The Best 25 Coffee Grinders of 2022

The grinder is probably the many underrated item of home barista gear, with several people spending numerous time choosing their coffee brewing gear, and then basically buying a mill as an afterthought. Given that you’re clearly looking for the perfect coffee grinders, and that you’re here, reading this article, then clearly you know the importance of the coffee mill, so all good :-).

I did this when I first started getting into the home barista hobby. I spent ages researching the best espresso coffee machine for my budget (which was roughly zero at the time), and then just bought a mill without giving it much thought. Thankfully, as I’ll speak about shortly, the mill I bought turned out to be a fantastic option. 

Numerous years down the line, though, I now fully understand just how important the coffee mill is, and having used lots of coffee grinders, I also have rather a little bit of experience with them, so when I’m talking about the perfect coffee grinders, generally I’m talking from experience, not just theoretically.

You’ll find numerous lists of the perfect coffee grinders which are merely scraped together lists with the marketing blurb just paraphrased, by someone who probably hasn’t been in the same room as any of these grinders. You won’t find posts like that here, and anyone who has read any of my posts will know that I’m genuinely passionate about all things coffee, I put real time and effort into writing these posts, so the info you’re about to read is my real opinion on these grinders, usually from my own personal experience with them.

This post is specifically about electric coffee grinders, by the way. If you’re thinking about manual coffee grinders, see my perfect manual hand coffee grinders article.

The various kinds of coffee grinders

Coffee grinders differ generally by their price point, not only, nevertheless mainly.

So at the extremely entry-level you’ll find blade grinders, which literally ought to be mentioned as “choppers” because blades don’t grind, however I digress. I’m not a big fan of these, I think they’re a pain to utilize, they’re noisy, and generally due to the reality that they don’t grind, they chop – but I’m including them, due to the reality that they’re the cheapest, lots of people buy them, and I think grinding your own coffee beans even with one of these is usually a better preference than buying pre-ground coffee.

Next up we’ll move on to the “grinding wheel” grinders. These are a handful of grinders all with a similar design and a similar price point, and they have a couple of things in common.

1. They’re extremely cheap.
2. They have weird, blunt burrs, that the manufacturers refer to as “grinding wheels”.

Again, I’m not a massive fan of these for reasons I’ll explain when we get to this section, however I’m including them due to the truth that they’re cheap, they’ve extremely popular, and because I think using among these is a step up from utilizing a chopper, and undoubtedly a step up from utilizing pre-ground. 

The next sort of grinding machine we’ll get onto is the entry-level burr grinders. There are basically rather a few of these, they’re all extremely similar, they have proper (usually stainless steel, conical) burrs, they tend to range from around £80 – £200, and many these grinders are in reality fine for the majority of brewing methods, the one thing a lot of (there are one or two exceptions) of these grinders have in common, though, is that they’re all-rounder grinders, not specialist grinders, and many of them won’t use espresso with traditional baskets. 

Finally, we’ll get onto the mid-range grinders and upwards. This is where you’ll find grinders such as the Eureka Mignon, Sette 270, Niche Zero, and other high quality, popular grinders. Obviously, if you know what sort of mill you’re looking for, you can just jump to the relevant section. 

The Best Blade Coffee Grinders

So I’ll kick things off in the cheap seats ;-), with the low-cost blade coffee “grinders”. Let’s be honest, these contraptions aren’t actually “grinders”, they have blades, how can they grind? They don’t execute brilliantly, in terms of particle uniformity, they produce uneven grinds, many fines & a lot of bigger chunks, and there’s no way to fix the grind size, the only thing you can control is how long you “grind” for.

So if you can, I would very highly advise that you skip this section and move swiftly on, nevertheless if you can’t stretch the budget & you absolutely should get one of the cheaper blade grinders, then have a look at these:

Duronic Electric Grinding machine CG250

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As far as these blade grinders go, this isn’t a bad one, well – I’d say it’s one of the best of a bad bunch ;-). Unlike some of these (and yes, I’ve had the misfortune of using blade grinders) you don’t have to pick up the entire unit to empty the grinds into your brewer or portafilter, you just twist out the metal cup part, so that’s good. 

Some of the marketing blurb does have me shaking my head, if I’m honest, for example, this is listed as working for espresso, cappuccino, and Americano… The obvious error with this is that they’re all the same thing, cappuccino and Americano are of course made from espresso, and in reality, saying that a grinding machine is compatible with espresso coffee is an error, too, though it’s an error numerous of the grinding machine brands make. 

For me, the word “espresso” implies traditional espresso, and traditional espresso coffee is crafted with traditional filter baskets, which require a fine and precise grind.  Yes, you’ll probably manage to get a grind fine enough for espresso with dual walled baskets, likewise known as pressurized baskets, with one of these blade grinders and with most the budget burr grinders, however listing them as being capable of “espresso” – can be problematic, as they’re not creating it clear that this is espresso coffee with dual walled baskets. 

If you have a budget espresso machine costing from £50-£150, then you’re probably using dual walled, pressurized baskets – and if you have an entry-level home barista espresso machine such as the Gaggia Classic Pro or Sage Bambino Plus, then these come with both standard, traditional baskets, and dual walled baskets, so you can choose whether to utilize a higher quality mill & fundamental baskets or a budget mill (or pre-ground) with the dual walled baskets. 

This blade coffee mill has thousands of reviews, and many are extremely positive, for the money it doesn’t look like a bad punt at all, I do like the fact that it has a removable grounds cup, as I’ve pointed out, and I think using one of these and whole beans, would usually be a better option than buying pre-ground. 

I say “usually”, the exception is if you’re buying coffee beans from a local roaster who’ll grind for you when you collect, or if you’re buying from me :-), all of my coffee at The Coffee works is available whole bean of course, but if you want it pre-ground, truly select the pre-ground preference and we’ll grind it as we’re bagging it up, on the same day of dispatch, to maintain maximum freshness:

Work with discount code CBNC25 for 25% off your first order at Coffeeworks

Muzili Family Electric Mill

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This is an even cheaper blade coffee grinder, and I have got one of these – I bought it to experiment with utilizing this type of grinding machine as an choice vs pre-ground, and while I concluded that I wouldn’t want to use among these vs utilizing a proper burr mill, I likewise concluded that I’d quite have among these than to buy pre-ground coffee beans, primarily speaking. 

Unlike the one above, this one doesn’t have a removable grounds cup, so I found it a little of a faff to dispense the grounds. It did the job, to a certain level, nevertheless as with all grinders of this kind, there’s no way to set a particular grind size, all you can do in order to get any type of repeatable grind is work with the same amount each time, and time the grind (chop).

I can’t deny how cheap it is, although, and to be able to use fresh coffee beans for such a low price is impressive, it truly is as cheap as chips. It’s worth noting that while this is sold as a multi-use “whizzer”, for use with nuts and spices too, I would literally keep in mind that it can be really difficult to get concentrated flavours such as spices out of the blades of a machine like this, so if you do use one of these for spices and then go back to utilizing it for coffee, don’t be too surprised if you end up sipping spicy coffee for a while ;-).

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If you can get beyond the brand name ;-), this appears to be a similar but slightly more premium version of the first blade grinding machine featured above, with the same kind of removable grinds cup, but by the looks of it mildly more in the way of finesse, and with multiple timer options.

The timer options seem like a good idea actually, instead of having to remember how long you ground for to achieve a particular grind size, you can simply fix the timer wheel, so once you find a grind size that works (well, a grind time, which must result in a similar overall grind size) you can literally leave it at that setting. 

Perfect Grinding Wheel Grinders

OK so next we’re moving on to what I refer to as “grinding wheel” grinders. These are sold as burr grinders, and OK, I suppose they do have burrs, but they’re what the brands themselves tend to refer to as “grinding wheels”, and what they all have in common is that they have round grinding disks which are relatively blunt.

Actually, when I’ve taken a couple of these apart to inspect the burrs, I’ve noted that the only real sharp surface is the heads of the screws that keep the burrs in place. 

I do think they’re a better option than the blade grinders, nevertheless still, I’d definitely prefer “proper” burrs, to these kinds of burrs, so if you can afford to jump up simply a few quid more in some cases, then I’d suggest leapfrogging these and starting off at the entry-level burr grinders below.

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The GVX231 grinder by Krups has been around for almost 20 years, and I think it was the first coffee mill of this kind, which is why I’m putting it first in this section. I may be wrong, and apologies to DeLonghi if their KG79 below was first, nevertheless from what I can ascertain, the Krups is the first of this kind of grinder. 

There is a newer version, the G VX2 42 but that one is a lot more expensive, it’s more expensive than some of the entry-level burr grinders, which have proper burrs, so I can’t actually see the benefit of going for that one unless I’m missing something. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 21 x 17 x 30 cm – 1.95Kg
Hopper Capacity: 225g
Burrs: Stainless grinding wheels, not a traditional burr set
Grind Settings: 17
Dosing: 12 dosage selections

My Observations

As I’ve referred to this is one of the grinders that have these blunt grinding wheels, and while in theory I’d rather have burrs than blades, and at least you can select a grind size with these, the truth is that they’re literally crushing the beans rather than grinding them. 

Grinding coffee involves burrs that have sharp “teeth”, for want of a better word, and the beans are relatively (depending on the mill) precisely ground up into uniform-sized chunks. OK, you always have some fines and some bigger grinds, nevertheless with in reality blunt wheels like this, you’re going get rather a little bit of exploding coffee beans, leading to all manner of particle sizes. 

This grinding machine and the Krups below are extremely, really similar. Simply with the two units I have, it’s difficult to tell them apart, they even have the exact same brand of plug, so whether they’re crafted by the same factory, I’m uncertain, but they look and execute very similar, and the burrs look spookily similar. 

I’m telling you this truly so that if you’re trying to decide between one of these grinders, you don’t waste too much time choosing, as they are very similar. 

Espresso Grinding

An important note on this mill is that as with the other grinders at this type of price point, it won’t grind fine enough for espresso coffee if you work with fundamental, non-pressured baskets. As I pointed out earlier, if you’re using a budget espresso machine with dual walled baskets, then you’ll be able to utilize a coffee mill like this, but, if you’re using standard, traditional baskets, it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to grind fine enough with any of these grinders, and you also don’t have the fine-tuning adjustment you’d want for dialing in the grind with traditional baskets.

The blurb says it grinds for espresso coffee, as do lots of of the reviews – while several others say it doesn’t, and I think the main thing here is basic baskets vs pressured baskets.

I did an experiment utilizing a bag of whole bean coffee and a bag of the exact same coffee pre-ground, both supplied by Blue Coffee Box.

I ground the beans via the Sage Smart Mill Pro, the Krups coffee grinder, and likewise the De’Longhi KG79.

Via the Smart Grinding machine Pro, I was able to get great results, with plenty of range left (I was at about setting 16, so nowhere near finest). With the Krups GVX231, and the De’Longhi KG79, I couldn’t get anywhere close to acceptable via standard baskets, so very under-extracted espresso.

With pressured (or Dual-Walled baskets, as Sage calls them) baskets, I got the type of espresso coffee I’d expect from pressurized baskets. So if you’re utilizing a budget espresso machine that comes with pressured baskets, as most of them do, then you ought to find the Krups grinders, and the De’Longhi KG79 is fine – but I wouldn’t expect to get fine enough to use with fundamental baskets.

For manual brewing methods like pourover, drip coffee machines, Aeropress and so on, you’ll be able to grind fine enough, however still, I’d recommend going for a grinder with proper burrs if you can, as the improved particle uniformity these will provide, must translate into better cup quality.

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The DeLonghi KG79 is another mill that has been around a long time, and as I’ve actually said, this is really, really similar to the Krups mill above. It’s a bit more petite than the Krups, and it’s slightly lighter, plus it does have a smaller hopper at 110g – nevertheless they’re really similar grinders, with “burrs” (grinding wheels) which look pretty much identical to me.

Features:

Size & Weight: 16 x 13 x 26 cm. 1.5Kg
Hopper Capacity: 120g
Burrs: Stainless grinding wheels, not a regular burr set.
Grind Settings: 17
Dosing: 12 dosage selections

My Observations

This is marketed as a “professional” mill. No, just no! Stuff like this in reality winds me up, I don’t understand why marketing people have to make such huge jumps into alternate realities when writing marketing blurb.

This is not a professional mill, to call it a professional mill would indicate it’s for professional use, which would make it a commercial grinder that a Barista may work with, and, no… definitely not! Commercial grinders cost thousands of pounds, I’m sure no one expects a coffee grinder costing simply a few tenners, is going to be a commercial mill. 

Nevertheless forgetting that, this is a extremely low cost coffee mill that as with the Krups, will give similar effects to blade grinders, nevertheless I think just a bit better control over grind size, as you can change the actual distance between the burrs in order to alter the grind size, quite than simply changing the time as is the only control you have over the blade grinders. 

There are lots, and numerous very good reviews about this coffee mill, from users who state it’s healthy for a range from Espresso coffee to cafetiere, while some complain that it won’t grind fine enough for espresso, and as I explained earlier, this will actually come down to whether you’re using a standard basket or pressurized basket. 

I’ve used all three of the grinders in this section, and I think they’re all a much of a muchness to be honest, particularly where particle uniformity is worried, and none of them are brilliant in this regard,  you do get rather most fines, and larger chunks of ground coffee (boulders) as I’d expect from such a cheap coffee mill with these dull burrs.

It does grind fast, so the beans do become heated to a certain extent. But when all said and done it’s an incredibly cheap coffee grinder, and it will do the job as well as any other grinder at this price in my opinion.

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The Melitta Molino has been around for a few years, occupying a similar space to the Krups & Delonghi grinders above, and it’s a extremely similar preference, with the same dull “burrs”, and again this is an option for anyone who just can’t currently afford to spend another £20-£30 on a coffee grinder which has proper burrs.

Features

Size & Weight: 9.5 x 16.5 x 25.5 cm – 1.6Kg
Hopper Capacity: 200g
Burrs: Stainless grinding wheels, not a classic burr set.
Grind Settings: 17
Dosing: 14 dosage selections

My Observations

As I’ve said, I do think it’s a case of splitting hairs, in fact, among these very cheap grinders. I’ve used all three, and there’s simply not a great deal of difference, in fact with the experience I’ve had of these three grinders, I’d truly say if you’re going for one of these, go for the perfect deal you can get. 

At the time of writing, for example, the Molino is available for a price cheaper than even the blade grinders above, and it’s rather a bit cheaper than the other two in this category, so I’d grab this if I was wanting a basically cheap coffee grinder and I wasn’t too fussed about getting a better cup quality by investing in a grinder with proper burrs. 

Best entry-level burr grinders

So now we’re moving up to the entry-level burr grinders, and these start at around the £50/£60 mark.

Keep in mind, though, that if you’re looking for a coffee grinder for espresso coffee, a lot of of the budget burr grinders in this category are fine for dual walled baskets, but aren’t compatible with traditional baskets, as they won’t rather go fine enough and the grind adjustments aren’t small enough for the fine tuning you’ll need to do when dialing in with traditional non-pressured baskets. 

I’ll point out in my observations for each one, whether or not it’s capable of espresso coffee with fundamental baskets.

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There was a low cost mill around for a while, which I thought was in fact healthy for the money, and better than a lot of the other similar priced options. This coffee grinder was called “Sboly”, which I found a little of a strange name. You’ll see my review of this grinding machine below.

The reason I mention this is that this grinder appears to be the Sboly’s long-lost twin ;-). 

Features:

Size & Weight: 19.3cm wide x  24.3cm deep x 31.2cm tall. 2.2 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 200g
Burrs: stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 19
Dosing: 12 dose selections

My Observations

This grinder is about the lowest price “proper” burr grinding machine available in the UK.

There was a coffee mill called “Sboly” which I reviewed (video above), and which very quickly became an exceptionally popular grinding machine, due to the fact that it has proper conical burrs, and it’s truly really healthy for the money. What tends to happen, and this happens with some of the lower cost espresso coffee machines too, is that a factory will produce the machine, and various businesses will buy them and sell them under different brand names.

This is why you’ll see some cheap espresso coffee machines which look identical however have different brand names. Not just with coffee related products, this type of thing happens in many product categories.

I’m assuming this is what’s happening here, as the Sboly mill disappeared a while ago, but now this grinding machine is available in the UK which appears to be the identical coffee grinder – and I’m glad it has due to the truth that I do think this is a cracking little grinder for the very small cost. 

When I say “proper” burr grinder – as I’ve spoken about, the grinding wheel grinders in the last category I explained do have “burrs”, however they’re these blunt “grinding wheel” burrs, which I believe are better than blades, however not as good as proper burrs, at least where particle uniformity is anxious.

So the reason I think this coffee grinder is worth looking at, is that for the price, I think it’s the cheapest coffee grinder on the market that has proper burrs. I bought this mill, and the previous sboly version which appears to be identical, and the burrs these grinders have look extremely similar to the 38mm conical burrs used in lots of of the other grinders which are all close to or more than double the price in some cases.

It’s worth pointing out though that this is still an exceptionally cheap mill, you’re not investing in a brand name, so it’s worth being mindful of the truth that you’re taking a risk by taking a punt on an unknown brand. If you want to up the investment mildly to take a little less of a risk on a known brand, keep going and you’ll find some brands here that you learn, including Gaggia & Sage.

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The Melitta Calibra is a relative newcomer, nevertheless Melitta themselves undoubtedly aren’t. Melitta invented American coffee!

Back in 1908, a lady by the name of Melitta Bentz began experimenting, with the intention of creating a cleaner cup of coffee. What she created was the first known filter holder and drip filter for coffee.

This was a long time ago, of course, and the Melitta company has come a long way since then, but they’re still in coffee, producing bean to cup coffee machines, American coffee machines, and more lately coffee grinders.

Features:

Size & Weight: 37 x 12 x 23 – 2.4Kg
Hopper Capacity: 375g
Burrs: 40mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 39
Dosing: Manual and by weight

My Observations

This is an interesting coffee mill from Melitta, for the price, and to me the the majority of interesting thing about this budget coffee mill is the integrated scales. I think this is an exceptionally clever touch, though it’s worth noting that the scales are at the bottom where the grinds container sits, and not in the hopper itself, and I didn’t find them to be massively accurate if I’m honest.

I’ve seen this coffee grinder getting a little of stick in the reviews for this, because of course if you’re grinding directly into a portafilter or into a brewer that you can’t balance on the bottom bit, you can’t use the scales. The reality is although it is in fact quite an ask to build scales into grinders in any other way than Melitta have done here. 

It’s possible, nevertheless the grinders that have such ability are usually a heck of a lot more expensive than these sub £100 grinders. What I’d say is if you’re wanting to grind for espresso coffee, get a dosing cup that fits your portafilter, put this on top of something that will fit on the scales, to raise the dosing cup up so it’s closer to the grinds chute, tare the scales and then load your portafilter this way.

Keep in mind that when I discuss utilizing a portafilter, this won’t go fine enough for espresso with fundamental baskets, however it will work fine for pressurized baskets. I did try this, and on the extremely finest setting, even with really dark roasted beans (which usually don’t require rather as fine a grind) I wasn’t able to get a shot time anywhere near what I’d be happy with.

I truly like the way you just have to push the button to eject the hopper, and that when you do that the hopper automatically locks so you don’t get coffee beans all over the place.

In a nutshell, I’m actually impressed with this grinding machine, for the price, when it comes to manual brew methods such as pourover, Aeropress, and cafetiere – and espresso coffee with pressurized baskets.

Check Price – Gaggia Direct. Use discount code COFBLMD15 to get it cheaper!

The MD15 from Gaggia is a conical burr grinding machine that they’ve launched specifically for their lower end espresso coffee machines, the Gran Gaggia, Carezza, and Viva, and for the Gaggia Classic Pro with the pressurized baskets (the Classic Pro comes with both standard and dual walled pressurized baskets).

Features:

Size & Weight: 19.3cm wide x  24.3cm deep x 31.2cm tall. 2.2 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 350g
Burrs: 38mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 15
Dosing: On demand and 5 dose selections.

My Observations

For decades, Gaggia had the Gaggia MDF coffee grinder, which I always thought was a little of a funny one, as it was a mill aimed at the domestic market but had a doser.

Doser grinders are the grinders you’ll be familiar with from seeing baristas in cafe’s frantically flapping the doser lever to dispense coffee that has already been ground and is sitting in the doser for fast access for the next few shots, and these type of dosers aren’t actually suitable for home utilize. 

Anyway, as far as I could see the fact the MDF was a doser grinding machine was the only thing that put off most people from pairing their Gaggia Classic with this grinder, so when I heard Gaggia were bringing a new doserless grinder to the market, I was in fact excited to see what they were going to produce. What they came out with wasn’t at all what I was expecting, to be perfectly honest.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with the new Gaggia MD15 Coffee grinder, but what they’ve made is a grinder great to pair with the lower cost Gaggia espresso machines such as the Gran Gaggia and Gaggia Viva, and all other cheaper domestic espresso coffee machines using pressurised baskets. 

I was expecting them to bring out a coffee mill intended as the wonderful pairing for their flagship traditional espresso coffee machine the Gaggia Classic Pro, nevertheless that’s not at all with the MD15 is, it’s a grinder suited to use with pressurized espresso baskets and manual brew methods, it won’t grind fine enough for espresso with fundamental, traditional espresso coffee baskets. 

So very keep in mind, if you’re looking for a grinder to pair with something like the Gaggia Classic, Sage Bambino Plus, Rancilio Silvia, and so on, with traditional espresso baskets, this isn’t the right mill to look at.

But if you’re fine with pressurized baskets, or if you’re grinding for manual brew methods such as filter & cafetiere, then I think the MD15 is well-positioned to compete with the other options. 

It’s quite a nice looking little coffee grinder, it’s basically modest to utilize with grinding volume (dosage) selections in the form of coffee beans, and it’s not especially loud.

All in all, for the price, which is only forty or fifty quid more than the likes of the Delonghi and Crups grinders (and this is definitely a better preference as it has proper burrs, as I’ll talk about when I come to those grinders), I don’t think this mill is a bad option as long as you don’t want a coffee mill for espresso with basic baskets.

By the way, if you were looking at the Sboly grinding machine, which is a budget coffee mill which used to feature on this page until it completely disappeared from existence fairly recently for some strange reason, I’d advise looking at the Gaggia MD15 instead. It’s a few quid more than the Sboly grinding machine was selling for, but not a fantastic deal – it has really similar features, but the Gaggia is actually a little of a nicer built machine and is almost as affordable.

If you’re thinking of buying this coffee grinder, if you order it from Gaggia Direct, work with the discount code COFBLMD15 and you’ll get the coffee mill for £60 less than RRP (until end of July 2022).

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This is an extremely interesting looking coffee grinder from Barista & Co, for grinding for manual brew methods, with among the the majority of interesting features being the easy removal of the grinding machine unit, the part which houses the burrs.

Features:

Size & Weight: 34.5cm tall, 11.5cm wide, 22cm deep. 2.3Kg
Hopper Capacity: 240g
Burrs: 29mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 40
Dosing: On demand and timed with 10 second increments.

My Observations

Barista & Co have come up with a different, and rather intriguing design for this mill, with a removable grinding unit. This part can be easily removed to clean, which suggests it can be easily replaced too.

I do think this should probably be more obviously marketed as a coffee grinder for manual brew methods or for espresso coffee only with dual walled baskets. The reality that this grinder comes with a portafilter cradle would give buyers the impression that it’s a grinder for espresso, and though they do state on their website that this isn’t an “espresso specific” coffee mill, what they don’t explain clearly is that as lots of of the other grinders in this category, it’ll grind fine enough for utilizing with dual walled, pressurized baskets, however not for traditional baskets.

Having said that, Barista & Co have responded to some of the Amazon reviews (which is impressive as it’s quite rare to find a brand replying on Amazon) explaining that they’ve lately tweaked this coffee mill to be able to grind finer for espresso, and that if anyone has a slightly older model which doesn’t have this modify, they gave their email respond to and asked customers to email them for instructions to tweak their grinder to grind finer.

I’m not totally sure what the crack is here if I’m honest, due to the truth that there are current reviews (current at the time of writing) that contradict each other where grinding for espresso is concerned, with one user saying they choked their Sage Bambino at a finer setting, with fundamental baskets, but with another user saying that it doesn’t grind anywhere near fine enough for espresso coffee with basic baskets. 

This could of course be that it’s two users using different espresso machines and extremely different coffee beans, however it could likewise be an indication that the newer models will grind much finer, and it could be that the person singing its praises (who bought a few months later compared to the other guy) has a newer model with the finer grinding ability.

Interestingly this is the only conical grinder I’ve seen so far with a 29mm burr set, the majority of in this category have slightly bigger 38mm burrs. In theory, this does mean that the burrs will have to spin at a higher RPM to match the grinding speed of a coffee grinder with bigger burrs, however, they’re extremely keen on pointing out in their marketing blurb that this coffee mill ensures a great particle uniformity, so I’m assuming they’ve chosen this burr size for a specific reason. 

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Features:

Size & Weight: 20cm wide x 15.5cm deep x 31.2cm tall. 3.9 Kg 
Hopper Capacity: 250g
Burrs: 40mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 17 (34 if you count the half steps)
Dosing: Timer

My Observations

The Wilfa Svart, while saying it out loud may sound a little weird (Wilfa’s Fart?) is a fairly popular coffee mill at this price point, especially for manual brew methods. 

I’ve used this coffee grinder, and while being entirely honest I don’t think there’s much difference in grinds quality and therefore cup quality between this coffee mill and some of the cheaper 40mm conical burr grinders, the build quality is noticeably better on the Svart vs some of the cheaper, similar grinders – I also think it’s a few decibels quieter than some of the cheaper options. 

The hopper is turned in order to fine-tune the grind, and there are handy instructions on the hopper to tell you roughly what grinding range you’re within. 

Remember, no issue what coffee mill you choose, you’ll need great coffee beans to produce excellent coffee. These are the beans that I work with daily:

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Features:

Size & Weight: 11.94 x 16 x 35.05 cm 3.09 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 227g
Burrs: 40mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 40
Dosing: On demand

My Observations

The Baratza Encore is a grinding machine which has been around for a good few years now and is one of the a lot of popular entry-level grinders, especially for manual brew methods, and for espresso coffee with pressurized baskets. Baratza is owned by Breville, by the way (who we understand as Sage, in the UK), which is only in reality anecdotal information as they are run as totally separate businesses.

It has 40mm conical steel burrs, and a DC motor geared down to 450 RPM, with the intention of reducing heat generated while grinding, and likewise reducing noise and static. 

With the second generation gearbox, the encore is more durable and quieter than the first version, and Baratza apparently did some in truth vigorous testing of the failsafe built in to stop the mill from breaking if foreign objects end up in the burrs, by trying to grind metal screws, which lead to everything stopping instantly and the thermal cutout being triggered, with no damage to the gears or the motor.

If you do accidentally grind a rock, or even worse a diamond, you’d be best checking the burrs for damage (particularly if it was a diamond as those things are tough! Nevertheless if you do find a diamond in your coffee beans you’ll probably be able to afford replacement burrs) but it’s unlikely that any damage will be done to the rest of the grinder. 

The Encore has 40 grind settings, and it’ll do fine for manual brew methods, but, if you’re looking for a coffee grinder for espresso coffee, the Encore won’t quite get fine enough for espresso coffee with basic filter baskets.

If you have a lower cost domestic espresso machine such as the Swan Retro, Gran Gaggia or DeLonghi Dedica EC685 with pressurised baskets, the Encore needs to be fine for you.

As far as these kinds of grinders go, which are geared towards manual brewing or espresso only with pressurised baskets, I think the Encore is among the perfect quality choices, but it’s one of the most expensive too, so it needs to be in reality.

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This is the slightly cheaper and slightly shorter sibling of the Smart Coffee grinder Pro, below, and it’s more or less the same grinding machine but without the digital grind size controls, timer programming and LED display.

Update: Sage Discount Codes!
If you’re in the UK and you’re thinking of buying any Sage coffee machine or grinding machine (or any other product from Sage Appliances) you might want to drop me an email. Click here to join my “Brew Time” mailing list, and then email me ([email protected]) to see if I have a current discount code to Share. Sage Appliances sometimes share codes with me, I can’t publish them – and there’s no point as they’re usually time-limited anyway, but they do allow me to share them with subscribers via email.

Features:

Size & Weight: 20(W) X 16(D) X 34(H)cm. 3.54Kg
Hopper Capacity: 340g
Burrs: 38mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 60
Dosing: On demand and timed

My Observations

This is the first mill so far that I’m featuring (by price) which is capable of espresso with standard baskets, and this is a wonderful all-rounder coffee grinder, capable of a wide range of brew methods from cafetiere to espresso coffee – and as I’ve spoken about, it’ll get you fine enough (with a lot of coffee beans) for espresso with traditional baskets, too.

This is the mildly more budget sibling to the Sage Smart Mill Pro which I’ll speak about shortly, and the main differences are that it has a mildly lower-powered motor (130W vs 165W) and that you adjust the grind via the hopper while on the smart coffee mill pro there’s an LCD screen and a grind adjustment dial, oh and the hopper is mildly smaller and holds fewer beans too, 240g capacity vs 450g.

While this isn’t an espresso specialist mill, I think it’s about the cheapest grinding machine on the market which is capable for espresso with traditional baskets, and it likewise has fairly small grind adjustments, nevertheless being a stepped mill it is really quick and modest to make big grind adjustments. So let’s say you’re dialed in for espresso coffee nevertheless you need to grind for cafetiere or filter, you can easily jump up to the desired grind size, and then jump straight back to where you were.

Espresso coffee specialist grinders usually have stepless adjustment, which brews them great purely for espresso coffee, but not so healthy for jumping around to grind for different brew methods. 

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The Iberital MC2 is among the extremely cheapest espresso specialist grinders, it sits in between the Sage Dosage Control Pro and Smart Coffee mill Pro in terms of price, it’s not as good looking, it’s not as user friendly or visually appealing as the Sage grinders, and it’s a bit messy, nevertheless I literally can’t argue with how well it performs for espresso coffee, given the price. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 16.5cm(W) X 27cm(D) X 37.5cm(H). 4.5Kg
Hopper Capacity: 500g
Burrs: 38 mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 60
Dosing: Timed

My Observations

The Iberital MC2 is an Italian crafted coffee mill, that someone crafted me aware of via a Facebook post a while back, singing the praises of this inexpensive mill. Intrigued, I got hold of one & tried it, which was then given away to a lucky coffeeblog reader.

At the time this grinder was rather a bit cheaper than it is now, thanks to Brexit, Covid, and so on, this grinding machine has increased in price rather a little bit, and by rather a little bit more than most of the other prices have increased, so the difference in price between this and the dosage control pro, for example, isn’t as much as it once was, however it’s still a economical coffee mill given how well it performs for espresso coffee.

The MC2 is really an espresso coffee grinder, and still, at the newly increased price, it’s probably among the cheapest espresso specialist grinders. This isn’t an all-rounder grinder like the Sage grinders, it has a worm dial adjustment which is wonderful for fine-tuning, but not excellent for making big changes to change from one brew recipe to another. 

I wasn’t a big fan of the timer only grinding, I do like the ability to grind on demand, and I found it to be a little more messy than other grinders, it’s definitely a little of a rough diamond, the grind button popped off a couple of times, it’s rather clear that the majority of the build cost here has gone into performance. There are no bells or whistles here.

If you’re after a grinder purely for espresso coffee although, the MC2 is definitely worth considering if you’re on a particularly tight budget, as it’s many coffee grinder for the cash, purely based on performance.

For more see my Iberital MC2 coffee mill review.

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The next entry-level burr grinder up, in price, is the Nemox Lux, which is in truth the same coffee grinder internally as the Iberital MC2, but in a nicer, more aesthetically pleasing shell, and with stepped adjustment. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 9.5cm(W) X 18cm(D) X 30 cm(H). 2 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 500g 
Burrs: 38 mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 10
Dosing: On demand

My Observations

This is essentially the Ibertial MC2, but less rough around the edges, and with a stepped grind adjustment. 

There’s no doubt this is a nicer looking and sturdier sensation grinder than the MC2, and to be honest my only problem with it is that I find the stepped adjustments to be too big. I mean, they were always going to be – I’m in reality not quite sure what they were thinking if I’m honest. I can only assume that they wanted to make a stepped adjustment coffee grinder that was very easy to make big adjustments, and they weren’t in reality thinking about espresso. 

If they were aiming this grinder purely at manual brew methods, then OK I’d still think 10 is a little on the low side, more like 15 – 20 would be have been better, however the reality is, this coffee mill will go fine enough for espresso, so it’s a shame given that this is the case, that they’ve not also given it at least some degree of fine-tuning ability. 

I’m not saying they ought to have added a worm dial, though to make it available as a worm dial option I think would have been a really popular option, extremely, I’d hazard a guess that if they sold such an preference it would outsell the other version by lots of times. But at least they could have given us more than 10 grind settings. 

Anyway, they haven’t, so the Lux isn’t ideal for espresso, it’s a good all-rounder for manual brew methods and it will grind fine enough for espresso with fundamental baskets, but getting dialed in I found it to be a bit of a pain, thanks to the big grind adjustments. You can mod it, to add a worm dial, by the way, however it literally seems like a bit of a faff.

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I’ve had among these grinders for over six years at the time of writing, and I think it’s a brilliant grinding machine. In my simple opinion, if you’re looking for a fantastic allrounder coffee mill and you want the ability to grind for espresso with standard baskets too, then this is probably the perfect of this type of grinder, for this sort of money. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 22(W) X 15(D) X 38(H). 4.1Kg
Hopper Capacity: 450g
Burrs: 38 mm stainless steel conical burrs
Grind Settings: 60
Dosing: On demand & timed

My Observations

If you’re looking for user friendliness and beginner friendliness, I don’t think you’ll find a mill to beat the Sage Smart Mill Pro, at this price, especially if you want a coffee grinder for multiple brew methods, as it’s so easy to make big grind adjustments with this coffee grinder and easily find your way back to where you were. 

The price of these grinders has increased lately with literally about everything else, so while these used to be a sub £200 coffee grinder, they’ve increased in price by about a tenner, so they’re truly over the two hundred quid mark now, but – I do sometimes have discount codes, do it’s worth emailing me ([email protected]) to ask if I have a current discount code. If I do, I’ll send it to you.

See my Sage Smart Grinding machine Pro Review

Sage (Breville as they’re known everywhere else, they sold the brand name in Europe in the 80s, so the Breville we understand of here is a different brand) are extremely clever, and they truly do make smart products, especially where user-friendliness is anxious. 

So with this grinder there’s an LCD display, which tells you what grind size you’re at and what brewing method you’re in the range of with that setting, it has 60 grind settings, you can dosage on demand or via a timer, and it comes with a portafilter cradle for utilizing for espresso, and with a grinds container for manual brew methods. 

There’s extremely not a lot I can say about the Smart Coffee grinder pro when it comes to negatives. 

If you do enough research you will find some people saying that the impellers wear, which causes issues after a few years of grinding – this was in truth resolved a number of years ago when they started making the impeller (the fan-shaped component that is responsible for brushing the grounds into the chute) out of a sturdier material, so don’t be put off if you read about that. 

I’ve ground a heck of the majority of coffee with mine over the years, and I’ve had no issues with the impeller, not only have I found it extremely humble to use, however it’s been a genuine workhorse, too. 

I have to admit, I’ve not actually looked after my smart coffee grinder pro when it comes to keeping it clean, I’ve not actually maintained it as well as I must have, and still, it’s been brilliant.

As I’ve come to expect from Sage coffee Machines the Smart grinder pro excels when it comes to user-friendliness. As you’ll see if you watch my video above, it’s truly ridiculously easy to utilize, it in reality is smart. It grinds more than fine enough for espresso and will grind for the majority of brew methods including cafetiere, Aeropress & pourover.

The only harmful for espresso coffee is that worm dial adjustment grinders (see the Iberital MC2 below) give you a slightly better ability to finely tune in the grind, this is a stepped grinder even though the steps are extremely small.

Also when grinding for espresso coffee the smart grinder pro does create mildly clumpy grinds, however I think this is probably simply down to small conical burrs, and you can easily sort this with the WDT method, which simply involves utilizing a pointy implement to distribute the grinds in the basket and break up the clumps.

Perfect mid range & upwards coffee grinders

OK so we’ve dealt with the entry-level, now to discuss what I’m referring to as mid-range for want of a better word, and upwards. 

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The Rancilio Rocky has been around for ages and is probably on the underrated side. Some will argue that it’s overrated, this may have been the case in the past, but these days it’s not that often that this coffee grinder will come up in conversation, and as the cheapest proper flat burr grinder on the market, I think it’s an incredibly worthy option at this price.

Features:

Size & Weight: 12 x 25 x 35 cm – 7 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 300g
Burrs: 50mm tempered steel flat burrs
Grind Settings: 55
Dosing: On demand 
Motor power: 166W
RPM: 1725
Special features: Extremely solid build quality

My Observations

As I’ve said, this was once a very popular mill, particularly when paired with the Rancilio Silvia, for obvious reasons, but I think there’s just so much competition at the entry-level that the Rocky probably doesn’t seem like the the majority of obvious option, but the truth is that this is the cheapest flat burr mill I’m aware of, it’s a good £12o cheaper than the Eureka Mignon Manuale at the time of writing, and all things considered It think it’s worth a look.

It’s an incredibly well made, sturdy coffee grinder, with high quality 50mm tempered steel flat burrs, and to me, it looks more along the lines of a small commercial coffee grinder. I’ve put the build quality as the special feature due to the reality that although this is a no-frills coffee mill, there are no bells or whistles, the build cost has clearly gone into the components and build quality, as it does look and feel extremely solid and sturdy considering the relatively low price.

The only thing I think is a bit of a pain, is that you really need four hands to operate this coffee grinder, if you’re to do it adequately. You basically needs to have the coffee mill running when adjusting the grind, at least while adjusting it finer, and this is true with any coffee mill, but you have to push a little bit paddle down while turning the hopper to fix the grind. If you’re doing that, that’s your two hands busy, how are you going to hold the portafilter, and how are you going to press the grind button? 

You could single dosage, and if you’re single dosing (basically throwing in the beans you’re about to utilize) then you’ll probably be fine adjusting the grind both ways while it isn’t running, in which case two hands needs to suffice.

By the way, you’re clearly interested in improving cup quality given you’re looking to upgrade your grinder (unless it’s your first coffee grinder, of course, but in any case, this will still be relevant) but what about upgrading the quality of your coffee beans? Can I recommend some amazing quality, freshly roasted coffee beans, I hear you ask – sure :-). Here’s a shameless plug…

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The Sette 270 is definitely a grinder I think you ought to have on your shortlist if you’re looking at the entry to mid price range and if you’re looking for a coffee grinder for espresso and/or pourover, and if you’ve read negatives about this grinder or if you have a adverse impression of it for some reason, I’d highly advise reading below about the changes Baratza have brewed to this mill. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 13cm wide x 40cm tall x 24cm deep. 3.2Kg
Hopper Capacity: 285g
Burrs: 40mm conical steel Etzinger burrs
Grind Settings: 30 stepped macro adjustments & stepless micro fix with 9 indicators.
Dosing: On demand plus three programmable timed presets
Motor power: 240W
RPM: 550
Special features: Ring burr drive system – direct grind path, for lower retention.

My Observations

The Baratza Sette may seem to be a grinding machine that requires no introduction, but it probably needs a re-introduction, as I get the impression that several people aren’t aware of the fairly standard changes that have been brewed to the Sette 270.

This is a 40mm conical steel burr coffee grinder, and it’s a coffee grinder that has been mainly well accepted within the home barista market along with the Eureka Mignon as one of the obvious choices for an entry to mid-level burr mill, particularly for espresso even though it’ll work well with manual brew methods too.

Among the changes I’m referring to is that as well as the 30 macro grind steps, meaning bigger grind adjustments, there is an additional stepless micro-adjustment for espresso. I think this is genius and is something I think Baratza has in fact got right with the latest iteration of the Sette 270.

Any coffee grinder that is intended to be used for espresso and/or for manual brew methods actually need the ability to make macro and micro adjustments, and I’m surprised, if I’m honest, that all of the other coffee grinder brands haven’t followed suit here, as it just brews sense. 

The other change is that they’ve introduced a completely new drive system which spins the outer ring bur instead of the central conical burr. What this suggests is that the coffee falls directly into the grinds chute, and this leads to a lower retention, of approximately one gram, I’m told. 

In case you’re not familiar with retention, grinds retention, or more specifically what’s called “exchanged retention”, refers to the coffee that ends up in your basket, or your brewer, or whatever, the next time you use the grinder. What this means is that if we don’t want to utilize some stale coffee when we brew for the first time of the day, we need to purge some coffee to ditch that exchanged retention, and we likewise have to purge every time we modify the grind, or we’ll be using a mix of grind sizes. 

How much you need to purge depends on your grinder and how much it retains, and this is exactly what the Niche Zero was built to address, which will feature shortly, as this is a grinding machine that achieves extremely close to zero retention, and is crafted as a single dosage grinding machine, meaning you weigh the beans before you chuck them in, quite than filling a hopper and then weighing the ground coffee. 

But this change on the sette 270 basically puts it extremely close to the Niche Zero in terms of grinds retention, so it’s a big deal. 

The reason I explained earlier that this mill is actually good for espresso and small batch pourover, is due to the reality that, with a grinding range of 230–950 μm, it’s primarily geared up towards finer grinding. It’ll work well for small-batch pourover brewing with Kalita Wave, Hario V60 & Chemex, but if you’re wanting to go more coarse than this for cafetiere and/or bigger batch filter brewing, you may find this doesn’t quite have the essential range on the more coarse side of things.

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Features:

Size & Weight: H: 350 x W: 120 x D: 180mm – 5.6 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 300g
Burrs: 55mm Flat hardened steel
Grind Settings: Infinite stepless micrometric regulation
Dosing: On demand plus two programmable doses via digital touch screen
Motor power: 310W
RPM: 1350
Special features: Silent technology

My Observations

In my modest opinion, the Eureka Mignon is one of the perfect mid ranged grinders, and all things considered the Specialita is my favourite of the range. It’s a fairly big range which starts with the Crono at just over two hundred pounds, and the XL at just over £700, nevertheless the Specialita is roughly in the middle of the price range, I’ve used it for quite a while paired with various espresso machines, and I’m very impressed with it. 

It’s compact and solid, it’s clearly extremely well built, it’s quiet, the infinitely fine micrometric adjustment makes it excellent for dialing in, the two programmable doses are excellent, and it’s very quiet and relatively mess-free. 

I can tell you from personal experience that these grinders are sturdy, due to the reality that when I tried to grind a lump of copper with this mill, twice – it did no damage whatsoever. No, I didn’t do this on goal ;-). The coffee grinder jammed and turned itself off, I adjusted the grind much more coarse and tried grinding again, it jammed again. I took it apart and discovered that a lump of copper had ended up in with some coffee beans I’d received, odd. I removed it, with no problem whatsoever. 

Grinding foreign objects can happen, although I’d usually think of this as pebbles quite than lumps of copper, as it does happen occasionally that a stone or very small pebble will end up in a bag of coffee beans. Manufacturers deal with this in various ways, and clearly, the way Eureka deals with it works well.

Literally a quick comparison, and it’s not a fair comparison as I’m talking about a coffee grinder at half the price – but the Sage Smart Coffee grinder Pro has a clutch as a failsafe, similar to the clutch on a cordless drill, which is in place to limit the amount of torque that can be applied to the burrs.

This works very well too, and I’ve experienced this, the only downside – and I’m guessing the reason that some of the premium brands including Eureka and Niche have a different system for this, is that this can mean occasionally that if you’re using a particularly lighter roasted and/or non-pourous bean which can be rather a little harder than a standard coffee bean, can trick the Sage grinders to thinking they’re trying to grind stones. 

It’s important to point out even though, that grinders that don’t have some sort of failsafe will strip gears or cause other damage when they encounter something too hard for that mill to cope with. 

Anyway, I’m a big fan of the Mignon Specialita, and there’s extremely little I don’t like about it. The only thing I can think of, if you were pushing me for any criticism, would be that although the grind adjustment is infinite, the numbers are far apart. There are 10 settings on the adjustment wheel (0-5 with half step increments), however if you’re grinding for anything other than espresso coffee you may end up going over a full revolution of the wheel and being at 0 again with no reference to tell you that. 

There are a number of other versions of the Eureka Mignon, for more see:

Eureka Mignon Models Reviewed

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Features:

Size & Weight: 13cm wide x 37cm tall x 18 cm deep. 4.8 Kg 
Hopper Capacity: 300g
Burrs: 54mm ceramic flat burrs 
Grind Settings: 10 macro steps each divided into 20 micro adjustments
Dosing: On demand plus three programmable timed presets
Motor power: DC motor
RPM: 1350 
Special features: Big grinding range 230 to 1150 microns

My Observations

The Baratza Vario is an interesting option, especially when weighing up your options with the Sette 270 wi below, as they’re almost the exact same price but offer slightly different specialities. 

The Vario is essentially the same as the very popular and more expensive bigger sibling of the Vario, the Forte (which you’ll find a bit further down this post), with the same 54mm ceramic burrs, and the same big grinding range from 230 to 1150 microns, which makes it a great all-around coffee grinder. The super-precise control over grind size is likewise a fantastic feature, and even though the Vario doesn’t rather have the same precision here, a total of 200 grind settings (20 micro settings to every 10 macro settings) is the majority of dialing in power. 

Combining a best coffee grinder with great coffee will produce the perfect effects. This is the coffee that I choose to drink:

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So this is literally the Baratza Sette 270 but with built-in scales and Acaia technology. What this indicates is that you can create and store doses in truth by weight, not by time, thanks to the integrated scales. 

Features:

Size & Weight: 13cm wide x 40cm tall x 24cm deep. 3.2Kg    
Hopper Capacity: 285g
Burrs: 40mm conical steel Etzinger burrs
Grind Settings: 30 stepped macro adjustments & stepless micro troubleshoot with 9 indicators.
Dosing: On demand plus three programmable timed presets
Motor power: 240W
RPM: 550
Special features: Weight-based dosing with integrated scales

My Observations

This is the dosing by weight version of the Sette 270, and if you’re familiar with the 270W which likewise had the integrated scales, the W I is an updated model which addressed some of the niggles of the W version. 

The latest version in truth displays how smart Baratza is, and how well they’re able to answer user feedback. While the W was a popular and welcomed model, there were a few creases that they’ve ironed out well with the new version. One of the issues with the W was that people were finding it difficult to get a stable dosage on unstable surfaces. 

They dealt with this matter well on the new version, with an adjustable portafilter cradle and adjustable grinds container cradle, allowing the coffee mill to compensate for the instability. They also tweaked the new i version so that it automatically adjusts to counter offset, which indicates that for example if you set it for a 21g dosage and you get 21.2g, over the course of a few shots it’ll adjust this automatically so you start getting closer towards the exact dose.

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While the Niche Zero doesn’t look like a representative mill, and I suspect there was some eyebrow-raising, and even some sniggering from the well established coffee mill brands towards this strange-looking mill initially, I don’t think anyone is laughing now… Truly, in my opinion, the Niche Zero has changed the market for home coffee grinders.

Features:

Size & Weight: 12.2 cm w x 21.1cm deep x 31.1 cm tall.
Hopper Capacity: 50g
Burrs: 63mm Mazzer Kony conical hardened steel burrs
Grind Settings: Infinite stepless with 50 indications
Dosing: Single dosage
Motor power: DC motor
RPM: 330 (geared down to 330 rpm)
Special features: Single dosing & close to single retention

My Observations

What initially looked like a extremely odd, strangely designed mill – in truth, it didn’t look like a coffee mill at all – has quickly become arguably the a lot of impactful home barista grinding machine ever brewed.

Martin Nicholson who designed this mill, was really experienced when it came to designing products, after working as a product designer for a few decades for some of the UK’s many well-known brands, but thankfully, he wasn’t especially experienced where coffee grinders were worried.

So here’s an experienced product designer whose ideas wouldn’t have been polluted deep-rooted knowledge of the way things are usually done, and the impacts speak for themselves! While most of the other grinders at this kind of extent in the past are modeled on commercial grinders, literally because that’s the way things are usually done – James appears to have looked at what the home espresso enthusiast essential, and designed a grinder specifically to meet these callsfor. 

What resulted was a grinder which looks far more at home in a modern kitchen than in a cafe (though I do learn rather a few coffee shops do utilize them as decaffeinated or backup grinders), but far more important than the stylish design is just how perfectly the coffee mill performs for the home barista. 

In a nutshell, this is an ultra-low (almost zero) retention coffee grinder, designed for single dosing, with commercial-grade Mazzer Kony burrs 63mm burrs.

So what James clearly recognized was that the target market for this mill, needed:

To not have to waste coffee by purging when dialing in 
To be able to single dose
The torque to grind all beans regardless of roast profile and porosity
High quality burrs capable of producing uniform grinds
A coffee grinder that looked at home in the home

The success of this grinder over the past few years has demonstrated that the Niche Zero hits these requirements. For me what’s special about this grinder is that it isn’t just delivering on one particular area, it’s close to perfection from just about all perspectives. For example, they could have purely focused on the single dosing and zero retention side of things, they could have focused purely on the design side of things, they could have focused purely on performance – but they’ve ticked off all of the possible boxes for home baristas. 

In fact, I think there was only one area the Zero initially came up short on, which was popcorning. When you grind the last few beans in the hopper in any mill, you’ll usually get a little of popcorning where the beans fly around due to the truth that there’s no weight of other coffee beans feeding them into the burrs. With a single doser grinding machine, the latter part of the grind is always going to end up popcorning, and in theory, this could lead to less uniform grounds, even though it’ll only ever affect the last couple of beans so it’s probably not a huge deal anyway. 

Nevertheless soon after the initial release, they fixed this with a modest plastic plate that fits over the burrs. This works really well, the only question with it is if you’re grinding a bigger dose you might find it slows down the grind slightly. I just remove this disk if I’m utilizing the Niche to grind a larger dose, for example, if I’m grinding 40g or so for a cafetiere brew.

I use the Niche Zero paired with my Sage Dual Boiler, a fantastic pairing.

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Features:

Size & Weight: 13cm wide x 36cm tall x 18 cm deep. 6 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 300g
Burrs: 54mm ceramic flat burrs 
Grind Settings: 10 macro steps each divided into 26 micro adjustments
Dosing: By weight or by time
Motor power: DC motor
RPM: 1950 
Special features: Integrated scales + Big grinding range of 230 to 1150 microns

My Observations

The Baratza Forte is considered by lots of to be one of one of the very best coffee grinders for home baristas, for both espresso coffee grinding and for brew grinding. As with the Baratza Sette 270 wi, the Forte has integrated scales so that you can choose to dosage by weight, and with the mix of macro and micro adjustment, you have a huge range of 260 settings from 230 to 1150 microns. 

This is a commercial-grade grinding machine, and it in truth has a lot going for it including fast grinding and a huge grinding range to cover all brew methods, and being able to dose by weight is fantastic, too. For me, although, the ultra-precise dialing in this coffee mill enables, with each of the 10 grind steps having their own 26 (A-Z) micro-adjustments, is probably the a lot of significant attraction. 

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If you check out the price of this grinder, you’ll see we’ve taken a huge leap in price, and I’ve done this on intention, just to show what a huge range of grinders there are over such a huge price range once we start getting up to the higher end of things, price-wise. If you do have the budget, though, and if you’re pairing with a high-end espresso coffee machine such as the La Marzocco Linea Mini, and you want a single doser, have a look at the Ceado E37SD.

Features:

Size & Weight: 21.2 cm wide x 30.9 cm deep x 37 cm tall. 13.2 Kg
Hopper Capacity: 50g
Burrs: Flat 83mm Titanium Coated 
Grind Settings: Stepless worm dial plus fast change Macro adjustment
Dosing: Single dose 
Motor power: 400W
RPM: 1400
Special features: Really quiet, super fine adjustment. Looks like a Dalek.

My Observations

OK so as I’ve said, we’ve taken a big jump in cost price, and we’re talking some serious grinder here, with 83mm flat burrs, super fine worm dial adjustment, and extremely smart macro adjustment.

While this isn’t a coffee mill for the masses, as most of us truly can’t afford to spend this sort of money on a grinding machine, it’s an really high-end single doser coffee mill for those who can afford such an investment, and who can justify such a spend to their better half!

If you’ve ever watched Doctor Who, you’ll probably agree that you’d half expect the grinding noise to be a constant repetition of “Exterminate…” but no, it doesn’t do that, and truly the grinding is incredibly quiet. 

This is a big, heavy-weight coffee mill, and if you do end up buying this coffee grinder just keep in mind that as with some bigger commercial grinders, it will take a bit of breaking in, so don’t be too concerned if you seem to be getting inconsistent results initially. Once broken in, even though, this coffee grinder is known for excellent quality grinding. 

I’ve heard that there is a bit of popcorning with this coffee grinder, and I’m not sure if this is an out of date opinion and they’ve updated the coffee mill since then, but this is among the potential slight pitfalls of taking the hopper off a grinder, putting bellows on there and calling it a single doser. As Niche discovered with their first version, popcorning occurs just because the last few beans have no beans above them to feed them into the burrs, so they tend to bounce around a little. 

While I doubt that this will make a huge difference to cup quality, I do find it surprising that spending this kind of money on a home grinding machine, doesn’t buy you perfection – and I’d have thought that the cost of fixing this (a little plastic plate would do it) would be negligible. Again, I may be talking rubbish, as they may have already fixed this slight issue.

One of the key features of this grinder is the combination of micro and macro adjustment with a worm dial, which I think is an exceptionally clever feature. Worm dials give you the really finest adjustments, nevertheless they’re only extremely suitable for utilizing one brew procedure, you wouldn’t want to alter from espresso coffee to cafetiere and back again with a worm dial. 

So what they’ve done is devised a way to just disengage the worm dial and make macro adjustments of the grinding wheel as you would with the Niche Zero, and then re-engage the worm dial, extremely smart!

25 Perfect Coffee Grinders – Conclusion

OK, so that’s all of the grinders I decided to include in this rundown of the best coffee grinders in the UK at the time of writing. I realize that I crafted a big jump between the Forte and the E37SD, but as I’ve referred to I’ve just done this to show you how much choice there is when you get higher up in budget.

I could have included lots of more higher-priced grinders, nevertheless I’m sure you don’t want to spend the time it would take you to read the report on lockdown parties at no.10 just reading a post about the best coffee grinders ;-). You may argue that would be a more entertaining read, although, and you’re probably right. 

Anyway, if you do want to see a number of other options for coffee grinders at a much wider price range than I’ve covered here, check out the full range at Shop Coffee:

All Coffee Grinders @ Shop Coffee

Home Coffee Grinders @ Shop Coffee

Kev’s Best Coffee Grinders What the FAQ

So I’m just going to answer a few of the a lot of commonly asked questions here, in the hope that I can help to steer my fellow coffee botherers towards ending up with the excellent coffee mill for their requirements. 

What are the perfect coffee grinders?

If you’re looking for specific grinders, then I’ve given several options, above, however I think this matter relates to the forms of coffee grinders. If that’s the case, then the best coffee grinders are burr coffee grinders, not the cheapest blade grinders (which are still better than pre-ground in a number of cases), not the truly cheap “grinding wheel” grinders (which are better than blade grinders, in my humble opinion) but grinders that utilize either flat or conical burrs with sharp teeth.

What are the best brands of coffee grinders?

This is a little bit of a subjective thing, however some of the most significant names in coffee grinders are, Sage (known as Breville outside of the UK), Baratza (who’re now owned by Breville) & Eureka (who primarily make commercial coffee grinders).

Niche are really well known for the Zero, yeah they simply make the one coffee mill, however they have sold many them over the past few years. Wilfa is a well-known grinding machine brand particularly at the entry-level, and for manual brew methods. 

Then when we discuss the commercial grinders that are often used by home baristas, there are a lot of brands including Mazzer, Mahlkonig, Victoria Arduino, Anfim, Ditting, Cunill… there are numerous. 

Must I buy a single doser grinding machine?

This depends, actually, on you. Single doser grinders are very popular, generally thanks to Niche – yes there were the majority of home baristas who were modding the Mazzer Mini and other grinders prior to the NZ being created, to make them doserless and single doser grinders, however I think the huge success of the Niche Zero is the main reason that single dosing is now such a popular practice. 

In short, if you have a good or improving palate, and you’re dialing in each shot – or working hard with each manual brew to get the excellent cup, then single dosing is a good idea to help you to improve effects. 

If, on the other hand, you don’t weigh your coffee, you don’t have a clue what I’m going on about re dialing in, and you just want to make coffee and don’t see yourself as a home barista by any stretch of the imagination, then going for a single doser may be a pointless workout. Utilizing a more traditional grinder with a hopper will probably be fine for you, although I would recommend you don’t store coffee in the hopper.

Quite than filling the hopper, try storing your coffee in an airtight container and simply sticking in the hopper what you think you’re going to utilize that day. If you’re not happy with the results you’re getting from utilizing a more regular mill and loading the hopper, then utilizing a single doser is certainly a way to move towards upping your home coffee game.

What is the best grinder for espresso coffee?

As I’ve pointed out a few times within this article, it depends on whether you’re using basic, traditional baskets, or dual walled, pressurized baskets. If you’re using pressured baskets, then the majority of of the entry-level burr grinders I’ve explained will be fine. If you’re using standard baskets, although, you need an espresso capable coffee mill. 

Espresso coffee capable grinders have both the ability to grind finer than basic burr grinders and have  finer adjustment to allow you to make small adjustments to the grind size, in order to allow you to dial in, which truly means to great the espresso extraction. 

If you’ve not yet got your espresso machine, by the way – you might find these posts helpful: 

Best Espresso Machines Best Home Barista Espresso Setup

Life is like a box of chocolates, so join my Brew Time list, subscribe to my YouTube Channel, become an accredited coffee botherer (Patreon supporter), try my coffee at The Coffeeworks (use discount code coffeebotherers), follow me on Twitter & Instagram, follow the coffeeblog FaceBook page, and that’s all I have to say about that. 

This article first of all appeared at Coffee Blog – The UK Specialty Coffee Blog – For Lovers of REAL Coffee!