Baratza - Encore™ ESP Pro (ZCG595BLK1AUC1A)

Esp pro! $50 more will be worth it. Upgraded to a 078 from a timemore c2 recently after 2.5 years. Won’t lie, the work flow is amazing at 5am before a hospital shift or just when you’re feeling lazy. 30g grinds in a breeze — yes please lol seriously, the electric grind is really nice — hope you agree.

Heck yeah, let us know what you go with! You may already have seen this but Lance Hedrick did a recent in-depth review of it on YT. Looks bad ass at that price imo. I owned the og ESP and for the money it was a tank. I’ll be honest, the noise level of that model was a little much for me — sounds like they’ve improved on that which is a big win imo.

All electric grinders are kinda loud, if you want really quiet, you need to go manual. As for an electric grinder for this price, Baratza Encore ESP (Pro) is a good starter option.

Why not Smart Grinder Pro, Baratza Esp Pro or something similar with a hopper and timer? I just hold the portafilter up to the grinder, and it grinds the amount of coffee I programmed once - then all that’s left is to pop it into Bambino. No hassle with weighing, DWT-ying, manual grinding and all this stuff... And I don’t taste any difference from the coffee in expensive cafés. Aside from fully automatic, an even simpler workflow would probably be only with something like the Barista Express Impress or similar machines with built-in tamper (or Oracle but that’s a much different price range). Yeah, I know it’s not the “true” experience for hardcore coffee enthusiasts, and single-dosing is all the rage right now, but I’ve never been able to tell the difference between freshly opened beans and ones that have been sitting in the hopper for a bit. I go through them quickly enough that they don’t have time to go stale anyway. But the simplicity of the workflow in the morning, when you just want a quick cup of good coffee without any fuss, is priceless for me. And you can always single-dose, use a DWT, etc. with this setup if you decide it’s one of those special days when you actually feel like putting in the effort.

Baratza is a good option. Not too loud and works for both pour over grinds and plenty fine for espresso. Noise is sort of loud ( every grinder is ) but it's a lower, non piercing noise. I would guess that the plastic housing probably mutes the sound a bit. I've been using mine daily for about a year and a half now with no issues.

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

absolutely. the encore with the m2 burr set from the virtuoso will set someone up for life basically. and diminishing returns won't see much of an improvement by spending any more money. It's the sweet spot for drip coffee.

But breville uses from baratza encore the burrs. why not also use them for filter? I can/t understand this

the new m2 burrs from baratza are ok. Yeah probably not as good as a zp6 but enough for the coffee I will do at the office. Nowadays I find also that most of the former light roasters are not roasting as light as they used to. Anyway I was hoping that breville would use the at least steel burrs in the all in one coffee dripper machine like they do in the espresso machines

I’ve had my Baratza Encore grinder since 2023 and been using it everyday since. Do I need to replace the burrs?

If you just want one, get a decent coffee burr that can do fine & coarse. Might cost more but you won’t hate your first latte or espresso. If I had to pick: Baratza Encore or Breville Smart Grinder Pro.

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 was a hard-core French Press user for many years and got a Baratza Encore. I now use an AeroPress but using it in a French Press style. The Encore continues to serve me very well and would recommend as a good "bang for the buck" option.

I jumped from a cheap $40 grinder to the Encore. It went against my nature to buy such an "expensive" appliance just for coffee. Totally worth it.