Baratza - Virtuoso Series

Virtuoso for around 15 years. And it’s a refurbished one when they used to sell them off of their website. Saved like 50 bucks at the time wayyy back when….

The Bratza Virtuoso+ ($250) would work and probably be an improvement. It has the premium M2 burrs. For brewed coffee, you don't need flat burrs, and machines that have them are usualy harder to clean.

my virtuoso's been solid for 4 years now, still works great.

If you are in the US, Baratza has great customer service and will send out replacement parts or repair if needed. It’s a great grinder if you are making any coffee except espresso. I have the Virtuoso and really like it. I’m picky about my coffee and so replace my burrs after a few years, but that is needed with any machine after a while. 

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.

Baratza Virtuosos or breville smart coffee grinder pro. They are both great but I love my breville more right now. As long as it doesn't break. The baratza is just super reliable, the breville makes slightly more consistent grinds. Manual grinder I would go with a Hario. I have a Hario and I love it but only use it when travelling or camping.

I have a 4 year old Virtuoso, and it has had a number of problems. The rotary part that pushes grounds into the tiny chute routinely breaks and needs to be replaced. I've taken the whole thing apart and put it back together, but it no longer grinds finely at all. It's incredibly difficult to clean.

Contrary position: I've been struggling to get my 4-year-old Virtuoso to work right for the last year, and it's a mystery to me. I can't get a response from Baratza support. The grind size is enormous, even after using tons of the different techniques people talk about on Reddit and YouTube. It used to be fine, but the very flimsy plastic rotary piece that pushes grounds into the chute broke down quickly and had to be replaced, and ever since I replaced it and put everything back together carefully, it's never quite worked. In addition, years ago the speed knob on the side broke and is permanently fixed in position, so to turn it on and off I have to plug and unplug the grinder.

Medium roast, unflavored beans. Ring plastic probably isn't an issue of hairline cracks -- the plastic is just flimsy, and the four protrusions stick out, so they break off. I've had 5 break off total on 2 rings in 4 years. I took everything apart and put it back together last year to replace the ring, and ever since, the grind size has been incorrectly large. So now I grind on the smallest setting, but it's like the largest setting used to be. Even so, tiny grinds gum up the works and get thicker and thicker, eventually clogging the chute, which is angled and hard to get to so it's extremely hard to clean. I have to pre-bend the cleaning tool (which I bought directly from Barratza), and even then it only kind of gets into the nooks and crannies. I maintain that it's just a poor design overall, with some consistently shoddy components. But I appreciate your offer to help!

Thanks, and my best guess is that you're right, something isn't quite leveled correctly somewhere. I've taken it apart and put it back together a few times, but that hasn't solved the problem. One thing I do note is that there are different types of washers in different locations, and the YouTube videos about disassembly and reassembly are pretty vague about which washers go where. I've tried to keep things consistent, but I just have absolutely no idea what the correct assembly looks like down to the level of every single piece of metal.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've taken the ringer out, settled it back in, and ensured it's a tight fit. That does not solve the problem.

I'm one of those people who got tired of hand grinding after the initial appeal wore off. They're great for vacations/traveling but I don't have the patience to use one every day. However, I'm not someone who enjoys the ritual of making coffee, just drinking it, so that's a factor too. For electric grinders, I've been a Baratza user (Virtuoso and Virtuoso+) user for 15+ years. I'm sure they are probably better grinders out there but for non-espresso coffee I've been perfectly content and see no reason to change/upgrade.

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.

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.

Can I ask you what your grind setting is for the aeropress? I just purchased this grinder as an upgrade to an aging Capresso grinder, always produced reliably full bodied cups, and the past few brews with the Virtuoso have been bitter (grind setting 12) or flavorless (grind setting 14). Not sure what to do, and I threw away the box so can’t return.

Baratza Virtuoso has worked well for me. I’ve never used a hand grinder, but considering checking one out.

I’ve been on 11 and ok but 14 wasn’t great so I took it to 11 and been fine. I also looked up a guide for that grinder that provided a range of grind settings for AeroPress. Are you using the Aeromatic app? You can select your grinder and it corresponds to particular recipes. The Hoffman recipe suggested 11 for the Virtuoso. I’d keep tweaking til you find the right one. I’ve been mostly a pour over or moka pot drinker, so I’m still experimenting. Good luck!

Virtuoso user here, too. 8 years old and an absolute ass-kicker.

Baratza Encore or Virtuoso, no contest

I lost my first Virtuoso in the divorce so bought a new one in 2018. It's still going strong. Highly recommend!

i also have a virtuoso for many years now but without + and i bought it used. one time i disassembled it completely. its a nice machine with good parts.

I have the Baratza Virtuoso. I love the work it does. I started roasting my own coffee to "save money" or just have fresher coffee.

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.

Whatever you choose, remember to check TradeMe. There isn't much of a market for used electric grinders so you can often get them for 50-70% less than new. I can see a few Sunbeam grinders on there now. I got my Baratza Virtuoso on TradeMe for about half the regular retail price. The nice thing about the classic Italian brands is that they'll run for 10yrs+ and if anything breaks it's usually a $15 part that you can get locally and easily swap out yourself.

I recently "upgraded" from an electric Baratza Virtuoso to a manual ZP6. I like the ZP6 a lot. It takes up less space and really doesn't take much time or effort to grind coffee. I do pour over with 15 or 20 g of coffee at a time, and it takes seconds to grind. I can't see myself going back to an electric grinder (unless I for some reason bought a Mr. Coffee and needed a lot of coffee grounds).

I am a fan of the Moccamaster (thermal carafe and the switch to open and close the basket). I have the Baratza Virtuoso, which is plenty for me, but there are probably better grinders.

Yes. It’ll just take you a while and might get old fast. I kept my Baratza Virtuoso around for anything over 20-30g

I went back to my old trusty Baratza Virtuoso after years of disappointment using Fellow Ode V1 with SSP, and finally getting delicious and consistent cups again. Go figure

Thanks for the reply. Honestly the only reason I’m unhappy with grind consistency of my virtuoso, is from making decaf. Decaf just grinds differently, creating lots of fines. I have to go up to at least 32 before I see less dust to clog my filters. I never had a complaint about the virtuoso until I started with decaf. That said, maybe the virtuoso is still a great grinder. Could be the problem lies in the decaf and not the virtuoso.

Baratza Virtuoso+ will be fine. It’s easy and affordable and makes a perfectly fine cup for what you need. They make plenty of noise but you’re grinding coffee and they will all make some noise. It’s not too aggressive and it’s only going to be louder for 20 seconds at the most. If you need “not waking a Roomate at 7am” quiet, then go hand grinder because any electric one will wake someone up.

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).

Yup, have had mine since 2020 and the only thing I’ve changed so far is the rubber gasket thingy on top. I’m sure this thing will keep going strong for at least another 15 years.

I just got a Comandante C40, and compared to my Virutoso+, it is in a completely different league. There are virtually no fines with the C40. The cups from pour over are fantastic. I have heard good things about the 1zpressos but could not justify the extra expense compared to the C40 in my location. People complain about longer grind times with the C40 due to smaller burrs, but for pour-over, I don't understand why. It is a joy to use.

The Baratza Virtuoso+ is more solid with the upgraded burrs. But both will work just fine for cold brew because the grind is so large.

It is so nice. You can get replacement parts easily and send it off to get fixed if it is something too complicated to do yourself. It is a great machine.

For what though? Coffee or espresso? I have a Baratza Virtuoso+ and I absolutely love it. They also replaced one of the parts for free. It's a truly decent conical burr. I use it to make pour over a few times a day, have been for years. Before that I was using it to make a pot at a time once a day. All it needs is an occasional cleaning. I don't clean mine as much as we are told to, and it performs really well, very consistent.

I've had mine about 2 years. It's used sometimes 3 times a day. Works as good today as it did the first.

Baratza occasionally has refurbed virtuoso+ on their site. That’s a helluva deal and plenty of folks use it with the MM If you don’t care about saving $$ just buy it new

My Baratza Virtuoso+ was a workhorse for me for many years. I then received a 1zpresso K-Ultra as a Christmas gift. After being skeptical of hand grinders for a long time (particularly since my only experience with them was with the Hario Skerton), I was surprised that I almost immediately fell in love with my K-Ultra. I sold my Baratza on Craigslist three days ago.

Baratza Virtuoso. Great for every budget. Incredibly consistent. My go-to for home grinding. https://firelightcoffee.com/product/baratza-virtuoso-grinder/?srsltid=AfmBOoqQlgB0VaOkZNMuLHvui1qBt1r_oxzFWCIO6XOlVVf1wLkyiGrn

Baratza Virtuoso+ has served me well for three years with my Breville Bambino.

I’ve had a Baratza Virtuoso+, a Baratza Vario+, and now a Mazzer Philos, and I’d rank them in Bottom, Mid, and Top Tiers, respectively. 

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)

I also vouch Baratza. I have a 10 year old Baratza Preciso, originally for espresso but it has been used for french press for 8 years. I repaired it once because the setting got loose. It turned out to be a loose screw. It was only a problem for espresso. Been using it for 9 years without checking if it has gotten loose again, french press doesn’t really require precision. When it finally breaks I am planning on buying an Encore.

I used to have a Baratza preciso and the difference in taste of that and a eureka specialita or a mahlkonig is absolutely shocking to me. My first stack was about $600 as well and I thought I was making good coffee too. Till I got an ecm classica and a specialita. It's basically a different type of drink frankly.