Baratza - Encore

1) Baratza Encore is always the answer 2) Electric 3) Whatever you can get that freshest and local typically - I have “me” beans (local) and beans for company (Caribou medium roast)

Baratza encore seems like the next logical step for you. Then upgrade to the M2 burr.

Capresso burr grinder for the best buy, baratza encore for best overall. Picked up my capresso for around 80 or 90.

The very reliable, tried & true Baratza Encore

I have a baratza encore. I get my whole beans from HomeGoods. They carry various varieties of 12oz whole bean bags for around $7.99. I usually get BKG bags from them and try other unique roasters when they have em (https://bkgcoffee.com). Normally the roast date is not on the package but I never had an issue with freshness they taste great. I feel it’s a good compromise for non grocery store coffee and not paying $12-$16 for same size bags at small local coffee shops.

Another rec for Baratza. I have the Encore, about 6 years now. Replaced the burr grinder bit for free once, still going strong.

I had my encore for more than 10 years and still works great. Ode gen 2 competes head to head like an Accord vs Camry but watch a bunch of YouTube vids that compare the two because both has pros and cons. All depends on what matters to you. But for the price point for an electric grinder, you can’t beat either. Ode is a little new so longevity is unknown. But Encore is known to last forever and has very good support

I had an encore with M2. It was ok for filter. Great entry level for me, but once you commit to making better coffee you will quickly move beyond it.

The well beloved Barratza encore is always a trusted fav

For just coffee, Baratza Encore is pretty much the standard, especially for pour-over. Blue Bottle uses them. If you are lucky, you can find refurb ones (which I think has new burrs) for pretty cheap. I've had one for over 3 years and it's still going strong after daily use.

I had a Baratza Virtusoso and it was not quiet. I now have a fellow ode mostly because of how much quieter it is. I’m not sure how loud the opus is, but if a quieter grinder is what you’re looking for, I’m not sure that an encore will fit the bill.

In my personal experience, they are still very motivated to help repair, coffee, grinders, and mail parts. They asked me specifically to not buy a new one because they felt they could fix my problem. Ultimately, I had to ship mine in for repair.. but the earlier guidance for me to learn the components of the grinder was awesome! Really has one respecting and taking pride in a BIFL item.

yep I've had my encore for 9 years now. couple things broke over the years and I was able to cheaply and easily order replacement part (or get for free under warranty) and perform the repair myself using their YouTube guides.

Honestly if you have $250 to spend just get both. Get a baratza encore and then spend the rest on a hand grinder. If youre just beginning your journey, buying an end game handgrinder now seems like a waste to me (also considering you might not even like handgrinding). $250 isnt enough to jump above the Encore, as far as electric grinders go. And you can do the m2 burr upgrade for $30?

My Baratza is an Encore, not a Virtuoso, but it has been really easy to swap out parts and make adjustments. I moved from the US to Europe and customer service was super helpful in helping me find the parts I needed to replace and sharing documentation on how to do so. As of 2022, when they were already part of Breville, I can say they are very good BIFL candidates. If the grinder craps out in 10 years remains to be seen, but it still seems easy to repair atm.

Commandante if you don't mind hand-grinding and like the aesthetics. Aergrind by Knock if you don't mind hand-grinding and want to travel w/ an Aeropress. Zero breakable parts on that one, but adjusting the grind is less intuitive. I had a Baratza Encore that served me very well for many, many years, too.

baratza encore 100% is what I would say to get. Baratza is designed to be owner repaired. It's within your $150 price and you can often find them second hand by people that are upgrading their grinders.

Another vote for a refurb Encore or save up a bit more for a new one.

I picked up a used Encore for $40. Now I have an 1 for home 1 for the office.

I bought the Barraza encore and I’m on my second one. They only lasted me six months and now the second one is broken so I wouldn’t suggest that one.

That's a damn shame. Right before covid hit, my wife bought a used Baratza Starbucks-branded grinder that hadn't been made in about a decade... we had to replace almost everything inside. Not only did Baratza still carry every part we needed, but it was less than $50 for everything including shipping.

Well, I hate my Baratza Encore. Bought it to replace a Cuisinart that went through ten years of heavy use. Turns out I really really like being able to dial in how much I want ground, and it was easy to dial in how coarse / fine with the Cuisinart. I also live in a humid climate and it keeps getting gummed up and has to be taken apart and cleaned inside every 5-10 uses, a real pain.

I started with a Bodum burr grinder. Worked well for my needs. Luckily i stumbled across an Encore on facebook marketplace for $60. Clean, well maintained. The guy I bought it off of chatted about coffee for almost an hour when I picked it up. Dude was meticulous. Didn’t keep beans in the hopper, weighed and ground daily. Cleaned monthly Check out marketplace. I’m certain you can find a great grinder significantly cheaper than new. Run a couple cups of rice through it to clean it, brush out as much as you can. The first grind after cleaning is sacrificial Edit-werds r hard

So I’m gonna go sideways here for a second. Honestly just get a grinder that can do large quantities. Manual burr grinders are a pain and overkill. If you’re going to be brewing larger batches, then definitely get an electric grinder. That being said I don’t believe you need grinder more than $50 at all. The Oxo may serve you best and they are dozens on FB marketplace (at least in my location.) You just need something that will grind coarse. My recommendation for a quality brew is consistency. Get the same bean every time while learning. Local coffee shops that roast their own beans would be a good bet. I personally get dark roast with chocolate and hazelnut notes. Measure. Measure. Measure. You will be working with ratios and be consistent. I like 200 grams of coffee to 64 oz of water. When serving it’s 50/50 coffee to water with a bit of milk. So I would literally write what you do down so you can replicate it. Lastly it’s important to note that cold brew tastes better after being in the fridge 24 hours after brewing. Even better after 48 hours. Getting good at ratios and replicating your craft is what will make a great brew. Once you get that down and are able to splurge a bit more with a grinder.. you will then be able to mess around with different coarseness. For now, cheaper grinder and the coarsest setting. Anyone pushing an encore for only cold brew is nuts. I got an encore esp recently because I still want to brew cold brew in large batches AND grind for espresso. That being said if FB marketplace Gods bless you then get one lol

Have had great luck with my Baratza grinder. They sell factory refurbs on their web site, this is a buy once cry once kind of deal but buying a refurb eases the pain a little. An overzealous housemate broke a piece of the hopper while trying to clean it, replacement less than $25 shipped to my door. They sell replacement burrs too.

Baratza Encore is a bullet proof grinder very popular in the coffee industry. I just gave mine to my neighbor. I’m using a hand grinder now.

Worst grinder ever. I donated it to work. Super loud and the grind consistency is horrible. Get the Barraza encore! If you were close to me then I would gift it to you.

I used timemore C2 for a year and later moved to Baratza encore since I was brewing 6-8 cups a day Now when I’m back to brewing 2 cups - I prefer the manual grinder

At your price point, probably the Encore. There are some other interesting grinders if you don't mind spending a bit more. Grind quality wise, hand grinders will be the best value..especially at your price point...but your partner coming from a blade grinder, basically anything will be a step up.

I'm going to have to try that. I do have the encore and my beans stick like no other

Baratza Encore ($150, preferred) or Capresso Infinity (cheaper - literally $70 on sale right now with CAP30 code so half the price of Encore, almost as good as Encore and a huge jump over anything cheaper, just much less user-serviceable). OXO Brew ($100) is also a good bet, just not sure it's worth that much more than Capresso if money is super tight.

Baratza Encores rip, I made plenty of great coffee on one of those for 4 years before I felt the need to upgrade. That said, if the 1zpresso JX Pro was around back then, I probably would've gone that route - a far, FAR superior grind for pretty much the same price. But yeah, in that price range (US$150ish), those are the picks for pourover/filter.

Best bang for buck is an Ode Gen 1 with Gen 2 Burrs. If you wait for a sale you can get the setup under $250. Baratza Encore is cheaper and a solid choice, but with the Gen 2 burrs you won’t feel a need to upgrade any time soon even if you get super deep

Just upgraded from an encore to an ode 2!!! Do it

Because you’re seriously underestimating the cost of goods. I understand that $100 might be a lot of money for some, but in the world of coffee grinders the Fellow Ode you see many people have is already considered the ‘cheap’, ‘budget’ option. You could also go for the Baratza Encore, which I believe is probably around $150 these days as it has been superseded by the newer Encore ESP, but that’s about as low as you can get if quality is also something you’re looking for. Then there’s longevity, are you sure that you will only do pourover coffee, because 6 months down the road you decide to want to dabble in espresso, then you’ll have to upgrade your grinder again because those two options, Fellow Ode and Baratza Encore, are not good enough for espresso. I’m sure you can find things below $100 if you just search Amazon, and you’ll see all kinds of claims in the product listing and description, but I can guarantee you all of those things are trash. If $100 is the budget you have, then go for a hand grinder. It will be the smarter choice. Hand grinding for pourover is easy and quick. Unlike espresso, where you have to grind every shot, you can crank out 30g in 30 seconds and make a big 500ml pot of coffee to share. Even the OG Timemore C2 remains an excellent and fast pourover grinder, while the newer C3 ESP lets you do espresso. Both are under $100. If you can swing about $120, the Kingrinder K6 is almost flagship level for a hand grinder both pourover and espresso. If you can wait a bit, Black Friday is a month away, you’ll probably find it below $100 then. And maybe the electric Baratza Encore for $100 too.

This is the way. I can find them all day under the $100 mark on Facebook Market.

a hand grinder will make great coffee at a lower price if you’re interested, can’t beat the kingrinder P1/2 for like 30$ if you’ve never ground your own beans. moving up the K6 can be found for ~100$. after that you probably wanna look at 1zpresso lineup. electric grinder you could get a baratza encore for a true budget option, then the df54 for the most bang for your buck. after that you’ll see diminishing returns and prices really increase, the rabbit hole is deep, but start small.

Baratza is great.

We've had an OE Lido3 for years, and it's an excellent manual burr grinder. Have a Barazta that was just too damn loud, particularly first thing in the am. It's been collecting dust since the Lido3 showed up. But the Lido is $$$.

I started with the Hario Skerton hand grinder or whatever it’s called…. Upgraded to the Encore. The biggest downside of that for me was the noise. Eventually an ill family member was getting into coffee and me and my wife decided to donate the Encore to him to make the rest of his time more enjoyable by having tools to really enjoy a cup. That’s when I upgraded to the Ode 2 and so far have zero complaints. I’m just using the standard burrs but that’s fine with me.

The Encore is a good grinder at its price point, but the K6 may even be better. I enjoyed grinding by hand for a long time and still do when traveling, but the grind quality of my Philos is just too good ;) My advice is to spend once as much as you can, not to go easy now and upgrade soonish. E.g. when going electric maybe go for the DF54 or (second hand) DF64g2, if you can afford it. When going for hand operated and you enjoy light roast, the 1zpresso ZP6 can’t be beaten (for med-dark K6 is great, especially for its price).

Get the 1zpresso hand grinder you can afford and that fits your brew size and desired features (eg I like external adjustments and love my JX Pro). Also have an Encore and switched the burr … it’s so awesome and fast now.

Baratza Encore! Used mine for 10 years and gave it to my son in law when I upgraded to an ODE. User serviceable, just great. I recently gifted the Baratza Encore esp to my brother. Very nice, but not necessary for Aeropress.

KINGrinder K6 can be had for $100, and is fantastic for espresso as well as drip. It can be your travel grinder if you upgrade later. My first decent burr grinder was the Baratza Encore. I used it 7 years before passing it on to my son in law. It was night and day better than preground and blade grinder. I used it with a Chemex, French press, and Aeropress. $150 for Baratza.

Nah I wouldn't bother with the Sage stuff. I had their smart kettle - overpriced junk that died after a few years. Wilfa Svart, Baratza Encore, these are well-regarded entry level grinders. I'd probably grab the Wilfa Uniform - it's a flat burr grinder and on offer in the UK at the moment.

For AP and pour overs, I use a Baratza Encore at home and a JX Pro travelling. When camping, I’ll use a cordless drill at low torque on the JX, got that off Hoffman. Electric is SO much better than hand grinding once you have both you’ll realize.

I have to warn about Wilfa. I've had two Svart's, one replaced 2 times and the other another time. So I had 5 of them in total. Over a period of 2 years all of them died. No support, no feedback from Wilfa to any mail or way of contact. Only was able to exchange the broken ones through Amazon as long as I could. No way to get the 5 year warranty effectively. I've switched to Baratza Encore (1 ESP / 1 regular) in both locations and am happy now. Almost same price and Baratza provides spare parts that seem to be easily accessible.

careful. every *burr* grinder is probably good enough... the only thing I didn't like about my encore was the static and the mess it left behind.

Honestly almost every grinder on the market grinds good enough for cold brew (coarse is not that hard). Imho for cold brew it comes down to things like, sound, loudness, longevity, build quality or customer support. The Fellow Opus (conical) and Ode V2 (flat) are good and reasonably priced. Baratza Encore is good, reasonably priced and they have an outstanding customer support. Espresso grinders (like DF54/64, Niche, Eureka Mignons) have often very high quality, but are overkill for cold brew, imho. I’m avoiding blade grinders, but you could even go with them for cold brew and Moka Pots, if you can’t get anything else and want that brizzely, little thunder magic thing running through your grinder and no manual labor, imho.

I rock the Baratza Encore for all my grinds. For cold brew I dial it to 30. I haven’t veered to far from it since the brew I make is satisfying.

I have an Encore. While it performs well for small batches, the hopper and bin size are far too small for grinding 3lbs at a time for larger batches.

I had it and upgrading to a refurb Baratza encore was a big improvement. The cuisinart did the job while I had it but it did create a lot of fines which were messy and I thought the noise was particularly loud and annoying.

It is the best “inexpensive” electric burr grinder on the market but it’s still not that great - noisy, inconsistent grind. Get a Baratza Encore if you need powered but it’s almost triple the price. Hario Skerton is pretty great, inexpensive, just not powered

I love my Niche Zero. Simple, easy to clean and has been a workhorse since day 1. Had a Baratza Encore (not as good a grind and very plastic-y) and a Mazzer Mini (hated the dosing) before the Niche

Time consuming meaning you can’t multitask while grinding your coffee (i like to prep things while the beans are in the grinder as it saves a little bit of time). i have the Baratza Encore grinder!

For hand grinders: - 1zpresso any of their line ups are good - timemore c2 - commandante grinders After that it just gets exponentially expensive Electric Grinders - fellow ode or opus - df64 - baratza encore - varia - lagom p64 or mini - mahlkonigs -sk40 Just look for burr grinders either conical or flat burrs would do. Depending on the shape, geometry if blades, and type, they can affect the flavor profile of the brews. You can deep dive on this whenever. But you would want a burr grinder than a blade one any day as it cuts the beans better and more consistently than the latter. I guess if you are not that invested or just want a cup of hot joe you can go ahead with that as it is better than buying pre ground

Baratza Encore is great. It’s also easily repairable

My Baratza Encore is ten years old and doing fine. Used daily.

Encore for 3-4 years. Love it. No issues. Used every day.

I like my Oxo burr grinder. Have had it since January. It's my 1st burr grinder and I'm happy with it. But if I was getting a new one I'd get a Baratza and use a scale. No need for timer settings or grinders that tell you how many cups worthits grinder ding. Just weight and grind

Agreed. The Encore has a track record of being reliable and well priced. Ive had mine for going on 9 years now!

Baratza, worth the money full stop

My Encore has been fantastic. I've fixed it twice with parts and instructions from the manufacturer. It produces a wonderful grind, and the product work reliably.

Baratza Encore or Virtuoso, no contest

I have an Encore as well, and yup, still running like a champ.

DF54 if you're on a budget, DF64 gen 2 if you have the coin. Both will make the same quality coffee, the DF64 is faster. These are durable, overbuilt, and repairable. I've had the standard off the shelf burr grinder from Target, Breville burr grinder, and the Baratza before.

Baratza also will supply you any spare part you need and theyre highly repairable!

Baratza Encore secondhand going strong

Had the Virtuoso+ for decade or so. Finally died after years and years of daily use. Probably could have got it fixed, but a bit trickier being abroad. Fantastic grinder and built like a beast. Have the Encore now, still a great grinder for what I need (drip/pour over).

I have the original Virtuoso (not the Virtuoso+) and can vouch for it. From my understanding the differences between the two are relatively minimal and wouldn’t impact my expectation for the + version. If you want to save a little money, the Encore is essentially the same but with a plastic rather than metal body and a slightly worse burr, but last I heard you could buy the encore plus the same burr from the Virtuoso+ to upgrade the Encore for less than the Virtuoso+. With the burr swapped out, all the internal parts are the same, it’s just the shell that is different.

Ive had the encore for about 9 years, love it except it's loud as hell

I have the Oxo grinder and it works great, but I wish I dropped more $ for the Encore because it’s repairable so it will probably last longer (part of the reason why I bought a moccamaster in the first place). As far as I understand, the grinder bits will wear out down the road. Trying to move away from disposable cheap appliances to ones that are repairable where I can.

I 2nd that. I got the one with the scale used on eBay. It's been great. Baratzas are great too. Better reliability and fix ability. But they are also a lot noisier.

Burr grinders will give you the most uniform and customizable grind, but they are more expensive. If you’re going to be taking full advantage of the KBGT then I would go for something electric; manually grinding that amount of beans might get annoying. As others have said, the baratza encore is a good choice. The NYT (I think?) and Americas Test Kitchen name it their best-rated burr grinder, which is why I went with it. I’m happy with it.

When I worked in an office I used to use a manual coffee grinder. While fun at first I hope to never, ever have to grind by hand again. I found it became tedious to do so. I’d vote electric. As others said the Encore is a great choice for middle of the road and quality to price ratio. And speaking of ratios, pick one and stick with it (I ended up using the suggested 55g to 1 L of water), with whatever grinder you get brew a pot too bitter (fine grounds) on purpose, then do one too sour (too coarse) so you have those tastes in mind. Now keep dialing finer until you start to taste too much bitter for your liking. You now have the starting point for future bags of coffee. Maybe a bit finer for light coffee, a bit coarser for dark. Or just set it no forget it.

At one point the Encore was one of the few entry level grinders out there (I think it was closer to $100 back then). Now there are more choices. I personally think the Encore and the ESP espresso version produce too many fines for pourovers esp with light roasts. If your focus will be light to med roast pourovers and $200 is your budget, I would get a handgrinder. Either the Kingrinder K6 or the 1ZPresso ZP6. If $300 is your budget and you want an electric grinder, then I would get the Fellow Ode Gen 2 during Black Friday. It will be 15 to 20% off.

I’ll contradict some of the other opinions here: I used the Encore (not ESP) for years and was deeply disappointed. I upgraded to the Virtuoso and was still deeply disappointed. Both grinders produced too many fines and never gave me the quality of pourovers that barista friends served me at their shops. The clarity of flavor just wasn’t there. Even an $80 hand grinder was a massive upgrade over the \~$250 Virtuoso according to my tastes. My use case is exclusively light roast pourovers, and my preference is for cups with fairly high clarity, though I value some degree of body as well. Assuming you aren’t asking for a grinder that can do espresso, at your price point I would echo the recommendations for either a pourover focused hand grinder, or the Ode Gen 2 on sale, given that Black Friday isn’t far away.

If you’re looking for just pour over the regular Encore will get you plenty of nice cups. But I’d agree with other suggestions that you should just go for like a K6. You won’t be disappointed with the Encore, but know that you CAN get better cups with a solid hand grinder for that price.

While I agree with the K6 for a better cup I was and am still able to get many fine cups of pourover with the Encore. I don’t think OP needs the ESP unless he’s getting into espresso though.

I am sure there are those here who made that upgrade. When I upgraded from my Capresso, I considered the Baratza first and then wiggled my way to ode2. I think it’s definitely an upgrade. After you unhappy with the Baratza? There is an M burr upgrade that would improve quality a bit. Of course the ode can be upgraded as well (I have not). I think ode2 is a great grinder and is rather peerless at the price point for electric.

I was curious at which point to upgrade my encore. I don't think it's capable of making it worth going for the top, limited time offerings of local or domestic roasters. Would you say it can even make the most of the single origins in the $30+ range for 10 or 12 oz bags?

I get what you mean but I just mean in my set up, if I can only reach 70% of the potential of the coffee, then I would rather not spend 50% more on the same given weight. However, if those coffees are actually easier to reach their full potential even with an entry level set up, then I would definitely want to get a bag every now and then.

I had one that looked really similar to that but the brand name on it was Capresso. I upgraded to a Baratza Encore and it made a huge difference in quality! That may be outside your price range (retails for $150 I believe) but you can probably get it cheaper if you wait for a coupon code or general sale at one of the sites that sells it.

Baratza Encore has been a lower cost recommendation for awhile amongst coffee folks in the US and you can find them for about $100 refurbished or $150 ish new. I can personally attest to Baratza's excellent service, especially for repair and parts. I've sent in an Encore and Vario for service, after years of use, and love the approach that things should be repaired not trashed. If you go manual, I've really enjoyed my Kingrinder K6 which also sits around $100.

I can't speak for either, but they are major brands, and I assume work as well as you can expect for the price. Cuisinart *($50)*. OXO *($75)*. Cold brew grind size is far more forgiving than other methods, but you will want a burr grinder. I recently upgraded and no longer use my Encore. The burrs may need to be aligned. It's old but has plenty of life. I would have to look it over, and you would have to figure out how to get it to you. If you want it *(free)* send me a chat.

The Baratza Encore comes with a cover over the grind catchment chamber, that way the only thing that has to be cleaned is the chamber and the catch cup. Also, if you're not already using RDT, use it no matter what grinder you get

Yeah, the encore is definitely prone to static so RDT is effective. Just one small spray should be enough; don't go crazy

It may be worth keeping in mind that every grinder will generate some amount of static electricity which will cause grinds to stick and therefore produce some amount of messiness. This can be mitigated to a certain extent by adding a few droplets of water to your beans before grinding, but I think having some grinds on the counter is inevitable with electric grinders. Placing the grinder on a tray to collect the grinds also helps but does not fully resolve the problem of loose grounds. It's also worth noting that with some electric grinders, disassembling and cleaning the grinder pieces is recommended periodically. I struggled to figure out my Baratza encore's assembly and dissassembly and I have fully functioning vision. You'll want to double check whether assembly and maintenance will be an issue with whatever grinder you end up choosing. I'm of the opinion that hand grinders are best overall since you have to spend a lot more money on electrics than hand grinders for any given grind quality, and I feel like the grind effort is less than maintenance and handling with electrics. Given your additional difficulties, it's possible using a hand grinder is the best possible grinding experience for you.

it depends on your budget... if you literally want the cheapest then any burr grinder is better than any blade grinder.. you can prob find one on marketplace for like $30-40. if you can spend up to $100 then buy an encore on marketplace for $100 or sometimes less. if you want budget but good, df54.

Do you have a price range in mind? You can technically “get away” with anything, but the quality of the cup will suffer up to a certain point. I liked my OXO burr grinder for pour over, filter, and aeropress. They go on sale for $80 a lot. Not perfect but made very serviceable cups. I swapped it out for a Baratza encore at some point, and didn’t think it was significantly better to be honest. Grind consistency was definitely a bit nicer, but not as big of a step I was hoping for. HOWEVER, their customer service is outstanding, so might be worth spending the extra coin just for that. I have seen them for $120 before but usually they are $150. Of course now if fallen down the rabbit hole and both of those are long gone… hah.

OXO - better button placement, timer is kinda nice if you aren’t weighing things. - faster - quieter - easier to assemble / disassemble for cleaning. Baratza - lower retention than OXO (still a lot!) - somewhat better grind quality. - easier to repair / get spare parts for - upgradable to better burrs Honestly, for someone not discerning, I’d get the OXO. I honestly think it’s nicer to live with, and I thought the taste was going to change more than it did. The leap from pre-ground or a blade grinder to the OXO is significant, and the step from the OXO to the encore is small. Put it this way: I had my Baratza for less than a month before I got sick of it and upgraded to a DF64 g2. Now with the DF54 / sk40 / dk40 out, I wouldn’t buy an encore again. For an additional $50-80 over the encore you are going from a reliable but kinda just ok electric grinder to MUCH nicer machines. The encore isn’t a bad grinder, by any means. 15, heck even 3 years ago it was the king of the market. But the market has caught up, and we now have a ton of options that IMO render the Baratza as somewhat outdated.

He probably didn't want to use the hand grinder because it sucked. It probably either had a ceramic burr, or it was a blade grinder. What kind of grinder was it? Any hand grinder with a steel burr is going to be a significant upgrade. KINGrinder and Timemore have affordable options. The KINGrinder K series can handle a drill, with the proper bit, if someone has one and doesn't want to hand grind. I'm not sure about the P series. If a grinder doesn't say it can handle a drill it likely can't. For an electric grinder, you'll pay $100 extra, or more, to get an equal or worse grind. The main advantage of an electric grinder is if you regularly want to grind more than 20 grams of coffee at one time, give or take. A few decent hand grinders can handle 30, though. If I want to grind more than 20 with my KINGrinder k0, I just measure all the beans once and then add them when the grind finishes. The bottom cup can hold 30, so any more and I would need to dump that first. Another reason for an electric grinder would be physical disability, like arthritis, but you should be grinding with your arm, and not your fingers or wrist so it shouldn't be strenuous. If you're outside the US, I've heard the Wilfa Svart is a lower cost, quality, option. Otherwise there's the Baratza Encore. I've heard the Encore has a grind profile similar to a Timemore c2, KINGrinder k0, or Kingrinder p0, which can probably be found for around $50, or less for the p0. I also grind my beans while my kettle is heating up, and I grind relatively slowly for better grind uniformity and less fines, and I always finish before my kettle finishes heating. I'm in the US, so the electric system means the kettles don't necessarily heat as fast as places like the UK, however.

I started with a hand burr grinder, and then stepped up to an affordable electrical burr grinder. I will never go back to a hand grinder.. although when I started taking coffee more seriously, I couldn't really justify the expense of the electric. Now a decade later I've settled on two electric burr grinders. One for light and medium roast (ode 2 w/ssp) and to me what is a more forgiving baratza encore for darker roasts.. Buy what you can afford, you'll eventually upgrade!

It was a hario hand grinder.. Yea,a few people who have asked me about my setup have seemed aghast at idea of spending that much on a grinder. The encore was my daily for years until I decided I wanted something nicer for light and medium roasted coffee. The encore now is primarily used for dark roasts only.

I've had the baratza encore for a few years now, it does great. I buy a bag of whole beans and grind up small batches that last me for a few days. It's not the quietest grinder in the world, but it gets the job done.

The best option would be a hand grinder and just grinding before each cup, but you don’t sound like you want to do that. The smart grinder pro looks cool and all but I’d get the baratza encore instead. Besides being arguably cheaper, it’s also tried and true and very well regarded in the coffee community.

I can understand not wanting more equipment, like I said Baratza encore is probably the better electric grinder for you. I will say if your grinder is taking that long you’re either grinding too fine or it’s just not a great hand grinder. I regularly use my Made By Knock Feldgrind that 5-6 years old and grinding for 20-40g of beans takes me less than 30 seconds.

I’m going to try to answer your post directly here based on my opinions and experiences, but feel free to ask anything else. 1. 1zpresso X series unless you don’t mind a larger size. Then the K series is better. J is supposed to be better for espresso grind - you can dial in finer grind sizes. Q series can fit inside some of the aeropress models. It is small and uses a different adjustment and grinder that I did not prefer. So the K is the splurge or Cadillac. 1zpresso have great service, are widespread if you need new parts, and they are one of the many grinders entered in the Aeromatic app. For an electric grinder, Baratza Encore is reasonable (conical burr). I believe the splurge is the Fellow Ode gen 2. Cadillac is Fellow Ode g2 with upgraded SSP burr set. (Flat burr). Whatever you use to grind. The RDT method (a couple ml spray of water on the beans before you grind) does make your grind produce less static and helps with consistency- in my own experience. 2. For more available coffee recommendations, I like Stumptown Hairbender, or Blue Bottle stuff, Intelligencia whatever. All good, not great. For less accessible top notch: Stovetop Tilly in Grand Rapids MI, Brooklyn Roasting Company Tokyo blend, Anthology Coffee Detroit is very Fancy, CoffeeShop in San Francisco - their Columbia coffee. Dark Matter Chicago Unicorn Blood, Dark Matter Funk 17 (aeropress shot tasted like black cherry and dark chocolate. My head exploded.) Hope this helps. Always happy to chat coffee! Happy Holidays!

The Aeromatic app is very well designed. The encore is a decent grinder, and quite loud. I think the 1zpresso X or K series are much better, but they are hand powered.

For a French press, a coffee grinder that produces a consistent coarse grind is essential to achieve the best flavor extraction without the over-extraction that can happen with finer grounds. The **Baratza Encore** is highly recommended for French press brewing due to its reliable performance and ability to produce a uniform coarse grind. With 40 different grind settings, the Encore allows you to find the perfect coarseness for your French press, ensuring that the grounds are large enough to steep properly without passing through the mesh filter. Its high-quality conical burrs deliver a consistent grind size, which is crucial for the even extraction needed for a rich and full-bodied French press coffee.

Baratza Encore for me and my MM.

Honestly, man, don’t do it. I wanted to get one grinder for both applications and tried it for a while, but for just about any grinder fully capable of going fine enough in espresso, it is going to be a big pain in the ass switching between settings. Dialing in espresso is already trying to hit a moving target as your beans age, and you make it that much harder if you switch to a coarse setting routinely. It’s just far, far better to have a dedicated grinder for each. With your budget, I would recommend getting a solid grinder for pour over like an Ode or Encore and then save up for a separate espresso grinder. And, just my two cents, you’re probably going to want to go with a hand grinder or double your budget for the espresso grinder. An electric grinder under $400 is likely going to have some major drawbacks that you will notice over time.

I have been using a Baratza Encore since January of 2019 and it has not missed a beat. It works well with the Moccamaster, Chemex and French press. The only part I have replaced is the gasket between the bean hopper and the upper burr set. Part was readily available from Baratza and easily installed.

My bambino plus and Baratza encore were like $699 combined. I make pretty great espresso with it.

I went from baratza encore, to k ultra for the past year or so. I'd say it has been great for both espresso and filter, although filter is way easier to grind, obviously. Super solid if you want one that can do both well. I got the ode gen 2 today and it's pretty comparable on first cups, pretty quiet too, but nothing beats the silence of the k ultra.

For anyone in this comment section. I’m currently rocking a Baritza. Give me a solid rec in the $300-$500 range

Chestnut C2 for hand grinding. Baratza Encore for electric

The only thing I don’t like about the Baratza is the noise; it’s loud. I’m not sure how the dB rank amongst other electric grinders but I’m sure there are quieter ones

You can get a Baratza encore for $100 usd typically and it is pretty good as long as you don’t use dark / oily beans.

Great coffee, Great water, Great grind is the formula to get 80% of the way to a delicious pour over. Focusing on techniques and recipes will make up that remaining 20% gap generally speaking. So with that in mind. I have two pieces of advice. If you want to stay on the grinder you have I would suggest looking into slow feeding your beans into the grinder. There’s some evidence to suggest that it improves grind consistency. Anecdotally it worked for me to get a bit more life out of my encore before I could upgrade. After that I would also say that water chemistry can probably have a greater effect on the quality of cup you can achieve until you can grab a better grinder. Seriously look into remineralizing water to suit your taste. Barista hustle and coffeeadastra have great guides for water. Have fun and record your results!

I bought a Baratza Encore about 3 years ago and have been happy with the range and consisting of grind size for French press to Aeropress.

I had one of those and upgraded to a Baratza encore years ago. I'd get the newer encore esp now. I have the fellow ode gen 2 now and would not recommend it for your needs.

Baratza Encore if you don't really need to grind for espresso (or simply don't want to buy some crap that will break just after warranty period instead of working for decades).

James says that the regular Baratza Encore can't be made to grind finer for espresso, which is sort of false? The base settings don't let you, and you have to re-calibrate it. Here's a guide on it- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvPmA2laBzM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvPmA2laBzM)

The problem isn’t with calibration, it’s with how much the top burr moves with each click of adjustment. The amount of adjustment is determined by the pitch of the threading. There might be one setting that can get you close to espresso size, but go one click in either direction and it’s either way too fine or way too coarse. If you need to grind a few microns coarser or finer, you can’t, so you can’t dial in the perfect shot. When I had an Encore, I also found that it really struggled to grind beans on the finest settings. It would take so long to get through 15g of beans, and if I was grinding denser light roasted beans, sometimes they wouldn’t go through at all. They’d just popcorn in the hopper.

Really hoped that the Varia would make a better showing here.  I wonder if the dial can be modded a bit to keep it from wandering (add friction material somewhere, maybe?) The noise of the Baratza puts me off, too.  I get offended these days by design decisions that don’t seem to care about the end user’s happiness.  I shouldn’t be forced to hate grinding coffee in the morning even if it’s just for thirty seconds. I did a lazy “noise analysis” vid of the earlier £500 grinder video to help me visualize their differences: https://youtu.be/3ELGcSK1G_4?si=5QGq5dh2InxT0DlP

I can't comment--I've never had an Opus. I have had a Baratza Encore (still do), which is in the same ballpark and it had too many fines for my liking for pour-over/filter brews. Additionally, for everything I've read/watched regarding the Opus, the reviews have never left me feeling like I'm missing out on anything.

I’ve owned the Baratza Encore, Fellow Ode and now the 078. They clearly to me are bottom, mid and top in that order. The 078 is wildly good. 

Oh, one edit here: I already have a standard, Baratza Encore (Non-ESP) that I have been using to grind for moka pot and pour over. So far, this has been fine for those uses but I understand it won’t really work once the Bambino arrives.

Got you, yeah I feel that. Always going to be some form of hater out there I guess haha. But it sounds like this could be my answer, I just may need to wait a bit longer to save for it. Hopefully a Baratza Encore-ground espresso (or worse, pre-ground!) won’t be too awful of an experience to get started haha.

Yeah I unfortunately have the standard model, so I’ll have to figure out my approach somehow before I get the machine.

exactly what I have. No complaints with either so far.

I live alone. The noise doesn't bother me.

For your needs you could look into the Fellow Opus or a Baratza. ETA: top end of your budget but the Niche

If it's volume you want go for the Baratza or Baratza ESP (this will future proof it if you decide to drive into espresso) That has a hopper that you can load with a bag of coffee. You just press go and stop it when you've ground the amount you want. It can act as a single dose grinder too, you just weigh out the amount and grind that.

Electric: I've had my Baratza Encore for a couple years and it's very convenient, but it is kinda loud. Your roommates/neighbors will likely be annoyed. I spent $130ish on mine. Manual: I'm very happy with my Timemore C2 Max in terms of consistency of grind, and it doesn't take up a lot of space. Had it about a year, definitely improved my espresso. I spent $80 on mine. Frankly, as you're a student, I think it makes more sense to go the Timemore route. You can save the rest of that $200, or use it on a scale and/or temp control gooseneck kettle if you don't have them already.

This part! Disgusting Kuerig coffee is what led me to researching and finding out about AP in the first place. Even cheap grocery store coffee tastes 100X better. Of course, 1 Baratza Encore and much better beans later, coffee is the highlight of my day…lol!

Could you expound on why that is, because I’ve been wondering? I only discovered the AP about 6 months ago and am obsessed. I got a Baratza Encore for Christmas which I love. However, my favorite coffee so far is a Lavazza (Opera Intenso) that doesn’t come in whole beans but is still absolutely amazing.

I invested in a good grinder and haven't looked back (baratza encore ). It was well worth the money. In terms of beans - whole beans are a little more resilient. I'll buy several pounds at a time and keep them in storage, like double bagged in the freezer and then when I'm ready to use one , move it into a proper canister.

I think at this stage I wonder why I would bother with spending more - it all sounds rather excellent from the ESP - I have the normal Encore already - but also Fellow and of course the df54. Also by the way the lid on the Baratza also works as a sort of bellows :D

That's amazing really. We'll have to see whether the same can be said for machines. People always used to say "spend as much on the grinder as on the espresso machine" but I feel that Baratza could perform well in espresso machines worth well more than 250 quid

No complaints from my Baratza.

I'm just getting started as well - only been using my Encore for about 13 years now. 

Baratza makes repairable grinders that will improve the taste of the coffee as well by having a more uniform grind.

This is the best grinder for 99.999% of people

It’s also super easy to fix. I’m not a savant of diy electronics repair, but I was able to fix my encore (6ish years into owning it) when it stopped working. I was grinding super fine for espresso and left it running too long. It got compacted in the chute and clogged it. It took about 20 minutes to find a video and execute the cleaning. It was interesting to see the inside of the machine, and you can tell they use quality components. It was also nice to realize that I could very easily fix any part that were to break, but there aren’t all that many parts that could go wrong to begin with.

I've used the Encore at a friend's house last weekend since we were a few people over there and he was busy and since I'm the "coffee geek" , he asked me to do the lattes for everyone. It was working fine. I don't have much to say about it. I feel that for the money, it's pretty good. I had the Sette270 before changing to my new grinder. It was also working fine. It's a bit noisy and has a bit of retention. Some people had some issues with the Sette but for the 2-2.5 years that I had it, I never really had one. So for my part, I would say that the Baratza is a safe bet. I've never used the DF54.

I caught the KM5 on sale around $240. It’s a good grinder but not a great grinder. I would be disappointed paying full price. The Good: I love the design and build quality. Looks hella good next to my Moccamaster brewer. Plus it’s hard to beat a 5 year warranty. It has great power and a nice consistent grind. The hopper lid can be flipped and used as a bellows of sorts to clear out stray/sticky grounds. It’s beautifully simple with a single switch and stepless adjustment knob. Some people complain about the switch being push and hold but I don’t mind that a bit. It’s quieter than my old KitchenAid blade grinder and that makes everyone in my house happy. I will still use a hand grinder when my partner and child are sleeping. The Bad: Static is a real problem with the KM5 but can be mitigated with RDT spray bottle. That’s easy enough for me. The hopper bottom is rather shallow leading to stray beans and kick back needing to be pushed back through 100% of the timing using it as a single dose grinder. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such an issue for someone who fills the hopper full of beans. I am also an avid AeroPress brewer so it’s common for me to grind ~15g doses. The KM5 is terrible for this. At times I’ll lose 0.7g and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to shake it loose. Generally the next time I grind beans will be a larger dose (26-40g) where I will push through the left over grinds and end up with more than what I put into the hopper. This only happens when grinding smaller doses so I don’t use it for that. That’s a big disappointment for me. All in all it’s a good grinder and it works for me. I’m happy to own it but after a month of use I’m not sure I would recommend it at full price. I don’t have experience with the Encore, Opus, or Bistro so I can’t say how they compare. The Encore seems to be a solid choice for a good and reliable grinder at a decent price. Just my two cents. Hope this helps in your decision!

Exact same situation as me. I just ordered the baratza as it seemed to have the best overall reviews for the $

Couple things to keep in mind: * Never underestimate the difference a good quality grinder will make, a cheaper machine with a good grinder will almost always beat an expensive machine with a bad grinder. Baratza makes excellent affordable machines, start with them. * Like with most products, the more complex it is, the more points of potential failure it will have. This is why I avoid all-in-one machines and fully automatic machines. Keep the grinder and the espresso machine separate, it will save your dad headaches down the road— and if he really gets into it, will give him the option to upgrade components independently * Espresso machine market is changing. Good home espresso is becoming increasingly within reach. You can get good value with some of the newer brands like Casabrews— but it'd still TBD how reliable these machines are, time will tell.

Hand grinder.. $60 or baratza encore @ $100 used / refurbed. Difference in either of these vs pre ground is night and day.

I did espresso with a Gaggia Classic and original encore for a year plus and it was adequate, but the ESP is better suited..

Just looking at it, I can see it's got the same internal design as the burr grinder Cuisinart has been making for decades now. It's better than a blade grinder, but it's on the lowest quality rung of electric burr grinders. The cheapest baratza is significantly better.

Imo if you truly care about taste get df54 or a k6 hand grinder, any less would just be e waste in a yr. If you want just better coffee, get a used encore, or some other listed here, doesn't really matter

Get a used encore. I just sold mine for $75. You should be able to find similar deals.

I started out with a modded Baratza (stepless plus the burr from the Virtuoso) and a Flair Neo, and I got… 'okay' espresso for a while, but really I didn't get anything decent and truly tasty until I upgraded (+ took off the flow control on the Neo basket)