I mainly want to get a coffee grinder because beans have a longer shelf life and are cheaper. If I also get better coffee, that’s a bonus! (Basically, I’m not looking for a premium option)
What is something I should pay attention to when buying a grinder. I see people mention “flat burr” grinders all the time. Is that something important?
A few years ago I bought a cheap terrible manual coffee grinder off Amazon. It took 5-10mins to grind my coffee. The grounds where too course and my hands hurt. Is the experience better with higher quality manual grinders? At the moment, I’m not a huge fan of manual grinders because of this experience and am leaning towards buying an electrical one.
What makes a coffee grinder better than others? What is the difference between premium and budget options?
Barazata Encore. It’s a bit expensive but lasts and works quite well.
Googled the Baratza and found this hipster shop: https://captncoffee.com/collections/elektrische-kaffeemuehle
I’d rather go for the 1700€ Acaia Orbit and the 300€ Acaia Lunar scale, because they look aesthetically pleasing.
There are a few things to note: burr vs blade. You do not want a blade, because as others have said, the key to the grind is consistency of granules. Coffee ground too fine tends to over-extract, be bitter, and even clog equipment. Coffee ground too coarsely will under-extract, taste kinda earthy & “bleh”, and it’s a waste of bean.
The two best electric burr models on the budget side of things, AFAIK, is the the Capresso Infinity & the Baratza Encore.
The Capresso Infinity is the cheapest quality burr grinder you can get; it is gentle & slow grinding. Very consistent. Unit size is small, which is nice.
The Baratza Encore is SUCH a capable grinder. Very well known. It’s got a nice “heft” to it, so it stays put while grinding. I had a very oily bean that I sent through the Encore, so much that it choked & stopped up. I carefully cleaned it all out & it works just fine. What a champion!! Unlike the Capresso Infinity, it can crank out a more than acceptable espresso-level fine grind.
Between capability & reliability, the Baratza Encore wins my endorsement. If you don’t care about espresso & you just want a good machine without spending all the money, then & only then would I recommend Capresso Infinity.
Wow. I was only planning on educating myself and then hunting for a bargain on ebay and charity shops. But this reads like a truly genuine endorsement that I might just go for that. Not sure yet but I’m definitely considering!
I was using a hand grinder for years before i finally decided to plunk down the $ on a good electric grinder. Based on the reviews I’d read over the years the Encore really seems like the best grinder for the $, even though it’s relatively expensive. If you’re gonna use it daily, it’s a worthy investment. It’s fast, reliable, consistent, and it’s also built to be taken apart for cleaning/maintenance. It’s one of these situations where “buy once, cry once” could apply.
If looking for a bargain, you can always try to score one open box on eBay…
Also they sometimes sell refurbished Encores on their site for a discount. But honestly new, they’re still very reasonable. My refurb looked brand new and has been serving me well for 2 years.
I was going to suggest refurb, too, but looking around their site there is no longer a page for refurbs. A little googling and it appears since Breville bought them in 2020 they’ve gone downhill some.
Depends on what you’re looking for. Do you want drip? Espresso? French press? Manual ? Electric? What’s your budget?
For cheap/low quality electric grinders, most of them are blade grinders: they chop up the beans in very rough sizes, take forever, sound like they’re gonna explode and make terrible coffee. Don’t bother, they’re shit.
Burr grinders come in 2 main “cutting technologies”, conical and flat. Conicals are mostly found on manual grinders, entry level electrics and some medium to high end ones. Flats are much more common on the medium to high end range because they tend to need much more torque and therefore powerful motors. As for the differences between the topologies, it mostly comes down to particle size distribution and the effects it has. Conicals tend to emphasize texture (think thick, syrupy espresso), flats tend to emphasize clarity (flavors tend to be more easily to discern). But they exist in a continuum and burr shape alone is definitely not the only factor.
As for actual recommendations, take a look at James Hoffman’s and Lance Hedrick’s channels on youtube, they have a lot of incredible advice on all kinds of grinders, among other coffee equipment. Be warned though, it’s a very deep rabbit hole :D
My main grinder is a DF64/G-Iota (~400€), and is an absolute workhorse. It’s a mid-range grinder that can be very easily modded to rival grinders more than twice its price, takes standard 64mm flat burrs and can be upgraded with super expensive SSP burrs. I love it. I think the current generation corrected many flaws I had to mod out of mine.
My travel grinder is a conical manual 1-ZPresso J-Max (~150€) that’s so quick it can grind at espresso range at almost 1g/s, with excellent results.
Thank you for explaining. This is exactly what I was struggling to understand with coffee grinders. They appear to do the same and massively vary in price but now it makes some sense.
I was looking for a grinder a while back and wanted a burr grinder but wasn’t looking to break the bank. I was recommended, and ultimately bought, a Timemore C2.
It’s been great! I tend to grind a couple weeks worth at a time and it’s not tiring to use at all. It washes up easy and you can adjust the grind based on application. I go more coarse in the summer when grinding for cold brew for my wife.
I’m not in the coffee scene much so I don’t know their reputation, as always ymmv.
Hoffmann has a few explanations and comparisons videos - like https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bgjvLQu5NlE
