Hario Mini Slim Plus Review

What You're Actually Getting

The Mini Mill Plus is the smaller sibling in Hario's hand grinder range, and the specs read like a deliberate travel brief: 236 grams, a 24-gram bean capacity, and a slim cylindrical body that disappears into a bag.

The conical ceramic burrs are only 24mm across, which is on the small side even for a hand grinder, and adjustment is via a stepped click wheel under the hopper rather than a stepless collar. None of that is unusual at the price, and Hario has been making variations of this grinder for years.

It also lacks any anti-static treatment, which matters more here than on most grinders because of the plastic body and the long, narrow grounds chute. Expect some cling.

Grind Quality

For pour-over, this is where the Mini Mill Plus earns its keep. At a medium-fine setting — somewhere around 8 to 10 clicks from zero on most Hario samples — it produces a grind that's workable for a V60 or AeroPress.

Callum Parsons at Best Coffee found the pour-over result comparable to a Wilfa Svart, which is high praise for a grinder at this tier.

The consistency story gets shakier at the extremes. The small burr set and a plastic-supported shaft both contribute to a bimodal particle distribution — a lot of fines mixed with boulders — particularly visible at coarser settings. A user on r/AeroPress described exactly this before upgrading to a Timemore C2.

If you only brew V60 and stick in the medium range, the cup is fine. If you want French Press or espresso from the same grinder, you'll feel the inconsistency immediately.

Build and Workflow

The body is glass-reinforced plastic rather than aluminum, and you can feel it. The crank handle doesn't lock onto the drive shaft — it just sits there with friction — which Parsons flagged as the single most annoying quirk.

It's not fragile, and plenty of owners have carried theirs around the world, but it doesn't have the reassuring density of a 1Zpresso Q2 or even a Timemore C2.

Grinding a single V60 dose (around 15 grams) takes roughly a minute, which is the right ballpark for a 24mm conical at this price. The 24-gram hopper is genuinely small — you can do one pour-over or one AeroPress, and that's it. If you regularly brew for two, you'll be refilling mid-session.

Cleaning is simple. The burrs come out without tools, and the grounds chamber unscrews in one motion. What's less simple is dialing back to a known setting after you've gone past zero, because there's no external indicator — you have to count clicks every time.

Who It's For

This is a travel grinder, a camping grinder, a "my office has a kettle and a V60" grinder. It is not a daily driver for someone who already knows they care about grind consistency.

At $30–$45, the value proposition is honest: you get a real conical ceramic burr set, a Japanese-made body, and a grinder that fits in a jacket pocket. You don't get precision.

If you're brewing only one method — almost certainly pour-over — and you want something you can throw in a carry-on, the Mini Mill Plus does the job at a price that makes a 1Zpresso Q-Air feel like an indulgence.

If you're staying home and want the best grind under $100, look at a Timemore C2 or the 1Zpresso entry-level options instead. The Hario Skerton Pro is also worth a look if you want to stay in the Hario family with a slightly larger burr.

Compared to the Obvious Alternatives

The Timemore C2 at roughly double the price is the most common upgrade path, and reviews consistently describe it as a generational leap in grind consistency and speed thanks to its steel burrs and sturdier shaft.

The 1Zpresso Q2 sits in a similar bracket and adds a stepless adjustment collar, which matters if you ever venture into espresso. Both are heavier and noticeably more pleasant to crank. The Mini Mill Plus is the budget option that gets you most of the way there for pour-over, with the trade-offs you'd expect.