Baratza - Encore

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

Save up for a baratza encore esp. Mine is the old baratza encore. Had it for 3 years now and it still makes good coffee. Cheap na lang ngayon parang 14k ata. Bought it from amazon for 8k php back then, bnew.

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.

A bonus of the Encore and Baratza grinders in general: you can get parts and fix them. I've replaced almost everything on my Virtuoso

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’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.

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

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.

Yep. For the price it’s great. And their company motto “don’t dump it, fix it!” Is very BIFL.

You don’t need to hold the bottom on the Baratza. It’s an on/off switch. The encore is an excellent option.

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 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