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?
The cheapest electric grinder you should get is Baratza Encore. That’s pretty much it. Options open if you double your price budget (which is a huge ask and.not reasonable for many, don’t worry)
The cheapest hand grinders you should get (unless you really have no budget) are the 1zpresso Q2 (single cups of coffee) or a Timemore C3 for pourovers. They are at least the quality of the baratza encore if not slightly better without modifications to the baratza. It literally takes me 30 seconds to grind through 16g of beans. It is night and day from those cheap shitty amazon grinder and also affordable.
Just don’t buy from amazon. Amazon sucks, in unethical, puts smaller companies out of business not because it is better, but because it uses its immense wealth to directly copy products but make them worse and sell them at a large loss while losing a ton of money until the smaller company folds then jack up their prices. They also fund illegal Union busting, barely pay even a fraction of their taxes, and use their software side of the company to lock in people and other companies. Not to mention their workers’ rights and OSHA safety violations of which are many. They are just untouchable because they have a Disney-tier legal division.
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.
The grinding mechanism is important, because what you’re looking for is consistency: the grounds should optimally be the same granularity. Flat burr grinders ensure this. I have a less expensive KitchenAid burr grinder that works just fine; they don’t mave the model I have, anymore, but this seems like the current iteration.
I picked up a 1zpresso jx-pro a couple years ago for around $80 new. I don’t know if that’s something you would consider to be “too expensive” but it works quite well. Grinding 15g of beans takes seconds and seems to produce consistent grinds.
+1 vouch for 1zpresso jx-pro. It’s manual, but it’s lovely. Not so sure they still make that model, though. Looks to be gone on amazon and replaced with a model that has a folding handle. Kinda jealous of that feature, not gonna lie.
I like my: CUISINART Coffee Grinder, Electric Burr One-Touch Automatic Grinder with18-Position Grind Selector, Stainless Steel, DBM-8P1 Going on year 4 now!
I got the Cuisinart Burr Mill. I use it with the oxo 9 cup. I like that it has a hopper and I can set how much coffee I want to grind and how coarse the grind should be. Push the start button and it’s done in about 20 seconds.
Super easy, I love it.
What is your budget?
If you don’t have much money to spend then the Timemore C2 is often available for around $50. Around $100 there are the Kingrinder K0 and Timemore C3. Getting into the $150 are the Kingrinder K6 and some grinders from 1Zpresso.
If you have to have electric then don’t buy anything cheaper than a Baratza Encore.
After my weeks of research and reading reviews, I determined that the Encore ESP is the best value due to the finer adjustments for dialing in the grind size for espresso. However, I am in the states and not sure how much this costs where you are.
I make espresso maybe twice a year, and really wanted a single grinder that does fine grinding for the few times I need it.
The standard encore should be fine as well, but I don’t have experience with it. Don’t forget your spritzer for wetting the beans before grinding. Also, the encore is not zero retention so you should figure out a way to get those last few grinds out, I picked up the bellow attachment for the hopper, but I think there are other solutions.
Good luck and remember, you’ll be with whatever grinder you choose for a while (unless it breaks) so imagine your future coffee usage as well.
i obtained a coffee grinder from IKEA 2-3 years ago. Somehow i feel like i shoplifted it even though I paid it for it… they were out of coffee grinders so I surreptitiously removed the “I be IKEA” tags and made them look it up at checkout. My fuckin ex broke the glass french press, just like my loser brother did to my double wall German one 10 years ago. I’m over it. I do not have to grind for 5-10 minutes or harm myself to make coffee.
