Burr Grinder Recommendation

After a decade+ of dutiful service, my burr grinder died. I’m now on the hunt for a new one. I’m tempted to get the Breville as I love their products. Is there another one I should consider?

Assumiing that this is for coffee and not espresso.

The Baratza Encore is a very good workhorse grinder. No frills, great customer service, very reliable. They have anther model called the Virtuoso, which is a step up in quality and price.

If money isn’t a concern, you might want to look at the Ode, which started as a kickstarter project. It has some nice reviews, but more than that, it’s visually stunning.

I had a Baratza for several years until the motor burned up. Replaced it with a Rancilio Rocky which is far sturdier and has been going like a champ for probably 8 years now.

+1 for the Baratza Encore. Best grinder for the money and extremely reliable. Our office has one that sees multiple uses daily and has been flawless for the past 6ish years while mine at home is only a couple of years old.

What type of grinder you get is going to be dependent on the type of coffee you are brewing, espresso or pour over.

Another +1 for the Encore for pour over it’s flexible in grind sizes and pretty consistent. It’s a workhorse. Not a fan of the Ode. It’s quite a bit messy and it has a much narrower grinding band.

If you’re looking for an espresso grinder, I’m a fan of the Sette.

+1 for Baratza. My Virtuoso is going strong after 14 years. Parts are readily available if/when something breaks.

My Rocky is 10, and I would rate it as a superb machine, light years more functional and sturdy than the Baratza it replaced.

For both espresso and coffee, there’s really only one choice for a single grinder, the Malknonig EK43. However, it’s very large, very heavy, and very expensive. Commercial - but incredible. I opted for the “short” model which barely fits under a kitchen counter without the hopper (so you have to single dose). I’ve owned different grinder brands and am sold on Malkhonig for consistency. Highly recommended.

I have both Rancillio Rocky and Baratza Vario with stainless burrs that I put in myself in 10 minutes. I still have the ceramics for espresso.
I love the Vario. Most important it is very even with the grind. More so to me than my Rocky but that is just my experience. For espresso with the ceramic burrs it is perfect. The grind is incredible. Better than the Rancillio. Since I don’t do espresso now but drip coffee with my Moccamaster, I have the stainless burrs in set to my preferred grind. I had to experiment just like the Rocky to get this. It has 3 timing settings where you can set a button to grind for you for a specified time. I know that 20 seconds is perfect for my pot. This is where the Rocky is a pain. You have to hold the grind button the whole time until you are finished. Count out 20 seconds. Just my opinion. The Vario is not super expensive. It is well made. Not tank-like like the Rocky but very well made.

I’m happy with my Kitchenaid burr grinder. A bit different form factor compared to most others, but it works for me.
The only downside is that its noisy - for about 20 seconds a day.

if you’re talking ‘coffee’, i like my baratza virtuoso plus. fit my budget. grinders are like speakers, you can spend as much or as little as you want.
also consider how much you are grinding.

1 Like

Yes, coffee not espresso. We have the Moccamaster. I’ll look into those suggested above. The one that died was a Solis, which looks exactly like the Baratza Encore.

Thank you all!

I have a kitchen aide, not sure how old it is but over 10 and less than 20. Used daily, no issues except it is NOISY. I strictly use it for a filter or press pot grind, I don’t believe it will give the fine grind I want for espresso.

given their track record, reasonable pricing, ease of repair, etc., you’d have to try really hard to come up with an alternative to baratza.

1 Like

Breville going 7+ years strong here. Have heard good things about those mentioned. Probably would have gone for Baratza if not Breville.

The Solis is made by Baratza and rebranded. Starbucks used to sell their branded version and someone gave me one as a gift. I repaired it several times via Baratza’s parts and service. It’s a very good grinder. I bought Virtuoso about 10 years ago for some of the features, but the same grind quality was there with my old Starbucks Solis which makes sense because the internals of the two are very similar. Or, at least they were. I guess my old Starbucks Solis had to have been made around 1999. Baratza is awesome to work with and I love that you can service and repair their grinders. I think they make the best drip grinders and they have a very consistent grind which is key.

I bought the Baratza Encore a while back and am mostly happy. Would be nice to have a “timed” setting as opposed to a binary on/off switch- (so I could more easily grind the exact same amount each day), but otherwise I am pretty happy with it.

I have no idea how it manages to spread grinds all over the counter every morning though- it looks like a closed system, but yet every morning I wipe off a bunch of grinds off my counters.

+1 on this.

Baratza used to make these and they are exceptional at precisely measuring by weight. I have one and have tested it against accurate scales several times. It appears they are no longer made so when mine dies, I’ll have to go back to using scales.

It was called the Esatto and worked with the Virtuoso.

It’s likely static cling causing the issue. It’s a common problem faced by pretty much most grinders to some extent or another. The grinding process can make coffee grounds to pick up an electrical charge causing the grounds to either stick to surface or fly everywhere. There’s a few ways to deal with it, the most common being adding a few drops of water to the beans before grinding.

1 Like