The Best 25 Coffee Grinders of 2022

The coffee mill is probably the most underrated item of home barista gear, with lots of people spending a lot of time choosing their coffee brewing gear, and then literally buying a grinder as an afterthought. Given that you’re clearly looking for the best coffee grinders, and that you’re here, reading this article, then clearly you discover 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 perfect espresso coffee machine for my budget (which was roughly zero at the time), and then just bought a mill without providing it much thought. Thankfully, as I’ll speak about shortly, the coffee mill I bought turned out to be a fantastic preference. 

Several years down the line, even though, I now fully learn literally how important the grinding machine is, and having used numerous coffee grinders, I also have rather a little bit of experience with them, so when I’m talking about the perfect coffee grinders, mainly I’m talking from experience, not just theoretically.

You’ll find several lists of the best coffee grinders which are merely scraped together lists with the marketing blurb literally 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 learn that I’m genuinely passionate about all things coffee, I put genuine time and effort into writing these posts, so the info you’re about to read is my genuine 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 best manual hand coffee grinders post.

The various kinds of coffee grinders

Coffee grinders differ primarily by their price point, not only, but primarily.

So at the very entry-level you’ll find blade grinders, which simply needs to be known as “choppers” due to the truth that blades don’t grind, however I digress. I’m not a big fan of these, I think they’re a pain to work with, they’re noisy, and generally because 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 among these is usually a better option 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, but I’m including them because they’re cheap, they’ve really popular, and due to the reality that I think utilizing one of these is a step up from utilizing a chopper, and certainly a step up from utilizing pre-ground. 

The next type of coffee grinder we’ll get onto is the entry-level burr grinders. There are basically quite 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 of these grinders are actually fine for the majority of brewing methods, the one thing the majority of (there are one or two exceptions) of these grinders have in common, even though, is that they’re all-rounder grinders, not specialist grinders, and the majority of of them won’t work with espresso coffee 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 kind of coffee grinder you’re looking for, you can just jump to the relevant section. 

The Perfect Blade Coffee Grinders

So I’ll kick things off in the cheap seats ;-), with the affordable blade coffee “grinders”. Let’s be honest, these contraptions aren’t truly “grinders”, they have blades, how can they grind? They don’t perform brilliantly, in terms of particle uniformity, they produce uneven grinds, the majority of fines & numerous bigger chunks, and there’s no way to troubleshoot 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, but if you can’t stretch the budget & you absolutely must 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 among the perfect 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 literally 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 coffee, cappuccino, and Americano… The obvious error with this is that they’re all the same thing, cappuccino and Americano are of course brewed from espresso, and in truth, saying that a mill is compatible with espresso coffee is an error, too, though it’s an error numerous of the grinder brands make. 

For me, the word “espresso” indicates traditional espresso, and traditional espresso is made 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, also referred to as pressurized baskets, with among these blade grinders and with a lot of of the budget burr grinders, nevertheless listing them as being capable of “espresso” – can be problematic, as they’re not making 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 coffee machine such as the Gaggia Classic Pro or Sage Bambino Plus, then these come with both fundamental, traditional baskets, and dual walled baskets, so you can choose whether to utilize a higher quality mill & standard baskets or a budget grinding machine (or pre-ground) with the dual walled baskets. 

This blade coffee mill has thousands of reviews, and a lot of are really positive, for the money it doesn’t look like a bad punt at all, I do like the truth that it has a removable grounds cup, as I’ve pointed out, and I think utilizing among 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, however if you want it pre-ground, just select the pre-ground choice and we’ll grind it as we’re bagging it up, on the same day of dispatch, to maintain maximum freshness:

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

Muzili Family Electric Coffee mill

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This is an even cheaper blade grinding machine, and I have got among these – I bought it to experiment with using this sort of grinding machine as an preference vs pre-ground, and while I concluded that I wouldn’t want to work with among these vs utilizing a proper burr mill, I also concluded that I’d quite have among these than to buy pre-ground coffee beans, mainly 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 extent, 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 every time, and time the grind (chop).

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

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

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

Best 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, nevertheless 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.

Truly, 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 preference than the blade grinders, however still, I’d definitely prefer “proper” burrs, to these kinds of burrs, so if you can afford to jump up just a few quid more in some cases, then I’d recommend leapfrogging these and beginning off at the entry-level burr grinders below.

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The GVX231 coffee mill by Krups has been around for almost 20 years, and I think it was the first coffee grinder 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, but from what I can ascertain, the Krups is the first of this type of mill. 

There is a newer version, the G VX2 42 nevertheless 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 very 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 typical burr set
Grind Settings: 17
Dosing: 12 dose selections

My Observations

As I’ve pointed out 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 coffee grinder) precisely ground up into uniform-sized chunks. OK, you always have some fines and some bigger grinds, but with very blunt wheels like this, you’re going get quite a bit of exploding coffee beans, leading to all manner of particle sizes. 

This grinding machine and the Krups below are very, very similar. In reality 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 brewed by the same factory, I’m unsure, nevertheless they look and perform really similar, and the burrs look spookily similar. 

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

Espresso coffee Grinding

An important note on this coffee mill is that as with the other grinders at this kind of price point, it won’t grind fine enough for espresso if you work with fundamental, non-pressured baskets. As I explained earlier, if you’re using a budget espresso machine with dual walled baskets, then you’ll be able to work with a grinding machine like this, but, if you’re utilizing basic, traditional baskets, it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to grind fine enough with any of these grinders, and you likewise 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, as do numerous of the reviews – while a number of others say it doesn’t, and I think the main thing here is fundamental 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 Grinder Pro, the Krups grinder, and also the De’Longhi KG79.

Via the Smart Mill Pro, I was able to get perfect 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 fundamental baskets, so very under-extracted espresso.

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

For manual brewing methods like pourover, American coffee machines, Aeropress and so on, you’ll be able to grind fine enough, nevertheless 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 grinding machine that has been around a long time, and as I’ve literally said, this is very, extremely similar to the Krups grinder above. It’s a bit more petite than the Krups, and it’s mildly lighter, plus it does have a smaller hopper at 110g – but they’re very 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 average burr set.
Grind Settings: 17
Dosing: 12 dose selections

My Observations

This is marketed as a “professional” grinding machine. No, basically no! Stuff like this really 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 coffee grinder, to call it a professional mill would indicate it’s for professional utilize, which would make it a commercial coffee grinder that a Barista may work with, and, no… definitely not! Commercial grinders cost thousands of pounds, I’m sure no one expects a grinding machine costing very a few tenners, is going to be a commercial coffee mill. 

However forgetting that, this is an really low cost coffee mill that as with the Krups, will give similar impacts to blade grinders, however I think just a little bit better control over grind size, as you can change the actual distance between the burrs in order to change the grind size, quite than basically changing the time as is the only control you have over the blade grinders. 

There are lots, and several extremely good reviews about this coffee grinder, from users who state it’s good for a range from Espresso coffee to cafetiere, while some complain that it won’t grind fine enough for espresso coffee, and as I pointed out earlier, this will just come down to whether you’re utilizing a fundamental 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, especially where particle uniformity is concerned, 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 level. But when all said and done it’s an exceptionally cheap mill, and it will do the job as well as any other grinding machine 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 an 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 mill 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 representative 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, basically, among these very cheap grinders. I’ve used all three, and there’s basically not a wonderful deal of difference, in truth with the experience I’ve had of these three grinders, I’d simply say if you’re going for among these, go for the best 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 quite a little bit cheaper than the other two in this category, so I’d grab this if I was wanting a actually cheap grinding machine and I wasn’t too fussed about getting a better cup quality by investing in a mill with proper burrs. 

Perfect 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, even 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 quite 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 with basic baskets.

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

The reason I mention this is that this coffee 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 mill is about the lowest price “proper” burr grinder available in the UK.

There was a grinding machine called “Sboly” which I reviewed (video above), and which extremely quickly became an incredibly popular coffee grinder, because it has proper conical burrs, and it’s in fact extremely healthy for the money. What tends to happen, and this happens with some of the lower cost espresso 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 machines which look identical however have different brand names. Not literally with coffee related products, this sort of thing takes place in many product categories.

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

When I say “proper” burr coffee grinder – as I’ve explained, 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, but not as good as proper burrs, at least where particle uniformity is anxious.

So the reason I think this coffee mill is worth looking at, is that for the price, I think it’s the cheapest coffee mill on the market that has proper burrs. I bought this grinder, and the previous sboly version which appears to be identical, and the burrs these grinders have look really similar to the 38mm conical burrs used in a lot 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 incredibly cheap grinder, you’re not investing in a brand name, so it’s worth being mindful of the reality that you’re taking a risk by taking a punt on an unknown brand. If you want to up the investment slightly to take a little bit less of a risk on a known brand, keep going and you’ll find some brands here that you understand, including Gaggia & Sage.

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

Back in 1908, a lady by the name of Melitta Bentz began experimenting, with the purpose of making 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, however 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 mill from Melitta, for the price, and to me the most interesting thing about this budget coffee mill is the integrated scales. I think this is an very clever touch, although 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 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 work with the scales. The truth is even though it is truly 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, 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 talk about using a portafilter, this won’t go fine enough for espresso with basic baskets, nevertheless it will work fine for pressurized baskets. I did try this, and on the really finest setting, even with very darker 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 extremely like the way you basically 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 in truth impressed with this mill, for the price, when it comes to manual brew methods such as pourover, Aeropress, and cafetiere – and espresso coffee with pressurized baskets.

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The MD15 from Gaggia is a conical burr coffee mill that they’ve launched specifically for their lower end espresso machines, the Gran Gaggia, Carezza, and Viva, and for the Gaggia Classic Pro with the pressurized baskets (the Classic Pro comes with both basic 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 dosage selections.

My Observations

For decades, Gaggia had the Gaggia MDF mill, which I always thought was a little bit of a funny one, as it was a grinding machine aimed at the domestic market nevertheless 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 basically suitable for home use. 

Anyway, as far as I could see the fact the MDF was a doser coffee grinder was the only thing that put off the majority of people from pairing their Gaggia Classic with this mill, so when I heard Gaggia were bringing a new doserless coffee mill to the market, I was basically 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 mill, nevertheless what they’ve crafted is a grinding machine great to pair with the lower cost Gaggia espresso coffee 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 mill intended as the wonderful pairing for their flagship traditional espresso machine the Gaggia Classic Pro, however that’s not at all with the MD15 is, it’s a mill suited to utilize with pressurized espresso baskets and manual brew methods, it won’t grind fine enough for espresso coffee with fundamental, traditional espresso baskets. 

So basically 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 coffee baskets, this isn’t the right grinder 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 rather a nice looking little mill, it’s in fact modest to work with with grinding volume (dose) selections in the form of coffee beans, and it’s not particularly 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 option as it has proper burrs, as I’ll speak about when I come to those grinders), I don’t think this grinding machine is a bad preference as long as you don’t want a grinder for espresso with basic baskets.

By the way, if you were looking at the Sboly mill, which is a budget coffee grinder which used to feature on this page until it completely disappeared from existence fairly lately for some strange reason, I’d advise looking at the Gaggia MD15 instead. It’s a few quid more than the Sboly grinder was selling for, however not a excellent deal – it has very similar features, however the Gaggia is just a bit 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 very interesting looking grinder from Barista & Co, for grinding for manual brew methods, with among the many interesting features being the easy removal of the mill 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 coffee grinder, with a removable grinding unit. This part can be easily removed to clean, which implies it can be easily replaced too.

I do think this should probably be more obviously marketed as a coffee mill for manual brew methods or for espresso only with dual walled baskets. The reality that this coffee grinder comes with a portafilter cradle would give buyers the impression that it’s a coffee mill for espresso coffee, and although they do state on their website that this isn’t an “espresso specific” coffee grinder, what they don’t explain clearly is that as numerous of the other grinders in this category, it’ll grind fine enough for using with dual walled, pressurized baskets, but 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 grinder to be able to grind finer for espresso, and that if anyone has a mildly older model which doesn’t have this fine-tune, they gave their email answer and asked customers to email them for instructions to adjust their grinding machine to grind finer.

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

This could of course be that it’s two users utilizing different espresso coffee machines and really different coffee beans, nevertheless it could also 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 grinder with bigger burrs, nevertheless, they’re extremely keen on pointing out in their marketing blurb that this mill ensures a excellent 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 bit weird (Wilfa’s Fart?) is a fairly popular grinder at this price point, particularly for manual brew methods. 

I’ve used this grinding machine, and while being entirely honest I don’t think there’s much difference in grinds quality and therefore cup quality between this grinder 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 fix the grind, and there are handy instructions on the hopper to tell you roughly what grinding range you’re within. 

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

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

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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 coffee grinder which has been around for a good few years now and is one of the most popular entry-level grinders, especially for manual brew methods, and for espresso 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 completely 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 reality vigorous testing of the failsafe built in to stop the grinder 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 perfect checking the burrs for damage (particularly if it was a diamond as those things are tough! But if you do find a diamond in your coffee beans you’ll probably be able to afford replacement burrs) nevertheless it’s unlikely that any damage will be done to the rest of the grinding machine. 

The Encore has 40 grind settings, and it’ll do fine for manual brew methods, however, 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 should be fine for you.

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

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This is the mildly cheaper and slightly shorter sibling of the Smart Coffee grinder Pro, below, and it’s more or less the same coffee mill 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 makeking equipment or mill (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 recent 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, however 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 grinder so far that I’m featuring (by price) which is capable of espresso with standard baskets, and this is a great all-rounder coffee grinder, capable of a wide range of brew methods from cafetiere to espresso – and as I’ve pointed out, 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 Grinding machine Pro which I’ll discuss shortly, and the main differences are that it has a slightly lower-powered motor (130W vs 165W) and that you fix 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 grinding machine, I think it’s about the cheapest mill on the market which is capable for espresso coffee with traditional baskets, and it likewise has fairly small grind adjustments, however being a stepped mill it is really quick and humble to make big grind adjustments. So let’s say you’re dialed in for espresso 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 steeps them excellent purely for espresso coffee, however not so really good for jumping around to grind for different brew methods. 

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The Iberital MC2 is one of the very cheapest espresso specialist grinders, it sits in between the Sage Dosage Control Pro and Smart 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, but 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 made coffee mill, that someone crafted me aware of via a Facebook article 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 coffee mill was rather a bit cheaper than it is now, thanks to Brexit, Covid, and so on, this grinder has increased in price rather a little bit, and by quite a little bit more than a number of of the other prices have increased, so the difference in price between this and the dose control pro, for example, isn’t as much as it once was, however it’s still a inexpensive coffee grinder given how well it performs for espresso coffee.

The MC2 is simply an espresso coffee mill, and still, at the newly increased price, it’s probably among the cheapest espresso coffee specialist grinders. This isn’t an all-rounder grinding machine like the Sage grinders, it has a worm dial adjustment which is fantastic for fine-tuning, but not wonderful for making big changes to alter 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 quite clear that a lot 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 though, the MC2 is definitely worth considering if you’re on a especially tight budget, as it’s most coffee mill for the cash, purely based on performance.

For more see my Iberital MC2 grinding machine review.

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The next entry-level burr coffee mill up, in price, is the Nemox Lux, which is simply the same coffee mill internally as the Iberital MC2, however 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, nevertheless less rough around the edges, and with a stepped grind adjustment. 

There’s no doubt this is a nicer looking and sturdier sensation coffee 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 grinding machine that was really easy to make big adjustments, and they weren’t in fact thinking about espresso coffee. 

If they were aiming this coffee mill 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, but the reality is, this grinding machine will go fine enough for espresso coffee, so it’s a shame given that this is the case, that they’ve not also given it at least some extent of fine-tuning ability. 

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

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

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I’ve had one of these grinders for over six years at the time of writing, and I think it’s a brilliant coffee mill. In my simple opinion, if you’re looking for a wonderful allrounder grinding machine and you want the ability to grind for espresso with basic baskets too, then this is probably the best of this kind of coffee mill, for this kind 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 grinding machine to beat the Sage Smart Grinding machine Pro, at this price, especially if you want a mill for multiple brew methods, as it’s so easy to make big grind adjustments with this coffee mill and easily find your way back to where you were. 

The price of these grinders has increased recently with just 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 basically 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 recent discount code. If I do, I’ll send it to you.

See my Sage Smart Mill Pro Review

Sage (Breville as they’re known everywhere else, they sold the brand name in Europe in the 80s, so the Breville we discover of here is a different brand) are very clever, and they actually do make smart products, particularly where user-friendliness is worried. 

So with this mill 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 in fact not a lot I can say about the Smart Grinder pro when it comes to negatives. 

If you do enough scientific research you will find some people saying that the impellers wear, which causes issues after a few years of grinding – this was in fact resolved numerous years ago when they started creating 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 most coffee with mine over the years, and I’ve had no issues with the impeller, not only have I found it very humble to work with, but it’s been a genuine workhorse, too. 

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

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

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

Likewise when grinding for espresso the smart mill pro does create mildly clumpy grinds, but I think this is probably truly down to small conical burrs, and you can easily sort this with the WDT process, which just involves using 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 speak about 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, nevertheless these days it’s not that often that this coffee mill will come up in conversation, and as the cheapest proper flat burr mill on the market, I think it’s an extremely worthy preference 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 extremely popular grinding machine, 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 most obvious option, however the fact is that this is the cheapest flat burr grinding machine 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 crafted, sturdy mill, 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 truth that although this is a no-frills grinding machine, there are no bells or whistles, the build cost has clearly gone into the components and build quality, as it does look and feel very solid and sturdy considering the relatively low price.

The only thing I think is a bit of a pain, is that you extremely need four hands to operate this grinding machine, if you’re to do it appropriately. You very must have the grinder running when adjusting the grind, at least while adjusting it finer, and this is true with any grinding machine, but you have to push a bit paddle down while turning the hopper to tweak 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 (just throwing in the beans you’re about to work with) then you’ll probably be fine adjusting the grind both ways while it isn’t running, in which case two hands ought to suffice.

By the way, you’re clearly interested in improving cup quality given you’re looking to upgrade your grinding machine (unless it’s your first coffee mill, of course, nevertheless in any case, this will still be relevant) but what about upgrading the quality of your coffee beans? Can I recommend some incredible 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 coffee mill 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 grinder for espresso and/or pourover, and if you’ve read negatives about this grinding machine or if you have a undesirable impression of it for some reason, I’d highly suggest 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 coffee grinder that requires no introduction, but it probably requires a re-introduction, as I get the impression that most people aren’t aware of the fairly basic changes that have been made to the Sette 270.

This is a 40mm conical steel burr coffee mill, and it’s a coffee grinder that has been generally well accepted within the home barista market along with the Eureka Mignon as among the obvious choices for an entry to mid-level burr grinder, especially for espresso coffee 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 coffee. I think this is genius and is something I think Baratza has in truth got right with the latest iteration of the Sette 270.

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

The other change is that they’ve introduced a entirely new drive system which spins the outer ring bur instead of the central conical burr. What this implies 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 coffee mill. What this implies is that if we don’t want to use 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 fix the grind, or we’ll be using a mix of grind sizes. 

How much you need to purge depends on your coffee mill 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 coffee mill that achieves very close to zero retention, and is crafted as a single dose coffee grinder, meaning you weigh the beans before you chuck them in, rather 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 referred to earlier that this grinding machine is healthy for espresso coffee and small batch pourover, is due to the reality that, with a grinding range of 230–950 μm, it’s mainly geared up towards finer grinding. It’ll work well for small-batch pourover brewing with Kalita Wave, Hario V60 & Chemex, however if you’re wanting to go more coarse than this for cafetiere and/or bigger batch filter brewing, you may find this doesn’t rather have the required 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 simple opinion, the Eureka Mignon is among 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 rather a while paired with various espresso coffee machines, and I’m really impressed with it. 

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

I can tell you from personal experience that these grinders are sturdy, due to the truth 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 objective ;-). The grinding machine 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, even though I’d usually think of this as pebbles quite than lumps of copper, as it does happen occasionally that a stone or really 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.

Just a quick comparison, and it’s not a fair comparison as I’m talking about a coffee mill at half the price – but the Sage Smart Grinding machine 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 extremely 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 especially lighter roasted and/or non-pourous bean which can be quite a little harder than a fundamental coffee bean, can trick the Sage grinders to thinking they’re trying to grind stones. 

It’s important to point out although, 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 coffee 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 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 several 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 mildly different specialities. 

The Vario is essentially the same as the extremely popular and more expensive bigger sibling of the Vario, the Forte (which you’ll find a little bit further down this post), with the same 54mm ceramic burrs, and the same big grinding range from 230 to 1150 microns, which brews it a great all-around grinding machine. The super-precise control over grind size is also a wonderful feature, and although the Vario doesn’t quite have the same precision here, a total of 200 grind settings (20 micro settings to every 10 macro settings) is a lot of dialing in power. 

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

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So this is actually the Baratza Sette 270 but with built-in scales and Acaia technology. What this implies is that you can create and store doses actually 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 actually 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 issue well on the new version, with an adjustable portafilter cradle and adjustable grinds container cradle, allowing the mill to compensate for the instability. They likewise 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 modify this automatically so you start getting closer towards the exact dosage.

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While the Niche Zero doesn’t look like a classic grinder, and I suspect there was some eyebrow-raising, and even some sniggering from the well established mill brands towards this strange-looking grinder initially, I don’t think anyone is laughing now… Basically, 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 an incredibly odd, strangely designed grinder – basically, it didn’t look like a coffee mill at all – has quickly become arguably the a lot of impactful home barista coffee mill ever crafted.

Martin Nicholson who designed this grinder, was extremely experienced when it came to designing products, after working as a product designer for a few decades for some of the UK’s a lot of well-known brands, nevertheless 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 understanding of the way things are usually done, and the results speak for themselves! While a lot of of the other grinders at this kind of degree in the past are modeled on commercial grinders, just because that’s the way things are usually done – James appears to have looked at what the home espresso enthusiast essential, and designed a mill specifically to meet these needs. 

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

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

So what James clearly recognized was that the target market for this coffee 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 grinder that looked at home in the home

The success of this grinder over the past few years has proven that the Niche Zero hits these requirements. For me what’s special about this coffee mill is that it isn’t really delivering on one particular area, it’s close to perfection from literally 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. 

Literally, 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 grinding machine, 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 coffee mill, the latter part of the grind is always going to end up popcorning, and in theory, this could lead to less uniform grounds, though it’ll only ever affect the last couple of beans so it’s probably not a huge deal anyway. 

But soon after the initial release, they fixed this with a humble plastic plate that fits over the burrs. This works very well, the only issue with it is if you’re grinding a bigger dose you might find it slows down the grind slightly. I basically 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 work with the Niche Zero paired with my Sage Dual Boiler, a great 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 among one of the extremely perfect coffee grinders for home baristas, for both espresso grinding and for brew grinding. As with the Baratza Sette 270 wi, the Forte has integrated scales so that you can choose to dose 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 mill, and it in fact 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 excellent, too. For me, although, the ultra-precise dialing in this mill enables, with each of the 10 grind steps having their own 26 (A-Z) micro-adjustments, is probably the greatest attraction. 

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If you check out the price of this coffee mill, you’ll see we’ve taken a huge leap in price, and I’ve done this on objective, 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 coffee mill here, with 83mm flat burrs, super fine worm dial adjustment, and very smart macro adjustment.

While this isn’t a coffee grinder for the masses, as the majority of us simply can’t afford to spend this kind of money on a mill, it’s an exceptionally 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 literally the grinding is incredibly quiet. 

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

I’ve heard that there is a little of popcorning with this coffee mill, and I’m uncertain if this is an out of date opinion and they’ve updated the coffee grinder since then, but this is one of the potential slight pitfalls of taking the hopper off a coffee grinder, putting bellows on there and calling it a single doser. As Niche discovered with their first version, popcorning happens truly due to the reality that 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 grinder, 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.

Among the key features of this grinding machine 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 very finest adjustments, however they’re only extremely suitable for utilizing one brew technique, 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 simply 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, very smart!

25 Perfect Coffee Grinders – Conclusion

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

I could have included several more higher-priced grinders, however 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 perfect coffee grinders ;-). You may argue that would be a more entertaining read, though, and you’re probably right. 

Anyway, if you do want to see numerous 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 extremely going to address a few of the the majority of widely 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 lots of options, above, nevertheless I think this matter relates to the forms of coffee grinders. If that’s the case, then the perfect coffee grinders are burr coffee grinders, not the cheapest blade grinders (which are still better than pre-ground in numerous 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 of a subjective thing, but some of the most significant names in coffee grinders are, Sage (called Breville outside of the UK), Baratza (who’re now owned by Breville) & Eureka (who mainly make commercial coffee grinders).

Niche are very well known for the Zero, yeah they simply make the one grinding machine, nevertheless they have sold a lot of 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 speak about the commercial grinders that are often used by home baristas, there are numerous brands including Mazzer, Mahlkonig, Victoria Arduino, Anfim, Ditting, Cunill… there are a number of. 

Ought to I buy a single doser grinding machine?

This depends, literally, on you. Single doser grinders are really popular, primarily thanks to Niche – yes there were several 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, but 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 wonderful cup, then single dosing is a good idea to help you to enhance impacts. 

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 coffee grinder with a hopper will probably be fine for you, even though 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 literally sticking in the hopper what you think you’re going to use that day. If you’re not happy with the results you’re getting from utilizing a more typical coffee grinder and loading the hopper, then using a single doser is certainly a way to move towards upping your home coffee game.

What is the best coffee mill for espresso coffee?

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

Espresso coffee capable grinders have both the ability to grind finer than standard 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 just means to great the espresso coffee extraction. 

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

Best Espresso coffee 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 post first off appeared at Coffee Blog – The UK Specialty Coffee Blog – For Lovers of REAL Coffee!