Hans Eichbaum, a friend of mine, read my recent blog about the
Moka Pot and decided to order one too. He plans to use it in his office because the espresso in the building is awful even though the cafetaria has a top notch espresso machine plus a Mahlkönig K30 Vario grinder.
Every once in a while a consultant visits to refresh the barista skills of the currently employed staff but soon after all has been calibrated and rehearsed, invariably the quality runs out of control again. Beans are stale, machines get dirty, staff operating the machines loses interest and surprisingly most colleagues do not care because the french fries are superb.
He ordered a Bialetti Moka pot with its own heating element so he does not need a stove or hot plate on his office desk.
![]() |
| Picture by Hans Eichbaum |
The first coffee didn't come out very well so he concluded that I must have been right when I told him that it all starts with
1) Fine beans, roasted masterfully between 6 and 21 days ago
2) An excellent grinder
I told him if he gets himself a grinder, I can help him get the beans right.
Hans visited his mother this weekend and he discovered two old hand grinders in her house:
![]() |
| Picture by Hans Eichbaum | |
The left one appealed to him. It's a Leinbrock's Ideal produced in june 1964:
![]() |
| Picture by Hans Eichbaum |
![]() |
| Picture by Hans Eichbaum |
Hans got ready to disassemble the grinder and collected some tools to clean the parts:
![]() |
| Picture by Hans Eichbaum |
![]() |
| Picture by Hans Eichbaum |
![]() |
| Picture by Hans Eichbaum |
![]() |
| Picture by Hans Eichbaum |
![]() |
| Picture by Hans Eichbaum |
And Bang! The grinder is as good as new.
In 1964, this grinder cost 8.75 East German Mark!
Kaffeewiki warns us that this grinder is shortlived for espresso: usually one can expect a few months of excellent grinds before it finally gives up and dies.
Still, I tip my hat to Hans' versatility in sourcing this nice little German vintage grinder and caring for it better than anyone has done in 50 years!
He tells me that the grinder makes a nice dry whirring sound when he turns it 'dry'-- it reminds me of Vladimir Nabokov's pencil sharpener:
With the help of the janitor he screwed onto the side of the desk a pencil sharpener — that highly satisfying, highly philosophical instrument that goes ticonderoga-ticonderoga, feeding on the yellow finish and sweet wood, and ends up in a kind of soundlessly spinning ethereal void as we all must.
(
Vladimir Nabokov, "Pnin")
![]() |
| All pictures in this blog entry are by Hans Eichbaum! | |
