a steam wand, temperature sensors and a stainless steel portafilter to name a few. The main difference between the machines is the extended 5-year warranty on the Artisan.
It wouldn’t be worth using an attachment
Grinding beans is just a single step on the path to brewing up everyone’s favorite cup of caffeinated goodness. With a stand-alone grinder appliance (or even better, a coffee machine with a built-in grinder) it is pretty easy to just throw some beans in the top and it spits out some ground coffee a couple of seconds later.
If you were to use an attachment, on the other hand, you would probably spend more time setting your machine up than it would take to grind the damn things. Also, I guarantee by the time you have cleaned it up and put it back in your cupboard, your morning brew will be stone cold.
Also, if you think about it, every KitchenAid attachment helps with jobs that require longer periods of time and effort. Mixing ingredients, kneading dough, rolling and cutting pasta, all take a considerable amount of time compared to the 30 seconds it takes to grind coffee beans. This might be the same reason why the company discontinued their can opener attachment too.
Getting the perfect grind is hard (and important!)
I personally think this is the weakest argument as to why we can’t buy a KitchenAid burr grinder attachment but I’m going to briefly touch on it anyway.
I’m not going to pretend I am a fountain of knowledge when it comes to coffee grinding, far from it. But I do know that there’s an art to making the perfect cuppa. From finding the perfect temperature to getting the perfect coffee-to-water ratio, there are so many different factors at play here.
One of the most important of these factors is the size, and consistency, of the grind. At the most basic level, there are two different ways to grind coffee beans, with a blade grinder or a burr grinder. Burr beats the blade grinder for consistency and control of grinding, which is why most decent coffee grinders opt for this design.
Although there are KitchenAid attachments that already grind (like the Grain Mill that I will get to shortly) a slightly different style of burr grinders and need for these low moisture grinders.
It could be completely feasible that KitchenAid boffins haven’t quite yet figured out how to integrate this tech into a stand mixer attachment. That said, I personally don’t believe this. These clever people have created a bunch of amazing attachments, I am sure they could figure this one out too.
Can you Use the KitchenAid Mill Grinder for coffee?
One of my first thoughts was that the mill grinder might be a suitable substitute for a bean grinder. After all, it allows you to control the grind size and can grind a range of cereals, and it too uses a burr grinder mechanism.
After a quick bit of digging, it became abundantly clear that you cannot use the grain mill for coffee. Well, technically you can, but these machines aren’t designed to mill beans or cereals with high oil content. So if you choose to stick coffee beans into your grain mill, I am sure it will spit out some ground coffee, although the high moisture and oil content in the coffee bean can damage the mechanism of the grain mill.
Therefore, I strongly advise you don’t try this out, as you will probably come to regret it pretty quickly.
Build your own KitchenAid Coffee Grinder Attachment
If you are really insisting on using your KitchenAid stand mixer for grinding coffee then there is only one for it. You will need to build your own.
If you know your way around a toolbox this could be a fun challenge for you. In fact, that is exactly what this guy did on Instructables by adapting a manual coffee grinder. He has even shared the step-by-step process you can follow!
That said, I’m not exactly convinced you are going to get that perfect attachment you’re dreaming about. The creator of this machine said himself that it’s pretty noisy and probably won’t deliver the grind consistency a coffee connoisseur will expect.
If you do give this a shot, be sure to share your results with us! I would love to see some DIY KitchenAid attachments!
