I’m an ex-barista, and I tested Timemore’s $79 hand grinder — how does it stack up against my $300 Comandante?

I’ve reviewed tons of the best coffee grinders — what’s one thing they have in common? Go on, take a guess. If you guessed “they’re all really expensive”, then, hey, you get a gold star! You’ve been paying attention.

The Timemore Chestnut C2s is a very rare coffee grinder. It’s just $79, which is almost incomprehensibly cheap for a grinder, let alone a grinder with CNC burrs (as opposed to molded burrs). 1ZPressos go for around $60-$200, and that’s the only other “cheap” brand I’ve tested.

So how does this $79 grinder stack up? Can it go head-to-head with my $300 Comandante C40 MK4? Find out in this Timemore Chestnut C2s review.

Timemore Chestnut C2s review: Cheat sheet

• Who is it for? Coffee lovers who want to upgrade from pre-ground or need a portable grinder for vacations
• What does it do well? It’s so affordable, easy to use, and very low retention
• What does it cost? $79
• What are its weaknesses? It grind isn’t perfectly uniform, but it’s a worthwhile sacrifice to save you serious moolah

Timemore Chestnut C2s: Specs

Timemore Chestnut C2s review: Price & availability

The Timemore Chestnut C2s is available for $79 from Amazon U.S.. Although this exact model isn’t widely available in the U.K., you can get either the C2s’s predecessor — C2, £63 — or the newer model, C3S, which is £109.

Timemore makes a lot of hand grinders, so let me quickly go through them. You’ve got the entry-level C2, the midrange C3 ($89), or the premium C5 ($110). You’ve also got the $159 S3, which is the top-of-the-range Comandante C40 MK4 ($~300)-dupe.

As far as hand grinders go, $79 is very affordable. The AeroPress grinder is $199, which is still “cheap” for a grinder, and my personal grinder, Comandante C40 MK4, can go for over $300. At the other end of the spectrum, 1ZPresso’s line of grinders tends to be more affordable. The 1ZPresso J-Ultra is $199, but the single-serve 1ZPresso Q-Air is just $60.

Timemore Chestnut C2s review: Design

The main difference between the Chestnut C2 and the C2s is the design. Inside the C2s, you’ll find an all-metal construction, whereas the C2 had a plastic lid and plastic internal components.

For the most part, the C2s feels very well-made. The grinder has a decent heft, the grinding crank is smooth and pleasant to grip, and the exterior has a nice textured grip so it doesn’t fly from your hands midway through grinding.

It’s not all perfect, though. The catch chamber (the part you unscrew from the bottom) isn’t as smooth as other hand grinders I’ve tested, like the Comandante C40 MK4. When you screw it back in, you have to jiggle it once or twice to get the threads lined up. Even so, this didn’t majorly impact my grinding experience.

Inside this catch chamber, you’ll find the grind adjustment dial, which you press in and rotate either clockwise or anti-clockwise for finer and coarser. The burrs are 38mm stainless steel, made via CNC rather than a mold. CNC refers to machining the parts from a single block of aluminum rather than pouring molten metal into a mold, and results in a more precise burr (this is what you want in a grinder!).

For $79, you can’t really ask for much more. If you want to go cheaper, it’ll be the aforementioned 1Zpresso Q-Air. However, the C2s is larger than the $60 1ZPresso Q-Air, with a capacity of 30g, opposed to the latter’s 20g.

Timemore Chestnut C2s review: Performance

To test the functionality of the C2s, I evaluated four main components: ease of use, static/clumping, uniformity, and retention.

Ease of use

As the C2s is a hand grinder, it’s very easy to use. All you have to do is set your grind size by rotating the dial on the underside of the grinding chamber — I swear it’s easier than it sounds — pour in your beans, and get that crank going.

If you’re looking at the words “underside of the grinding chamber” and your eyes are boinging out of your skull like a cartoon character, let me explain. If you twist off the catch chamber (the bottom part), you’ll find a dial. The dial tells you which direction to twist in — clockwise for finer, and anti-clockwise for coarser — so you don’t have to memorize anything.

Obviously, using a manual grinder requires more physical power than using an electric motor grinder. You have to get down and dirty with your coffee. I always think my coffee tastes sweeter because I put my blood, sweat, and tears into grinding it.

Static & clumping

The C2s is a remarkably low-static and low-clumping grinder. If you’re grinding a lot of espresso-fine coffee, this inherently creates static. In this case, you might want to clear out the burrs and catch chamber semi-regularly, but if you’re grinding mostly for pour-over or French press, you’d probably be able to get away with cleaning the burrs less often.

You can see a small ring of coffee around the outside of the burrs; this is from grinding for eight drinks. I’d clean out these burrs before using them again.

As you can see, there’s not that much clumping. You might not even need to use a WDT tool on this! I’m really impressed with the C2s ($79!) in terms of static and clumping.

Uniformity

The most important aspect of a coffee grinder is its uniformity. Uniformity refers to the size of each coffee granule — are they the same size, or different sizes? If all your coffee is ground to a precise size, you will get better-tasting coffee. If your coffee is all different sizes, your coffee might taste bitter, sour, or clog your filters/espresso machine.

Ideally, you’re looking for large jumps: 0% 300μm to 100% 500μm.

Here are my results with the Timemore Chestnut C2s.

As you can see, this isn’t the most uniform grinder in the world. A lot of husk (the brittle skin found on light-roasted beans) didn’t get ground, so that’s why you can see results like 99%. This means the husk was too large to fit between the mesh, but all the coffee beans themselves were small enough to pass through.

Comparatively, the 1ZPresso Q-Air had a bit of a stuttering start on certain clicks, too. At medium-coarse, the Q-Air jumped from 500um: 0%, 800um: 50%, 1100um: 80%, 1400um: 95%. This means the burrs aren’t precise enough to crush all the beans to the same size at the same time.

However, the Q-Air was overall more uniform than the C2s — and you save $19. I would recommend the Q-Air over the C2s for uniformity, but remember that the Q-Air has a max capacity of 20g, compared to the C2s’s 30g.

Retention

As with every grinder I test, I evaluated the C2s’s average retention. To judge this metric, I dosed 20g of coffee into the grinding chamber, set the grinder to click 12 (espresso), and ground the beans. After, I weighed the catch chamber without the burrs and the grinding chamber attached.

Here are my results.

This is basically zero retention. I’ve tested grinders advertised as “zero retention” before, but turned out to have a retention of over 1.5%. The C2s, though, is genuinely “zero retention”.

This is the lowest-retention grinder I’ve ever tested. The Mazzer Philos, adored amongst fellow coffee snobs, had a retention of just 0.8%, the Varia VS3 0.75%, and the budget-but-very-good Baratza Encore ESP retained 1.55%.

Timemore Chestnut C2s review: Storage & maintenance

As this grinder is super tiny, just 7 inches tall with a diameter of 2 inches, it’s perfect for small coffee setups or traveling. If you’re the kind of person who needs the freshest possible AeroPress even when you’re camping, the C2s is ideal for you.

Timemore warns against cleaning with water. You should only use the provided brush or a mini bellows to clean coffee granules from the burrs and catch chamber. If you use water, you risk damaging or rusting the burrs over time.

If your grinder breaks for whatever reason, Timemore offers a 1-year warranty, which is less than Breville and Baratza’s 2-year warranty, but the same as 1ZPresso.

Timemore Chestnut C2s review: Verdict

For $79, the C2s is great. Is it as uniform as my Comandante C40 MK4? No. Is it as pretty as my Comandante C40 MK4? Also no. But does it work well and will help you brew delicious coffee? Heck yeah!

Although manual grinders naturally face less retention than electric motor grinders, the C2s’s retention is almost unbelievably low — just 0.1%. This is effectively a zero-retention grinder, a title many others have tried — and failed — to achieve.

Serious espresso enthusiasts might turn up their noses, and it’s true that the C2s grinder can’t quite go fine enough, but if you’re short on cash and don’t mind “technically” imperfect espresso, you will want to check it out. Even so, if you want to upgrade your home cafe for less and you’re a pour-over, AeroPress, moka pot, or Chemex aficionado, you won’t be disappointed with the C2s.