recolte RCM-3

Equipment notes

recolte is a Japanese small-appliance brand known for design-led kitchen gear, and the Cordless Coffee Grinder RCM-3 is the entry model in its coffee line. It is less a performance grinder than a portable one, built to grind beans where there is no outlet. It holds about 25 g of beans at a time, runs on a USB-rechargeable battery, and stops on its own once the beans are through. The burrs are conical ceramic. Ceramic leaves no metallic taste and can be rinsed under water, but its edges sit blunter than steel burrs at the same price, which works against cutting particles evenly. Coarseness is set by a screw knob under the mill, clockwise for finer and counter-clockwise for coarser. There are no numbers on it, so you work from the band diagram that marks French press, hand drip, and espresso. As with most small ceramic conical burrs in this class, the particle spread is wide and the fines fraction is high. Fines slow the later stages of the drawdown and add bitterness and weight, so the cup leans toward round body rather than separation. For pour over, start in the middle of the band and open it coarser in small steps if the flow stalls. This is a grinder for someone who wants freshly ground coffee at a campsite or a desk with no power, not for someone chasing a precise dial-in.