Open the burrs until you can see daylight between the cone and the ring, then close by eye to the gap your brew method needs. It gets you to a workable setting in seconds. Click-counting is what you do afterwards, to record where you landed.
C40
C60
Why counting isn't always the quickest route
Counting from Click Zero is the most reliable way to record a grind setting. It isn't always the quickest way to find one. If you're starting cold — a borrowed grinder, a new coffee, a friend's kitchen — closing all the way to zero and then counting thirty clicks back out takes longer than the coffee deserves.
So here's the shortcut our team uses, and it works because a Comandante lets you see the burr set clearly through the top of the grinder.
The visual gap method
1. Remove the crank and bean jar so you're looking straight down into the grinder from above.
2. Open the burrs wide — turn the grind setting dial until there's an obvious gap between the cone and the outer ring.
3. Hold it up to the light. The gap between the two burr surfaces is your grind size, and at coarse settings you can see it plainly.
4. Close by eye until the gap looks right for what you're brewing. A visible, comfortable gap for French press. A narrow slit for filter. Almost nothing for espresso.
5. Grind, taste, adjust. You'll usually be within a few clicks of where you want to be.
One safety note
Comandante burrs are sharp — that's rather the point of them. Keep your fingers clear of the moving edge of the burr cone while you're looking, and don't be tempted to feel the gap with a fingertip.
Now lock it in
The moment you land on something that tastes right, convert it into a number you can return to. Close the burrs down to Click Zero, then count the clicks back out to where you were. Write it down. From then on you never need the visual method for that coffee again — you just dial the number.
Think of it as two tools for two jobs: eyes to explore, clicks to remember.
Where this method runs out
It's a coarse-to-medium technique, and it's honest about that. At espresso settings the gap is simply too small for anyone to judge by eye, and half a click makes a visible difference in the cup. Below about ten clicks, count.
The same applies if you've fitted an RX35 Red Clix Drivetrain. Red Clix exists precisely because espresso needs steps finer than the eye can resolve, so pairing it with a visual method rather defeats the object.
A note on keeping track
If you move between brewers — filter in the morning, moka pot at the weekend, espresso when you're feeling brave — the setting you want changes constantly, and the number you wrote down last Tuesday is easy to lose. A Clix Mate clips onto the grinder and holds the count for you, so your setting lives on the grinder rather than in your memory.
The short version
Look down into the burrs, close to a gap that looks right, brew. Then count back from zero to record it. Fast to find, precise to keep.
And as always: these are starting points, not rules. Trust your tastebuds.
