Breville - Smart Grinder Pro

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.

This is my setup as well. Works great.

Don't forget that there is a huge difference in price between the niche and this smart grinder pro I've been here going on almost 2 years. And the common theme is most people have very inexpensive equipment and would not even afford the niche. I can easily see the SGP Getting recommended more often.

This is the way I look at it. The SGP gave very good results that people here raved about in this subreddit.  And these other breville machines that people rave about have built in SGP or something comparable. Either - the smart grinder pro is a piece of  crap and people just don't know any better and think they have good espresso when their  espresso is actually crap - the smart grind of pro is still a decent grinder for espresso, and people do like the flavor and they know what they're talking about I choose option #2 ad being the most likely explanation:)

I love my Breville - Smart Grinder pro

I use a Breville smart grinder at work and it works great. I have a Mahlkonig at home and it works better. 

The difference in taste between my old Smart Grinder Pro conical and the Niche Zero was night and day to me. I don't foresee me replacing the Niche with another conical grinder, but this upgrade was well worth it to me!

Can't speak to why stuff is expensive or not, but when I did my research, I chose companies with a good customer service track record, machines that did not require tons of ongoing maintenance or manual controls, a fairly low price point, a small footprint and decent reviews on making the actual coffee. I've had a Breville Bambino Plus for almost 4 years, daily use. Needs regular maintenance like descaling and deep cleaning but that's not difficult. I've enjoyed it because it's very user friendly - I can reprogram shot timing and such, but I haven't fiddled much with it and it works. I did dial in the grind on my preferred coffee and have mostly kept with it there. I love the automatic milk frothing for convenience, so I can decide when I want to play with it and when I just want to crank out a good drink. Grinder is also Breville, Smart Grinder Pro. I've had it 3 years and use it for espresso and drip. Very easy to adjust back and forth, pretty easy to swap beans. I've been very happy with these machines as middle-ground - not cheap but not super expensive either. Reasonable learning curve and results.

Yes, like others have said I too have multiple grinders for different purposes. Breville Smart Grinder Pro for drip coffee (this was a gift) Baratza Encore for Espresso Hario hand grinder. I usually use this when I want to make coffee early in the morning and don't want to make too much noise. I'll eventually upgrade the Baratza, but I'm getting pretty good results at the moment and feel no reason to change.

Do not get a hand grinder if ur goal is to stop her from going to pods! Brevilles smart grinder might not be the be all end all but at least its automatic and programmable

I’m surprised to see the sgp recommended at all. It made a ton of sense 5 years ago for someone who primarily did filter coffee and dabbled in espresso at $200. But in 2024 there’s better espresso only options in the price range and even better all around options. My sgp is relegated to filter only because the timed dosing is sufficiently accurate for that.