You know, around the CoffeeGeek labs, knock boxes get so little respect.

I mean, we have mangled our way through two knockboxes that Starbucks used to sell (those round metal ones with the mini-rubber bars). We've destroyed two of the square ones from a west coast parts vendor (very similar to the Starbucks model, but square shaped). We've plowed through the rubber on a commercial knock box. And we're currently beating up a custom Reg Barber knockbox (the wood's holding up well - but the metal interior and knock bar are beat to crap).

In short, we use and abuse knock boxes around here. Especially consumer knockboxes.

I've also noticed that, with rare exception, knock boxes are pretty boring and utilitarian looking. Sure, some look cool (the aforementioned Starbies and square consumer knockboxes), and some look down right classy (the Reg knockboxes), but I'd hazard to guess that if you have a knock box in your home right now, it's pretty freakin' boring. And like tea pots, sometimes, stuff just needs to be jazzed up a bit.

This is why I was very intrigued last year when I was looking at some photos from an Australian coffee festival, and I saw several very cool looking consumer knock boxes. One was from Sunbeam, and it was circular, livin' large, but the colour was a bit, well, boring (grays). And then there was a thing called the Grindenstein.

I didn't see photos of the Grindenstein next to other knockboxes or things I could identify (the photos I saw were of the product on its own), and I thought, wow, that is pretty cool looking. And many folks in our forums thought the same thing once word got out a bit about the knock box. A bit of a "buzz" was started with regards to the knock box - but many were worried about insane shipping costs from Australia over to these shores in N. America.

Well, a couple of things happened. Grindenstein's creators, a place called Dreamfarm decided to really market the product over here (via CoffeeGeek and other venues). They really tuned up their marketing and promo materials online and off (I bet you've never seen another knockbox marketed in such a detailed way). And the best part? They also implemented a "price, including shipping" policy that was set up for, well, most of the world, including the United States and Canada. $33.95 Canadian dollars gets it delivered to you anywhere be it Toronto or Winterpeg. And $28.95 US dollars gets it delivered anywhere in the US.

I contacted the folks at Dreamfarm and asked them to send us some samples. Some we'd put through the ringer (see above, re how we abuse knock boxes), some would be kept pristine to give away on the CoffeeGeek podcast. And Dreamfarm came through, sending us a Grindenstein in each of the four colours they were offering at that time (more colours are available now).

And if you take the hop below, you'll find out how this knock box fared in our accelerated torture test.

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