The HG-2

A hand grinder with a gearbox sounds like a joke at the expense of hand grinders, until you have tried to work a light roast through one.

The HG-2 is Weber Workshops' manual grinder and the first to carry a two-speed transmission, a gearbox the company designed and manufactured itself. Light roasts are the job nobody volunteers for, because the beans are harder and the burrs meet more resistance. Drop into first gear and Weber reckons the effort is halved. Second gear gives that back in exchange for speed on a dark roast.

Above the gearbox sit 83 millimetre Mazzer conical burrs, the largest fitted to any grinder, home or commercial, coated in food-safe titanium nitride and rated for 5,000 kilograms of coffee. Every set is aligned axis by axis at the factory, then used to grind a verification shot before the machine is boxed. A trace of coffee dust in a new one is normal rather than a sign someone got there first. The integrated bean feeder runs on a new bottom bearing and holds 30 percent more beans than the version before it.

Cleaning was designed in rather than allowed for. Twelve rare earth magnets hold the lower funnel, so a twist of the wrist frees the burrs for a brush, and the magnetic dust lid either lifts away or hangs suspended above the feeder while you pour beans in. The patented Magic Tumbler homogenises the grounds the way a WDT tool does, without the overspill. On the Mk.2 it gained wipers borrowed from Weber's EG-1 grinder, which cut retention and static far enough that spraying the beans with water is no longer necessary.

The crank handle folds in, and the cleaning brush stores inside it: teak body, brass ferrule, and a head that screws out when the bristles give up.