Review: Porlex Mini II — Our Favorite Travel Grinder

It's no secret that the Porlex Mini and Aeropress + Disk are best friends. With this compact, durable, and reusable setup, you can enjoy coffee anywhere. Over the years, we've taken our Porlex on planes, on hikes, and all over the world. It's one of our most-loved pieces of coffee gear.

When Eight Ounce Coffee offered us the opportunity to test out the brand-new Porlex Mini II, we couldn't pass it up. Below are a few of our findings.

 

 

A more durable build

The build quality of the Mini II is undoubtedly improved. For one, the handle does not slip off the top of the grinder as you're grinding (a major complaint with our older version). Additionally, the mechanism to adjust the burrs is much more firm and reassuring — no loose play, just small, defined clicks. Not to mention, operating the grinder feels so much smoother than our original model. This increased sturdiness does come at a weight penalty, with the new grinder weighing about 40 grams more than our original model.

 

A more adjustable grind

The new burrs on the Mini II adjust in smaller increments than our original model, allowing us to more precisely dial in our grind. Additionally, the adjustment mechanism is shaped so that the grinder can stand vertically on its burrs, a nice option to have.

 

What about grind quality?

For finer grinds, like you would use with the Aeropress + Disk, we find the burrs on the Porlex Mini II to preform excellently, given its price point — and even better than the original model. The results get a little more complex when you move to a larger grind size. At least so far, we are seeing increased fines on larger (think French Press) grind sizes when compared to our Mini II. This may have something to do with seasoning the burrs, and we'll update this post if anything changes. But for now, we'd hesitate to recommend upgrading from the original model if you primarily use a coarse grind.

 

Conclusions

Overall, we find the Mini II to be a large improvement over the original. It's more sturdy, more robust, and more adjustable, with the only penalties being an increased weight (absolutely worth it for the increased sturdiness, we think) and, so far, less competent performance at coarse grind settings. Recommended!